Even if you trust the person you are lending it to, what about all the other idiots on the road?

The World is full of stupid people and many of them have driver's licenses.

So the outcome:

1) He had trouble filling the gas tank - but that was easily resolved.

2) He left the lights on in a rest area parking lot and drained the battery. I don't think the battery should have drained so quickly - so will be digging into that this weekend. He was able to jump start on my advice using the 2nd gear / let out the clutch method.

All in all the car came back in 1 piece and my Au Pair is a happy guy. He learned a bit more about driving a 25 year old sports car - he was exhausted but exhilarated when he got home.

Turns out that the biggest concern for me was figuring out how to walk him through the issues that came up. If it was a "new" car, I probably would not have hesitated calling AAA to help out with the jump start OR having it towed if necessary. But since it is a 25 year old sports car - I did not want an unfamiliar tow truck driver OR mechanic fiddling with my car!

All's well that ends well! Probably won't approve of such a long trip (5 hours each way) since I would have to get to the car in case of a real emergency. But overall glad the loan went well.