A Chinese man who drove his expensive Land Rover SUV into a river in order to save 20 yuan ($3) on a car wash, recently learned the hard way that sometimes being too cheap can cost you a lot more than you were trying to save.

According to a report from the Fire Services Department in Dujiangyan, China’s Sichuan Province, last week, a local man had to be rescued from a nearby river after driving his Land Rover SUV into the water to wash it and getting stranded on a small islet. The man told rescuers that he simply wanted to wash his car so he wouldn’t have to go to the car wash and pay the 20 yuan fee, but he didn’t expect the flood gates of an upstream dam to be opened causing the water level to rise almost instantly.

Photo: video screengrab

Before the cheapskate driver could get back into his car and drive away, the furious waters of the swollen river reached the SUV’s engine and threatened to wash him away. Fortunately, he was able to reach a nearby islet, but he became stranded there with nothing else to do but sit and pray that the strong currents didn’t wash away his car.

Eventually, bystanders called the Dujiangyan Fire Services Department and a team of firemen managed to rescue both the driver and his SUV. A video of the entire ordeal was later posted on social media, where it quickly went viral.

“The car is absolutely clean now,” one person jokingly commented on Weibo.

“This is a real case: rich people are more stingy,” another person wrote.

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However, while the majority of commenters joked about the man’s stinginess, there was one person who commended the driver for his idea.

“He didn’t just save three dollars. He saved the planet one more carwash company’s waste of energy, drinking water and polution. I wipe off my car after a rain for the same reason. Thank him rather than making fun you planetary blights,” one person wrote on the SCMP Facebook page.

I could not agree more. We should all be washing out cars in rivers and streams, as that would surely help protect the environment…