In The Universal Dream Key (2001), psychologist
Patricia Garfield presents, "the 12 most common
dream themes around the world"

Garfield believes that these twelve dreams are
“universal” in the sense that they have a general
form that varies only slightly from culture to culture
and from era to era

in this sense, Garfield's 12 dreams are analogous
to Jung's archetypes: universal symbols that are
hardwired in our psyche

among the twelve is Vehicle Trouble

here's how Garfield defines it,

"You dream of being in or near a car or other vehicle
that is out of control or has some other problem
that hampers your mobility.

The circumstances vary. You may find that you have
no brakes, or that the steering wheel won't work, or
that you are out of gas. You may be going off the
road, off a cliff, going through a red light, or crashing
into an object or person. You may be in the driver's
seat, in the passenger's seat, or in the back seat.
You may be at the control panel of an airplane,
seeing that you are almost out of gas. Your vehicle
may be a bicycle that gets a flat tire. You may or
may not try to regain control of the vehicle."

according to Garfield, this universal dream relates to
the issue of control -

it reflects the dreamer's sense that events in his
or her waking life are, like the vehicle, "out of control"

Garfield's underlying assumption is that if we
can learn to identify the themes and issues that are
reflected in our dreams, we can better understand
and address our waking life concerns