Wringing The Most From Your Car

Yesterday I experienced my first car breakdown in Kazakhstan! I was heading from the center of town towards Microregion 3 in an old Lada with the two other members of my language class when its engine shut off in the middle of an intersection. After several attempts to start it the driver decided to push it out of the intersection; when I got out to help he told me to sit back down so I complied. Once the car picked up enough speed it rolled downhill towards our destination with our driver blaring the car's horn as it approached intersections. A little over a kilometer later he dropped us off about 5 minutes away from the apartment we were heading to and started breaking out the tools to fix the car. Many cars here are on their last leg but I'm impressed at how long their drivers keep them on the road. I just hope that this scenario doesn't happen in the middle of the steppe where everything's flat!