Really Good Engineering

On my way home from my son’s bus stop today, I discovered some really good engineering on our new car.

Traffic was really piled up for some reason, and there was just enough room for me to slip past a truck that was in the middle of it all. Once past the truck it was going to be clear road ahead. As I inched my way beside the truck he apparently decided to move over, either to prevent me from passing him or in an effort to get himself unstuck. It felt like the former more than the latter.

As he moved over, he now had me stuck with my side-view mirror basically wedged against his truck. My only option was to turn more myself to disentangle our two vehicles. As I did that, I heard a pretty horrible crunching, grinding sound, and knew I had hit the cement block sitting beside the road that I knew I was close to. I feared the worst – a significantly damaged side step that would require replacement and who knows how much other damage.

I extricated myself from the traffic jam and headed to a nearby gas station, since I needed diesel anyways. I got out of the car and went to inspect the damage. Shockingly, there were no visible signs at all of any damage.

I have determined that this lack of damage is due to one of two factors. Option one - they designed the side step so well that it is nearly indestructible. Option two - they designed the side step in such a way that any contact whatsoever reverberates (and possibly amplifies) the crunching/grinding sound directly into the passenger cabin, so as to cause the driver to stop doing whatever it is that is making said contact.

Since very few things here are made to be that tough or indestructible, I am currently leaning toward believing it is option two that is the more likely. Either way, that is some good engineering.