Well, something sorta hilarious happened today. I drove my parents 2009 Chevy Cobalt into the town to help them with an errand. I had to pick up my mom from an auto garage where she was dropping off my their truck for inspection.
When I pulled up to their house I couldn't turn the Cobalt off. The key wouldn't move to the off position. Apparently there's a recall out on this to fix the problem. It has something to do with binding in the ignition. My parents hadn't got around to bringing it in to get fixed.
Anyway, we sat around puzzled for a while trying to figure out how to shut the car off. We called the dealership for advice. They gave a few suggestions like pressing on the brake really hard while wiggling the key and moving the steering wheel. As a final resort we were advised to remove the negative battery terminal. After stomping on the brake and shaking the key every which way without any success, I resorted to removing the negative battery terminal. Much to every ones surprise this did nothing. The car was still running. I tried turning all electrical equipment in the car on, high beams, wipers, AC, radio etc... Still, the car wouldn't turn off.
So again, we called the dealership and surprised the guy from the service department when we reported that the car was still running with the battery disconnected. They said they'd never heard of that. I can only guess the car has a pretty good alternator? As another last resort they advised us to remove the fuse to the fuel pump. I did this and nothing happened at first but, eventually the pitch of the idle started to lower, the car got really lean and then sputtered out making a blub, blub,blub noise.
So currently the key is still stuck in the ignition. It cant be removed and we're not sure if we'll be able to start the car again. It may have to be towed to the dealer for the recall repair which is sorta a bummer cost wise. We're still glad it didn't happen further away from where they live. That would have made the situation much worse.