I left my gear in drive when I parked, took out the car keys, locked the door and , upon returning 5 minutes later, I found out my car had rolled across the street and dented a parked Jeep’s front passenger door. Nobody was around or inside the car at the time so there were no injuries or witnesses.
My insurance is paying to replace the lady’s door and I’ll have to pay for a new bumper out of pocket ($500 deductible for a $521 estimate given by my insurance and adjustor advised me to just pay for it myself instead of filing a claim).
Now the thing is my car is only 7 months old and, like most or all recent cars, has a security feature that prevents the driver from removing the keys if the (automatic) gearbox is not set to “Park”. I’ve tested it and obtained confirmation from a Honda mechanic that there is a problem.(My car wants freedom or is suicidal because it doesn’t care what gear I’m on when I take out the keys)
Do you think I have a case for not getting my insurance premiums raised or will my insurance (esurance) not care , regardless of documentation or proof?
ps: I had no idea about the security feature until the cop who wrote the incident report told me about it and suggested I use that info with my insurance. I always assumed I had to remember to set it to park. :smack:
A sticker on the dash of the very first company vehicle I ever drove (1970)
Also reminds me of a humor bit in the Reader’s Digest many years ago. A lady was being given a speeding ticket. She complained that it wasn’t fair because the cruise control was inoperative. The cop stuck his head in the door, looked at the dash, and said, yes, but it does have a speedometer.
Now if the park position didn’t work, you might have a case. This isn’t the case. You screwed up. If I worked for the insurance company I would have a hard time keeping from laughing if you called me up and said it wasn’t your fault.
You might, however, want to discuss this with American Honda.
I agree that the insurance company might find you at fault. Is there a Honda service notice out about this problem? That might help.
A real driverless collision shouldn’t hurt. When I was in grad school my car, which was parked off the street, got hit when I was 800 miles away. The insurance paid, and my premium actually went down. (It might have been my age, but it might have been that they figured out I had used up all my bad luck for the decade.)
I would bet somewhere in the vehicle or in it’s supplied literature it says to always set the parking brake when you leave the vehicle unattended. There is a reason it is called a parking brake.
esurance will use any reason to raise your rates. They raised mine because I was in an accident. I was rear ended and was not at fault. Their reasoning was those involved in accidents, even if they are not at fault, are more likely to be involved in another accident than those that have never been in accidents. It is one of the reason I am taking my business elsewhere when my current policy expires.
Yes, yes I understand that I can’t go around blaming society like Homer Simpson.
Florida is a no-fault state and in parking lot collisions like mine, I’m only legally responsible for my own damage. The cop said so. I thought it was B.S and I took responsibility anyways so that the lady’s premium wouldn’t rise, as any honest man would have. I’m really sorry I forgot to set the brake and extremely relieved no one was hurt. MOVING ON!
What do you guys mean when you say to take it with Honda? i’d appreciate some more info if anyone has had a similar experience (equipment malfunction, insurance premiums…).
If a function on your car does not work as it supposed to, and you were in an accident due to that defect, American Honda might be liable. For example, let’s say, you drive out of the dealership in your brand new Rolls-Canhardly* then when you get to the first red light you discover your new car has no brakes. You could probably pin responsibility for the resulting accident on the car maker. IANAL)
The very first step would be to read your owner’s manual to make sure that you understand how the system should work, and to verify that your car does not operate in the proper manner. Then you should contact American Honda’s consumer affairs department. You can also file a complaint of a defect with the NHTSA. If enough complaints are filed, an investigation will be started, and possibly a recall.
Just think you could tell all of your friends that you started a recall.
*Rolls down one hill, can hardly make it up the next.
first things first, no you should not be able to remove the keys with your car in any gear but park…what if a child yanks the keys out while you are driving down the freeway and the steering wheel locks?
the accident is still your fault, you failed to properly secure your vehicle (park + emergency brake) but you still need to get it to Honda and get that fixed.
um this is standard procedure at any insurance company I have ever heard of, I could be wrong though…post if you find one that doesnt do this.
I’ve tested it and obtained confirmation from a Honda mechanic that there is a problem. I’ve reproduced it myself to verify it wasn’t a one-time thing.
I agree. Something that surprised me when I moved to the US is that almost nobody here seems to use the parking brake or handbrake as we call it back in New Zealand. It’s my understanding that the park lock on an automatic is not meant to be a substitute for the handbrake. I don’t know why I notice it so much but I often see people stop and as they’re getting out, the vehicle is still rocking back and forward slightly on the transmission lock because they didn’t apply the brake. That can’t be good for the transmission.
Having said that, I’m in no position to criticize because I have my own potential horror story that luckily turned out okay. I drove home one day and parked on the slightly sloping driveway outside my home unit while I got out to open the garage door. When I turned round, the car was rolling backwards out of my reach and heading for the very busy road at rush hour. It was a stick shift and I must have left it in neutral. I had applied the brake but not tight enough and it was a bit out of adjustment. By incredibly good luck or the grace of God or somebody, there was enough of a bump in the driveway just before the kerb to make the car turn harmlessly into the empty lot next door. It could have easily killed someone. It still gives me a chill to think about it.
Once when my dad was home watching TV,my mother came home and slipped up and hit his car. he was sitting in the living room and he had 2 smacked cars. That is fun to explain to an insurance company.
No disrespect to the Honda mechanic you talked to, but read the fucking manual. He might be wrong, and you will look pretty silly if he is. He probably isn’t, but it will take you all of 30 seconds to make damn sure your ducks are in a row.
Hondas have a key interlock system which prevent the key from being removed while in any other gear than park. BUT, it’s still your fault. You’re supposed to put it in park when you park the car, period.
This is true. I was involved in an accident when I was 16, four months after I got my license and expensive new car. It was the other guy’s fault, but there was no way to really prove it. State Farm said they believed my story, and my rates have done nothing but fall over the past five years. Great company.
They were awesome about handling the damage, too - I took the car to the best body shop I could find, and State Farm didn’t quibble about paying for anything. The guy at the body shop said State Farm is the best company to deal with, from their perspective.
Same here. I was rear-ended by a school bus, so I called my insurance to let them know, and since I wasn’t going to file a claim, they told me they didn’t need to know about it.
How the heck would the wheel lock without the key turning to the locked position first. And if the child was in a position to yank the keys, they’d be in a position to turn the wheel. The child should have been restrained. The reason you have to put the car in park before you can take the key out is so people don’t take their keys out and leave their car in gear.
That being said, I work for safety basis, and one of the things we often analyze is failure of controls. There’s a type of analysis called “What If?”. Basically, subject matter experts, system engineers, operations, and maintenance all sit in a room together and come up with off the wall scenarios, that all start with the words, “What if…”. The very first example in the very first training I remember was about fire suppression systems. We were asked what type of questions we should ask about the sprinkler system. “What if there’s no water?” “What if the valves don’t open?” “What if the detector doesn’t signal them to go off?” But the question we were *supposed *to ask was, “What if there’s a fire?”
The key interlock was a control, that failed. But it wouldn’t have mattered had the question, “What if the driver leaves the vehicle in gear when parked on a grade?” not had to have been asked.
Sorry, Gozu, I thought I was going to come to the opposite conclusion when I started typing all that. :smack:
[anecdote]I was eating dinner with a couple of friends at a diner with huge glass windows. Somebody said, “Holy, crap, there’s a van rolling across the road!” Everybody jumped up to catch a glimps, and my buddy said, “Holy, crap, that’s my van!”[/anecdote]
