So I'm driving home yesterday--a daily commute of at least forty minutes or so--and as I'm making a left turn at an intersection, the driver in front of me sees it fit to go as slowly as possible. Fearing the possibility of being caught in the middle of the intersection under a red light, and given that there are TWO turning lanes, I jam on the accelerator to get around this particular slow poke. No problem, done it a million times, right?

Apparently, this one-millionth-and-one time was the last straw for my car because, even though I didn't immediately notice it, my accelerator (or gas pedal) had become detached from the floor beneath it. It wasn't until after driving a few more miles that I realized that the top of my right foot was touching the back of the brake pedal. And that's just not supposed to happen. So I took my foot off of the gas pedal, and that's when I felt it move side to side, and definitely not in a safe way. I managed to make it home, taking it slow and trying not to shift gears too forcefully.

This morning I took a look at it and I tried to figure out what I could do to fix it. Here's essentially what I saw:

Normal

From what I could tell, this is how the pedal would be attached in its normal state. While it would appear that the plate is bolted with two bolts, it is in fact GLUED down.

Loose

This is how it looked when I was driving home yesterday. The only reason the entire pedal assembly didn't come loose was because it got caught by the edge of the carpet.

Dangerously Broken

This is how it ended up when I moved it around to see what had broken. The whole assembly was hanging by the accelerator cable (which is attached to the metal bar on top), which goes to the engine.

There was no way I was going to attempt to drive my car like this. My only option (other than breaking out the super glue) was to take it in and let the professionals handle it. Unfortunately, that leaves me without a ride, back at home and without much to do. AND a big dent in my confidence in Chrysler. I've had enough problems with this car and now this...but that's not all. The A/C is going out and the power steering is making some strange sounds. I just finished paying for this car this month, and what perfect timing for everything to start falling apart. Yeah.