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Original poster

Have I wrecked the car now? And can anybody cheer me up with some embarrassing car stories?

48 replies

emkana · 06/04/2005 19:29

Stupid stupid me...
I drove for about three miles today with the handbrake only partly released... quite fast too, on a dual carriageway. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong , just thought there was some fault with the engine or something... double I didn't see the warning light because the sun was shining so bright.

Later I drove for a further 10 miles or so and the car seems to be okay. Or do you think it might still go wrong later? Am worried!
Has anybody done anything similar, just to make me feel a bit better?

OP posts:

psychomum5 · 06/04/2005 22:32

I drove into the car-park at work one morning and noticed that there were some VERY hunky men mending a broken window. Was so busy eyeing them up I drove into the back of my bosses car.......he had a tow bar that went straight thro the grill on the front of my mini, and got stuck!!!!! Same hunky men had to lift bosses car out of my mini's engine....doh!! No damage to the bosses car thankgod....my car was rather poorly tho!!!

BadHair · 06/04/2005 22:46

Used to live at the bottom of a very steep gorge and forgot to take my handbrake off not once but twice when driving up it. Couldn't work out why the car was going so slow and making a weird grinding noise.
I introduced myself to our new neighbours by reversing into their van and breaking their numberplate.
I drove round for 2 weeks with no water in the radiator. Result - one busted head gasket and a £200 garage bill.
But on a plus point I did once have a huge parking triumph that I like to boast about now and again. The driver of a SMART car overtook me in a narrow street to ensure that she got the plumb spot right next to my work gateway, and right next to the parking meter. I had to take the only space left which was right at the end of the street. I managed to get my middle-sized,non-power-steered car into the tiny space, leaving just 2 inches in front and 4 inches behind (not that I smugly measured it or anything), and by the time I'd done that and walked to the machine to pay, she was still huffing and puffing to get her tiny car into the bus-sized spot that she so coveted. I have to admit that I assumed a smugly superior expression and stopped to watch, just to add to her embarrassment. I know, I know ...
But then I ruined it all by crashing into a parked car at the entrance to a car park, so I had to revoke my claim to driver of the year.

Blu · 06/04/2005 22:56

Whilst working on a farm as a student I reversed a tractor with a hay fork fitted to the back into a barn door. Then foolishley went forward again, pulling the entire huge door attached firmly to the fork off it's hinges.

And drove one wheel off the edge of a precipice trying to do an impossible 3 point turn on a track in Andalucia. It was like the Italian Job. We had to get Ds out of the back of the car - it was teetering - and be rescued by a farmer.

Blushed less when we had to wait for the track to be cleared of a hearty 4x4 local farm truck in the same situation a day later.

morningpaper · 07/04/2005 18:50

Taking the door off with a pitchfork should win some kind of prize...

donnie · 07/04/2005 18:58

if it's any consolation I crashed the car into the wall when parking it at the test centre at the end of my 2nd driving test attempt. I looked at the instructor and said ' I suppose that's a fail then?' and he looked VERY annoyed! I also once tried to reverse up a bit of an incline in a shop car park but was too weak ( or something ) to do it - the car just kept going forward every time I took my foot off the brake despite being in reverse gear. In teh end I had to ask the man in the shop to oark it for me which he kindly did, But THEN after my shopping I couldn't release the handbrake as he'd wrenched it up so high so I had to ask him to come out again and release it for me.....the shame.....

mummyof2 · 07/04/2005 19:52

Some one hit my car a few weeks when i got out to swap details i did actually forget that i was fully dressed in a school uniform with fishnet tights pe skirt and my hair in bunches.Oh the embarassment

mears · 07/04/2005 20:09

I continued to drive when the oil warning light came on. Only drove on to pull into a layby. I completely knackered the engine as it kind of made a bang and all the oil that was left poured out of the engine onto the road. We needed to get a rteplacement engine - DH was not amused. Always pull over immediately when warning lights come on!

morningpaper · 07/04/2005 20:10

mummyof2: I won't ask where you were going...

binkybetsy · 07/04/2005 20:31

PMSL at you lot and thought I'd add my catalogue of errors.

Whilst 9 months pg and unable to see my blindspot (on my way for a sweep) I reversed into the concrete post of an underground car park. Realising I'd dunched the car I thought " well if I've marked it I've marked it and kept on reversing

I've reversed into a parked articulated lorry WHILST looking in my mirror.

