To think women are perfectly capable of driving and parking "big cars"?

[Kingcyrolophosarus]

and to hate the casual sexism from male garage workers

Took car to the garage, patronising young guy " would you like me to reverse that out for you?"
No thanks, I've been driving since you were in nappies mate. I've had this car for 5 years, it belongs to me, not my husband. I know how to look after the engine, I know what tyres it takes, and I can fit those tyres by myself

Car hire guy when I was changing a car( for price reasons) "is it too big for you, can't you park it?"

Tyre garage guy
" ooh these are really expensive" proceeds to quote 30% extra
Er, you really think I don't know how much they cost?
I'll go to a garage that doesn't assume I'm stupid thank you

Unfortunately it's women like me,that give women like you, a bad name.

Once the garage pranged my OH's car reversing it off the ramp. All dealt with very amicably and sorted by embarrassed owner of garage.
A few weeks later, my car went in for its MOT. Patronising lad offered to get it our of tight spot for me 'as its a bit tricky'
bearing in mind my last experience of his driving prowess, I decided not to take him up on kind offer.......he went a rather peculiar shade of red when I told him why!

see that's exactly the issue. We all know some horrible male drivers and they are just that, some men who cannot drive. But some bad female drivers = women can't drive. Why is that?

I agree with you. A woman in a bmw x5 nearly ran me over at hte traffic lights a while ago and a man standing beside me kept going on about how she couldn't handle such a big vehicle. i ended up defending her. it was tinted windows that were causing the problem. You can pull the seat forward. it's not like cars are dsigned for men of 6'4". i'd say all cars are designed for a height range between 5'3 and 6'1 and it doesn't really matter much even if you're outside that range by an inch or so either way. it's just one of those stupid things men say, and believe.

So I'm afraid women like me have set the bar quite low for superwomen like you.

It's not being superwoman to know about your car, how to reverse properly etc. It's being normal.

my 1st car had a 2.0 engine so did my second my 3rd car was 2.3 on my 4th car now its a 1.8 ( all car part exchanged) i can drive big cars its the small cars i have issues with.

My car is a Landcruiser which is big, square and dead easy to manouvre, in fact I have more trouble with my son's Mazda 2! On many occasions I've been offered "to see you in love" in Tesco car park which is quite cosy for a big car, or "would you like me to park it", or "that was really well done". Each time I've just smirked and said thank you, I can't be arsed to get arsy with them, even if I am narked by the comments. My DH finds it much harder to work out where the front and back of the car is and is happy to let me park if we are in a tight space.

YANBU. I like a car that's quick and gnarly (being a bit of a petrolhead). One of my old cars was particularly boy-racerish and I got fed up with pond life swaggering up to me in car parks, petrol stations, tyre places and the like and going "Alright darlin'? Wot you doin' with a bloke's car like that? That's a BLOKE'S CAR, that is." Er, no, it blatantly isn't, it's MINE.

I did the Ferrari Experience at Silverstone a while back and was the only woman in a group of about 15 of us. Before we went out onto the circuit the instructor said to us "...and we usually find that the ladies get more out of these cars than the men, because they listen to instructions and you chaps think you already know it all."

I'm not totally sure I could parallel park my 1/2 ton truck, but in the four years I've owned it I've not had to. dh could, but he has 10 years more driving experience than me. My spacial awareness is not very good, but that's got very little to do with my gender, as I'm fairly sure I inherited it from my father. My mother is one of those people who always knows where she is and where everything is in relation to her. She is much better at way finding and parking than my dad, and will tell you so too. I don't have any general problems with reversing, off roading etc as it's got great all round visibility.

I am however interested in how my truck works, and when my lovely neighbour fixes it I am the one helping, not dh. This winter I changed two tires (summer to winter) and replaced the parking brake cable. dh is more into watching with a can of beer in hand

nooka i got the exchaust to look forward to replacing this weekend.

since having the car for 6 years, i have done all the break pads, discs and wheel bearing, ontop of doing full oil changes and replacing the air filters and changing spark plugs.

