850 Owner,

Yours was one of the more comical posts I have seen in a while. While I don't doubt that you may have had an electrical problem with your car, I really doubt that it is related to the static discharge that was reported in the original post.

The electrical discharge (the "shock") arises from an electrical charge build-up. Such an electrical charge comes from the movement of two dissimilar materials (remember the glass rod and silk scarf experiment from high school physics class?) It is generally worse in the winter because of the lower moisture content in the air. Any moisture encourages the excess charge to leak off the car, lessening the shock to non-noticeable levels.

When tire manufacturers started making "low rolling resistance tires", they used less "carbon black", an age-old ingredient in tires. The carbon black is conductive and allowed the tires to let some of the charge leak off. The lower levels of carbon black in certain modern tires means that it is harder for the charge to leak off, resulting in more noticeable shocks.

A grounding strap (basically a piece of conductive rubber that hangs from your car and drags on the ground) can help, but they wear out quickly due to all the rubbing.

Switching to tires with more carbon black will also help.

Holding onto a key and discharging the excess charge between the key and the car also helps, as this "spreads" the flow of charge across the whole surface area of your finger touching the key. The charge still flows through you, but it is not painful since it is not all concentrated on a single point.

Hope this helps. I bet the original poster got new tires recently, and this is why the problem seems to be "getting worse". Summer will lessen the problem, because the air is wetter.