I drive 26 miles to work on a motorway, when my gearbox exploded I kept on driving, figuring if the car didn't stop itself, then who was I to argue. Got seriously frowned at for that.

Reversed into a neighbours car (brand new big 4wd) even though I'm sure I looked, in my defence he is usually at work at that time of the day and wouldn't normally be parked there. When I went to knock on his door to apologise I had to take the baby in the car seat as well, went past his car and knocked off the wing mirror!

And finally, my most shameful driving anecdote, I actually sped up in the face of a police speed camera because I thought there was something interesting going on with the police there.

Still my sister told me she called the AA out to let her in her car whilst out shopping as she couldn't get in with the keys, and they broke into someone else's car that was parked 6 cars away. It was identical, and she never thought anything other than it was hers. She went with the RAC after that because she was so embarrassed.

morningpaper · 07/04/2005 20:33

in my defence he is usually at work at that time of the day and wouldn't normally be parked there

rotfl

binkybetsy · 07/04/2005 20:37

What's wrong with that mp, oh and I switch tv's off in other people's houses hahahaha!

motherinferior · 07/04/2005 20:53

The only reason I haven't committed all these mistakes is I hate getting into the car. I am the laydee who failed one of her four failed driving tests by zooming over a zebra crossing.

While a blind man was on it.

morningpaper · 07/04/2005 20:54

mi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Binky: I also liked your attitude to the bollard: "well if I've marked it I've marked it and kept on reversing"

binkybetsy · 07/04/2005 21:01

MI you've really just tested my pelvic floor there. DH is LOL at that.
My mum took her front door step off!. My dad doesn't usually let her drive because she so rubbish. She denied it for 2 weeks until I got a confession (whilst she laughed her head off). Her house is 150 years old and the door step is original. She drove with it stuck under the bumper for 10 metres or so up her driveway, the bumper was all scraped by stone and the step had the same paint on from the car and she still just denied it to my dad! She said someone else had done it.
Maybe it runs in the family. All the men panic when the cars get a little scratch on them and all them women in our family really couldn't give a hoot if the car gets scrunched up.
"I've got better things to think about" is usually my response to DH.

Elf1981 · 07/04/2005 21:29

Reversed my car the other day with the handbrake FULLY up.
Couldn't work out why it was so slow.
Then straighten up in 1st with handbrake in same position.

Doh!

Elf1981 · 07/04/2005 21:32

Oh and I once parked my car in Tesco car park next to the recycling bins and did my shopping. Thing was, I couldn't reverse out of the space for the life of me. Took me 30 mins of huffing and puffing. Considered ringing FIL who lives up the road to come and do it for me...

stripey · 07/04/2005 21:49

Scratched dh's work car today while driving out of a car park (already done the same thing to mine twice previously). Thing is I knew I couldn't make the turn but when I tried to reverse the car behind started beeping so I did it anyway .. then proceded to hold up the entrance and exit for 10 mins while deciding how to get away without scratching anymore. I will not ever do this again. I won't I won't I won't.

binkybetsy · 07/04/2005 21:52

Aah there's a lady driver after my own heart!
I frequently just think "in for a penny in for a pound"

Eeek · 07/04/2005 21:55

I've tried to drive off in someone else's identical car because my car keys opened their door. Took me ages to realise why the ignition wouldn't start! I think the clue was that theirs was tidy

I've also put petrol into a diesel engine.

I've fun out of petrol on the motorway and been rescued by the police

Oh, and I used to work in transport

elastamum · 07/04/2005 22:06

Borrowed a people carrier demonstrator from the garage for a test drive and filled it up with petrol (it was a disel. had to get rescued by very pissed off mechanic, didnt buy one, as never had the nerve to go back!

kid · 08/04/2005 15:03

I went shopping last night. When we came out, I pressed the central locking key to open the car and it locked! I'd left it open the whole time I was shopping

bitscared · 08/04/2005 15:14

excuse the typing. Ds onlap, he likes keyboards. When I was learning to drive, my sister let me drive her caR around cul de sac, doing fine until I parked, I hit the accelarator instead of brake and knocked fence down of next door neighbours garden and wrecked their ornate hedge!

PiccadillyCircus · 08/04/2005 15:21

I once left the keys in the ignition while I was in McDonalds in Cambridge.

I came out and thought "where on earth are my keys?" and then discovered them in the car.

I am lucky I still had a car .

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