Once a year i take all the alloys off to give them a good clean, so i know how to change a tyre in an emergency

quotenquote, wait for the other person to reverse. As I've always been the person reversing, I'm not quite sure what happens when two people who can't reverse meet each other

That is not OK, you do need to be able to reverse, you could end up causing a serious situation,

We have a lot of visitors come to this part of the country(south west) who end up causing problems because of this,

When ambulances or fire engines meet people who unable to reverse on the lanes the delays have cost lives, unfortunately it's not uncommon, most shouts here involve the emergency services travelling on single track lanes.

If you meet a large vehicle,combine harvester, lorry, tractor and trailer followed by other vehicles in the lanes you do have to reverse, you will become deeply unpopular if you don't.

when people move down here they are often surprised that they will no longer be able to get away with claiming not to be able reverse, it simply would make life impossible.

I've helped many friends get over the fear,the method I use, works quickest and never fails is, find a quiet single track winding lane, and reverse several miles along it, turn and repeat, if you do this for an entire afternoon and keep practicing when it becomes dark, you will never fear reversing again, the coordination clicks in.

It's not just the southwest that has single track lanes lots of the UK has single roads, it really is very necessary to learn.

I wish I were capable of driving and parking big cars but I'm really not a good driver and every feminist bone in my body cringes at that !

I didn't learn to drive until I was 26 and never really needed to drive even after that as I could walk to my office or get a bus. Also, I had a parking phobia where I just could not park to save my life and would have meltdowns about people watching me park and just want to die of embarrassment.

Now I live in the US and just had to get over my driving fears to have any life here. I'm fine now and can park and reverse and drive pretty well but I'm still too scared to drive on the freeway - roads the size of a UK motorway / dual carriageway are fine but I just can NOT handle 10-lane freeways. You need eyes in the back of your head... parallel parking is also an issue.

It's pathetic, isn't it? Teenage girls just aren't encouraged to drive enough, I think, and aren't given driving lessons as much as teenage boys. You do need to learn as young as possible to get over your fear.

"quotenquote, wait for the other person to reverse. As I've always been the person reversing, I'm not quite sure what happens when two people who can't reverse meet each other"

Don't EVER meet me in the lanes then.....

On a more helpful note, you can reverse wildly down the centre of the road (providing no one's behind you), until you've gone past the passing place, then drive forward into it.

I'm very good at driving, I can parallel park, reverse, etc no problem.

Years ago I was walking along a little welsh lane with my boyfriend. Tiny road with a vertical drop off one side. We came across 2 terrified Japanese tourists, the bloke had decided he couldn't drive forward any further never mind reverse. H asked my bf to help. Bf couldn't drive and they were amazed when I jumped in the car and reversed at high speed along the road for them. I had to have lots of photos taken of me posing with them for their photo album!

I'm a bit confused. I though parallel parking and reversing were part of the driving test.

If you aren't confident doing these things, doesn't that indicate that you shouldn't really be driving...?

merrymouse, they haven't always been part of the test.

I passed 20 years ago and parallel parking was part of the test then. You would get 2 out of 3 things to do so on the day it was possible not to actually get it, but you should have done it in lessons.

Problem is if you don't have to do it lots after passing your test you forget. I lived in a street with on street parking so got very good at it.

Reversing round a corner and a three point turn were the other two things on the test.

I always reverse park or PP - I find it easier than driving into a space

I drive an S-Max

I am female

I passed my test about 20 years ago, but I think parallel parking came in not too long before that.

I also lived on a street with on street parking, it really does help you to hone your skills

I can only park enormous fuckoff vehicles or teeny tiny mini handbag cars

We have had shoguns and nissan patrols, volvo estateds and multiplas and sundry people carriers, all parked with great ease in miniscule spaces. My current car is a fiat seicento, no bigger than a postage stamp! so no bother at all there, but give me an ordinary car, then there is no chance I'll park it in less that 10 minutes, and then I'll need a good space.

I have noooo idea what all that is about!