Bertha's Quirks

The mom taxi affectionately called Bertha is a lot like me. We have some idiosyncrasies. She also is a girl, at least as mom taxi's go. Hey I'll take what I can get at this point when it comes to any kind of female companionship.
We bought Bertha used and paid cash for her. It was pretty much love at first site. Though she had been ridden long and hard(I don't mean wrongly just that she had a lot of miles..ahem). She's been ever so reliable these last couple of years, but she's got some quirks.
9 months after we got her, she decided that the windshield wipers would only work when she felt like it; no matter if it's pouring rain outside and the wipers are on full blast. If I was lucky she would give me only one or two swishes otherwise it was nothing. We took it in they jimmied with it..in other words they couldn't get her to not perform. Tramp. We told them to replace the whole motor for the wipers. We'll show her.
Another recent quirk of hers was the defogger. During the winter time or what we here in Texas call winter, it doesn't get necessarily winter just cold. In the mornings defogging the windows is a necessity along with some heat. Bertha must have not liked the heat and would only defog the windows with the AC on. It took me all winter to convince hubs that's the only way it would defog. Finally one night we were driving with the windows rolled down, so I could hang my head out to actually see, to convince him finally please let me prove it will work with AC on.
My dad took it in the shop and again the mechanics couldn't figure out the problem and were almost going to have to tear the whole thing out when another mechanic had a similar situation with his truck. He told them all you have to do is turn it off and then hold your tongue just right and do a handstand. It worked of course.
Now that we haven't had to have the defog on as much the actual vents for the AC weren't blowing air. Which was totally opposite of what was happening. We tried holding our tongue just right turning it to hot, then cold, off then on to no avail. Then suddenly a week later the vents starting blowing air just like normal, but I'm going to guess that the defog is probably not working. I'm sure it's just hormones.

The latest and greatest quirk is the gas gauge. If she gets below 1/4 of tank she starts going wonkie. Just like any woman who's starving and hormonal she lets me know about it by letting the gas gauge move to the full side. If your sitting idle she really lets you know she's hungry by letting the gauge go from full to empty and back and forth. If hubs is driving he has to ask, if it's the real gas or if Bertha's having a fit again.

I embrace Bertha and all her quirks, we share a sisterhood in a emotional, mechanical, hormonal kind of way. I know when she's having a bad day and she certainly knows I've had mine. We have an understanding.