Brian Dubes is an outstanding Optometrist here in east Tennessee. He is also a fellow church member and a good friend of mine. He recently wrote about an experience he had that he calls his “Prius Miracle”. I received permission from him to reprint it here. I think you will enjoy it. Brian writes:
Yesterday morning as I turned the corner to go pick up Shelly from her therapy after her full knee replacement, my car scared me. My little Toyota Prius has served me faithfully for nearly 11 years and about 237,000 miles, with not so much as a flat tire, PTL! But as I turned the corner, it let out a horrible growling and banging sound! I pulled over along 321 and got out expecting to see a completely flat tire, but there was no flat. I pulled back out into traffic accompanied by an echoing, growling, and snapping sound as I crept slowly over to Shelly's therapy. It was scary to drive with such a racket! I felt like the engine was going to seize up at any moment.
I got a dolly to tow it into Knoxville. The first stop was a repair place known to be less expensive than Toyota, where I was told that it was probably the CVT transmission. They had never worked on one, so I growled my way over to the dolly to reload it.
My next stop was Toyota Knoxville, where I did not have an appointment. A very nice service rep agreed to work me in as soon as possible, bless him. He also said that they had never replaced a CVT transmission - they are nearly "bulletproof". I waited over two hours, and then he came back to report that they hoped a tune-up might correct the problem, as the CVT transmission was rarely an issue. After another hour, he returned to give me "the news we all dread with our old faithful cars". "Sir, I'm sorry to report that our efforts have failed, and there's nothing more that we can do. Something in the bottom end is ruined." The bill was now up to $360, "poured down a hole". He genuinely felt bad that there was no solution. He spent 45 more minutes with his manager, and they decided to reduce my bill to $146! Thank you, Lord!
Then crept and growled my little car back across Parkside to the dolly and towed my Prius back home. I parked the rig overnight to decide on the best plan to "dispose" of my old friend. People will make fun of me, but I used to "pat its dash" nearly every and say, "Thank You, Lord, for such a good little car." For 6 long years I drove it to Crossville, sometimes six times per week. It would get 45 miles per gallon, and all I had to do was give it gas, fresh oil, and sets of new tires. And now I had to decide the best way to get rid of it, as it wasn't possible to spend thousands on a car hardy worth $2000 in good running order. Even the grandkids helped Papa mourn over the loss of his car.
Saturday morning I decide to list my Prius on Craigslist to get whatever salvage value that someone might offer. Then we drove over to Upward Basketball to watch the grandkids. My youngest son, Bryce, was there. By this time, I already had received a call from someone in Halls who was offering over $1000 in cash to take my car "as is". Bryce said to wait, as he had an engine code reader that we should attach to the car first. I told a second caller to wait while we checked on the possibility that the engine wasn't as bad as everyone told me.
Bryce and I checked the code reader on the engine, but there were NO codes showing! He agreed that when sitting inside the car it sounded awful! But when one of us was outside with the hood raised, the engine was running smoothly! So we started to think more rationally. IF the engine is running smoothly, and IF Toyota CVT transmissions are "bulletproof", THEN the problem must be in whatever kind of "transfer case" there is between the two. We both slid underneath the front of the car, and it looked nice and clean - no sign of any problems. Then Bryce said, "But I see a BIG rock stuck between the engine and the transmission!" We took a hammer and screwdriver and beat it out of there. Bryce said, "Now, don't get your hopes up - it was only a rock." I climbed inside and started my car. It was quiet! NO growling! Pardon me, but my car was DEAD, and now it's ALIVE!!!
And now I want to tell everyone I see how good God is, and how grateful I am. I am always going to keep that rock as a "memorial" to what God did when He showed us what needed to be done.
Amen, Brian. Well said. A huge rock lay over our Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday. It signified to everyone that He was dead. But on Easter Sunday morning, the rock was rolled away. And Jesus was alive!
As the Apostle Paul said (in First Corinthians 15:1-4): “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”
Yesterday morning as I turned the corner to go pick up Shelly from her therapy after her full knee replacement, my car scared me. My little Toyota Prius has served me faithfully for nearly 11 years and about 237,000 miles, with not so much as a flat tire, PTL! But as I turned the corner, it let out a horrible growling and banging sound! I pulled over along 321 and got out expecting to see a completely flat tire, but there was no flat. I pulled back out into traffic accompanied by an echoing, growling, and snapping sound as I crept slowly over to Shelly's therapy. It was scary to drive with such a racket! I felt like the engine was going to seize up at any moment.
I got a dolly to tow it into Knoxville. The first stop was a repair place known to be less expensive than Toyota, where I was told that it was probably the CVT transmission. They had never worked on one, so I growled my way over to the dolly to reload it.
My next stop was Toyota Knoxville, where I did not have an appointment. A very nice service rep agreed to work me in as soon as possible, bless him. He also said that they had never replaced a CVT transmission - they are nearly "bulletproof". I waited over two hours, and then he came back to report that they hoped a tune-up might correct the problem, as the CVT transmission was rarely an issue. After another hour, he returned to give me "the news we all dread with our old faithful cars". "Sir, I'm sorry to report that our efforts have failed, and there's nothing more that we can do. Something in the bottom end is ruined." The bill was now up to $360, "poured down a hole". He genuinely felt bad that there was no solution. He spent 45 more minutes with his manager, and they decided to reduce my bill to $146! Thank you, Lord!
Then crept and growled my little car back across Parkside to the dolly and towed my Prius back home. I parked the rig overnight to decide on the best plan to "dispose" of my old friend. People will make fun of me, but I used to "pat its dash" nearly every and say, "Thank You, Lord, for such a good little car." For 6 long years I drove it to Crossville, sometimes six times per week. It would get 45 miles per gallon, and all I had to do was give it gas, fresh oil, and sets of new tires. And now I had to decide the best way to get rid of it, as it wasn't possible to spend thousands on a car hardy worth $2000 in good running order. Even the grandkids helped Papa mourn over the loss of his car.
Saturday morning I decide to list my Prius on Craigslist to get whatever salvage value that someone might offer. Then we drove over to Upward Basketball to watch the grandkids. My youngest son, Bryce, was there. By this time, I already had received a call from someone in Halls who was offering over $1000 in cash to take my car "as is". Bryce said to wait, as he had an engine code reader that we should attach to the car first. I told a second caller to wait while we checked on the possibility that the engine wasn't as bad as everyone told me.
Bryce and I checked the code reader on the engine, but there were NO codes showing! He agreed that when sitting inside the car it sounded awful! But when one of us was outside with the hood raised, the engine was running smoothly! So we started to think more rationally. IF the engine is running smoothly, and IF Toyota CVT transmissions are "bulletproof", THEN the problem must be in whatever kind of "transfer case" there is between the two. We both slid underneath the front of the car, and it looked nice and clean - no sign of any problems. Then Bryce said, "But I see a BIG rock stuck between the engine and the transmission!" We took a hammer and screwdriver and beat it out of there. Bryce said, "Now, don't get your hopes up - it was only a rock." I climbed inside and started my car. It was quiet! NO growling! Pardon me, but my car was DEAD, and now it's ALIVE!!!
And now I want to tell everyone I see how good God is, and how grateful I am. I am always going to keep that rock as a "memorial" to what God did when He showed us what needed to be done.
Amen, Brian. Well said. A huge rock lay over our Lord Jesus Christ on Good Friday. It signified to everyone that He was dead. But on Easter Sunday morning, the rock was rolled away. And Jesus was alive!
As the Apostle Paul said (in First Corinthians 15:1-4): “Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved … that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”