Similar thing, but after I called the tow truck, I poked around. I had recently replaced the catalytic converter in my Metro, wiggled the O2 sensor wires around a bit, because maybe something shorted out. Sure enough. It started and drove up on the tow truck. Didn’t ever have that problem again.

Then… 2 years ago in my last car, the window wouldn’t roll up without applying pressure to the actual window regulator motor. And I Had to have the door panel off to do that. One hot day after work it wouldn’t roll down, I was getting pissed so I smacked it pretty hard with my utility knife… damn thing worked. No pressure needed. Then I thought, well what about my A/C? It hasn’t worked for 3 years or so, maybe I’ll mess with that, and turned out the connector was bad and it worked sporadically, until I swapped connectors. Well damn.