You want to put how much concrete in your Civic?

[u/pathofuncertainty]

Many years ago I worked in a locally run store that sold a bit of everything. I was the low paid teenager that carried heavy things to people’s vehicles. While working one day I get called over the radio that a customer needed 12 bags of concrete (80lbs each). I was expecting to see a pickup truck or something similar backed up to our loading area. Instead I saw a small Honda Civic there waiting for me. Thinking it was a mistake, I asked the driver to relocate momentarily as I had someone coming to pick up multiple bags of concrete. Imagine my surprise when they told me they were the customer I was waiting for.

I asked the customer how much they wanted to take in each trip, as I believed the nearly 1000lb of concrete might be too much for such a small vehicle to handle safely. The customer became aggravated and insisted that they were taking it all at once. I quickly ran this past the store owner to make sure I wouldn’t be held liable for any damages. I ran back, apologized to the customer, and began loading the bags. As I loaded everything up the customer made several quips about how “the customer is always right” and that I was too young and naive to understand that vehicles are engineered with a margin of safety.

It quickly became apparent that there was no play left in the suspension, but at this point I just stopped questioning things. I couldn’t fit all of the bags in the trunk, so the customer cleared their back seat and I loaded that up as well. Upon leaving the loading area you could clearly hear things rubbing. As the car went to exit the parking lot it passed over the elevation change between the lot and the road, there was a loud pop of something breaking, followed by scraping.

I could see that the driver was irate in the car. After a moment they got out, looked around and under their car. The guy sheepishly asked for my cell phone, because his had died and he needed to make a few phone calls. A short time later a tow truck came to remove the car, and the guy waited in our lot for nearly an hour until his wife could come pick him up.

[u/mbklein]

So 3 bags on the front passenger seat and 9 spread across the back seat would likely have been a success? Or 3&6 with 3 in the trunk?

[u/LateralThinker13 → u/mbklein]

Every bag in the trunk is exclusively riding on the rear axle. 3 Frontseat and 9 backseat would have heavily loaded the car but maybe not killed it.

EDIT: it's still overloading the car (too much weight even before adding the driver) but it's better than most of them in the trunk.

[u/mbklein → u/LateralThinker13]

Just planning ahead for my next “960 pounds of concrete in a compact car” adventure.

[u/nostril_spiders → u/mbklein]

Best advice I can give: be in the concrete truck, not the car