Sometimes you have one of those days that just shows how incompetent you are…

We have a brand new family car (replacing one that was twenty years old - just to clarify that this is not something very common in our family). The wife is taking it up the mountain for some late spring skiing, so even though the season is pretty much over, it wants proper traction tires.

No problem. I’ve done this before, even if it’s been a few years. Order tires from Costco (they aren’t in stock, since what idiot would install traction tires in March?), and have them install them.

They call back half an hour after I’ve dropped the car off, because the new car has locking lug nuts. I’ve never heard of such a thing, didn’t know my car had them, and have absolutely no idea what a lug nut key is, much less where it would be.

So I go back to the tire center, google what said “key” is even supposed to look like, and try to find it, eventually just give up and say “let’s reschedule”.

In their defense, the tire techs keep a straight face, and don’t laugh in my face for never even having realized that my car has such things.

As I drive away, I light goes on. I have a manual. It tells me exactly where said lug nut key is (It’s under the carpet in the frunk, in case anybody wonders).

I drive back, feeling really stupid. But at least the car is ready for skiing now.

Moral of the day: RTFM.

In my defense: not only is this the first car I’ve ever had with lug nut keys, it’s my first car with a frunk, and I was searching for the lug nut key in the trunk - where both the jack and the lug wrench were.

@ariadne Volvo XC40 Recharge.

@torvalds Seems like a pretty common experience. We took the Bolt in for a tire rotation - about the only regular service an EV needs, along with the steady stream of recalls - and got a call wondering why we hadn't left the lug-nut key with them. Turns out it got tossed into a box in the garage with a bunch of other random car stuff. I had no idea such a thing existed either.