Posted on Friday, March 14, 2003 - 11:59 am:

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A tow-truck driver can't count on car owners for guidance. Chuck Schmidt, who runs Charles Schmidt & Sons, a nine-truck tow service in Roslyn, N.Y., said, "I'd say 70 percent of my customers have no idea what kind of drive system their car has."

He also admits to mistakes. Once he hooked up the rear wheels of the then-new Jaguar X-Type all-wheel-drive sedan. "We towed it 20 miles back to the dealership and did over $2,000 damage to the drivetrain," he said, with agony in his voice, "not knowing it wasn't rear-wheel drive as were all other Jags." The dealership exchanged the car, which had overheated with just 20 miles on the odometer, necessitating the tow-truck call in the first place.

Since Mr. Schmidt is on the summer route between the Hamptons and New York City, he learns the idiosyncrasies of upper-class cars. When he is presented with a disabled Range Rover stuck in park with its engine running, for example, he suspects a bad brake-light switch, which kills power to both the brake lights and the transmission. "I always carry extra switches," he said.

It sounds like just the kind of rescue you'd hope for if you were stranded on the way to the beach.

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