Another sign of getting old !!!

[JKD]

You know when you're getting old when,,,, out of two pedals you press your foot on the wrong one !!! 🥴😲😂 Only pride was hurt in this instance 🤭

Pile of rubble in the foreground is from an extension and refurb.

[countryman]

Ow dear, an interesting insurance description, glad your ok.

[silver fox 1]

Glad you’re okay and nobody was hurt. Getting old has nothing to do with it everybody makes mistakes even us older guys.

in hindsight I think you would’ve been better off taking a sheet off the back of the car though you would’ve been able to see where you were going 🫢

[Diver One]

So the car is now load bearing!

as long as nobody got hurt ( pride and self esteem aside) buildings can be fixed

at the end of the day it's a lump of metal with rubber at each corner 

[eggy74]

this and getting up from being in the prone position for more than a minute !

[JKD]

Hahaha,,,, this wasn't me, but an insurance claim I was first to attend to help make safe 🤭 It was the neighbour who was reversing his car, being guided by his wife (both in their 80's) , he accelerated hard instead of braking,hit a low wall which turned into a ramp and BANG CRASH WALLOP !!! The house owners saw the funny side afterwards,,,, the two dogs that were snoozing beneath the window weren't so happy ☹️😮 but unhurt 🙂

I attend a few of these every year, all defy logic,,,, this one was the most humourous 🤪

 

[TIGHTCHOKE]

No on street parking in Dartford then?    

[London Best]

1 hour ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

No on street parking in Dartford then?    

You have no idea how much I wish there was no on street parking in Derbyshire. Parked cars drive me insane.

[Scully]

Towing a beer trailer to a show last weekend in mates Ranger. It’s an auto and it’s been a while, hence it wasn’t too long before both my feet landed on the one brake pedal when I had cause to brake harder than expected, thinking one foot was on the clutch! Brings you up sharp indeed as the clanging and banging in the trailer testified! Sphincter moment. 😀

[JKD]

2 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

No on street parking in Dartford then?    

Unfortunately not enough (too many multi-vehicle homes🤨) where I live !!!

Above incident was in Grays, Essex. Luckily there only minor structural damage.

[shaun4860]

I am heading for this at some point.

Due to a health condition I now have to drive an automatic with my left 🦶 

Been out once so far, after about 10 minutes you start to get the hang of it.

The difficult part is using the brake as a clutch pedal when you come to stop

Oh the accelerator is on the left as well 🤪

[Newbie to this]

7 hours ago, shaun4860 said:

I am heading for this at some point.

Due to a health condition I now have to drive an automatic with my left 🦶 

Been out once so far, after about 10 minutes you start to get the hang of it.

The difficult part is using the brake as a clutch pedal when you come to stop

Oh the accelerator is on the left as well 🤪

Not sure I could ever get used to the accelerator on the left.

But I suppose if the alternative is to not drive and give up your independence....

[London Best]

21 hours ago, JKD said:

Unfortunately not enough (too many multi-vehicle homes🤨) where I live !!!

 

On my road of 140+ houses there are very few which don’t have parking space for at least four vehicles. What really annoys is the fact that the idiots will leave driveways half empty and park vehicles on the road.

[JohnfromUK]

A (sadly now late) friend had an old Bentley - and the accelerator was in the middle, brake on the right and clutch on the left - and of course manual gear lever on the right.

[London Best]

36 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

A (sadly now late) friend had an old Bentley - and the accelerator was in the middle, brake on the right and clutch on the left - and of course manual gear lever on the right.

I have driven a couple of pre-war cars with the accelerator in the middle. 
One I remember as an old Morris 10 (?) but I can’t think what the other was.

[Walker570]

I have only done it once, that is driven a car with hands only. My crew member decided to arrest a driver for drunk in charge...he was legless(no pun intended) and I had the job of driving his car back to the police station.  How I made it I don't know ....I still have nightmares

[JKD]

2 hours ago, JohnfromUK said:

A (sadly now late) friend had an old Bentley - and the accelerator was in the middle, brake on the right and clutch on the left - and of course manual gear lever on the right.

Another insurance claim I attended was a (newish) Bentley and RR Silver Shadow owner. Both cars very rarely driven. Went out in the Bentley, came home and parked it in the double garage ,,,, well, actually drove it through the rear wall of the double garage, TWICE !!! 😲😆 Garage,,,, £1000's worth of damage,,,, Bentley, just a few scratches on the bonnet which cost a few hundred pounds to sort ☺️ No damage to the sides of the car, just went in dead straight,,,, twice 🙈🤣🤣🤣

[marsh man]

On 04/09/2022 at 23:04, shaun4860 said:

I am heading for this at some point.

Due to a health condition I now have to drive an automatic with my left 🦶 

Been out once so far, after about 10 minutes you start to get the hang of it.

