Talk about a bad day. Not only does the 1997 Toyota 4Runner that you’ve owned for 20 years end up getting wrecked, but it’s your brother-in-law behind the wheel at the time of the accident. Salt meet wound.

The Craigslist ad poster has been with this particular 4Runner for 160,000 miles beginning in 1998. The 4Runner has only seen service at Toyota dealers in Montana and the owner has even done the research to track down some parts to aid in the repairs. Without stating the obvious “that’ll buff out,” the 4Runner appears to be showing body damage only, but who knows what is lingering on the passenger side and what is hiding behind the street light pole?

Let this be a winter driving warning to us all. DON’T LET FAMILY DRIVE VEHICLES YOU CARE ABOUT. Wait, no. The winter driving warning should be to “pay more attention than usual and leave plenty of stopping distance.”

All SUVs and all-wheel-drive vehicles are more than capable to get up to speed just fine, but unless snow tires are involved, there is drastically less stopping ability in winter weather conditions. The best coefficient of friction on snow is snow. This fact still boggles the mind.

Responsible adults know: all seasons are really no seasons.

We really feel for the owner of this 4Runner. We all have vehicles that we’ve built relationships with (How long has Jeff had the Wombat?). Having someone else ruin something you care about is just the worst.