The difficult part is using the brake as a clutch pedal when you come to stop

Oh the accelerator is on the left as well 🤪

I can't blame my age at the time when I bought a Vauxhall Viva automatic as I was only about 20 and didn't know automatics even existed , I looked around the car and even sat in it and never noticed it only had two peddles , we done a part exchange deal and when I took my old car to the garage and got the key for the new one I still didn't twig on it was an auto , when I started it up I had to go and ask the chap in the garage, how do you drive them ? anyhow after a few days I got used it and all went well till the Winter when the revs were high first thing in the morning with it having a automatic choke , it seemed strange with the high revs and braking at the same time , this was in the early seventies and no doubt automatics have came a long way , but that was the first and only one I have had , and not in a great deal of a hurry to get another one 

[London Best]

21 minutes ago, marsh man said:

I can't blame my age at the time when I bought a Vauxhall Viva automatic as I was only about 20 and didn't know automatics even existed , I looked around the car and even sat in it and never noticed it only had two peddles , we done a part exchange deal and when I took my old car to the garage and got the key for the new one I still didn't twig on it was an auto , when I started it up I had to go and ask the chap in the garage, how do you drive them ? anyhow after a few days I got used it and all went well till the Winter when the revs were high first thing in the morning with it having a automatic choke , it seemed strange with the high revs and braking at the same time , this was in the early seventies and no doubt automatics have came a long way , but that was the first and only one I have had , and not in a great deal of a hurry to get another one 

With age and experience you may come to realise auto is the only way to drive. Obviously, my Defender is manual, but I would not now consider a car unless it was automatic.

[marsh man]

2 minutes ago, London Best said:

With age and experience you may come to realise auto is the only way to drive. Obviously, my Defender is manual, but I would not now consider a car unless it was automatic.

You could well be right L B and I dare say I would have a different opinion if I got into a modern one .

At the time I had one , I was told the engine was to small for a auto as it was about 1100cc , and also very few mechanics  knew what was what if they went wrong , which mine often did  

[JohnfromUK]

Earlier automatic transmissions were quite lossy and usually had only 3 gears (a few only 2 gears) and a complex hydraulic control system.  Many were basically slighly 'recalibrated' American designs which were originally designed to work with big torquey engines.  Mate then with a big powerful and torquey engine and they worked pretty well, but small engines struggled.  Because the gearboxes had to handle changing under full power, they needed to be big, heavy and robust.  The cars with auto were typically slower and thirstier than their manual versions

Modern auto boxes have many gears (7, 8, 9 etc.) and are MUCH less lossy, MUCH better controlled and because the electronics of the gearbox talk to the electronics of the engine, the power can be removed for a fraction of a second as the gearbox changes making smooth changes and not needing the same degree of toughness to be able to change under full power.  Overall now they are very good and just as quick and economical as the manual equivalents.

[London Best]

Very true. Our current DSG has nine speeds.

[amateur]

My late father-in-law, then in his 80s, drove straight through the back of his garage in his automatic Ford Sierra, then, on exactly the same day a year later and at almost the same time, did the same again.

The insurers could scarcely believe it.

[Centrepin]

15 hours ago, marsh man said:

I can't blame my age at the time when I bought a Vauxhall Viva automatic as I was only about 20 and didn't know automatics even existed , I looked around the car and even sat in it and never noticed it only had two peddles , we done a part exchange deal and when I took my old car to the garage and got the key for the new one I still didn't twig on it was an auto , when I started it up I had to go and ask the chap in the garage, how do you drive them ? anyhow after a few days I got used it and all went well till the Winter when the revs were high first thing in the morning with it having a automatic choke , it seemed strange with the high revs and braking at the same time , this was in the early seventies and no doubt automatics have came a long way , but that was the first and only one I have had , and not in a great deal of a hurry to get another one 

Eventually all vehicles will be auto with manual as a more expensive option.

I passed all 3 of my tests in crash boxes, Car, HGV & PSV. I've also taught driving in cars privately and professionally to HGV Class 1 standard.

For maybe 40 years or more buses have all been auto and coaches a mix or semi auto. In the last maybe 10 years all HGV & PSV (now LGV & PCV) have been auto. I'm mostly out of date now but my son informs me (he owns 18 lorries) that manual is unavailable in most makes and the few that offer it, it's just not financially viable anymore.

As cars follow the trends of larger vehicles it'll not be long before you're unable to purchase a new vehicle with manual transmission. 

...talking of new trends...take a quick look at the new Volvo lorries. Rear view mirrors are no longer standard fit. It's all by camera now. Of course you'd never notice or not if buses had them as it's mandatory not to use them.

I'm definitely out of touch with the reality of HGV 1 driving after only 4 years 10 months retirement, I can't imagine what's going to happen in the next 5 or 10 and to be honest I'm glad I'm out of it. Even cars with all the electronic trickery confuses the hell out of me now. Gone are the days when "almost" everything could be fixed at the road side with a few spanners, a screwdriver and the ubiquitous big hammer.

[serrac]

1 hour ago, Centrepin said:

It'll not be long before you're unable to purchase a new vehicle with manual transmission.

Neither manual or auto after 2030 if the net-zero no internal combustion engine madness prevails