How to fail at car: My sad little anecdote.

I love my car.

Love it.

So I’ve been beating myself over the head for the last three days for damaging it in possibly the most embarrassing way.

OK! Let’s run it down.

  1. My car has a manual transmission.
  2. When you park a car with manual transmission, you should both pull the parking brake AND leave the car in first gear.

This prevents the car from rolling away.

Somehow, I forgot both:

Thursday night: I park in my garage. Miss both the parking brake and first gear.

The garage door is closed.

Friday morning: I leave for work, not noticing that the car has rolled backwards in the garage to rest against the garage door. I hit the garage opener button. Door goes up maybe six inches, making a terrible screeching sound.

“Fark!” thinks me. “The garage door is stuck again!” (it’s been stuck before)

So of course I try it about six times. Push up - screech - push down - screech.

After about these six times, I finally realize - “wait a sec, why is the car so far back in the garage?..OH DAMNATION I’M A FOOL”

I’ve got a nice gouge through my rear bumper now. Probably $500 to fix, which is exactly my comprehensive deductible.

The worst part - I’m entirely to blame for being such a damned fool.

The best part of the story is the opening and closing of the door over and over and over, lol.

Great car, btw :slight_smile:

I once pulled into the bank parking lot. I got out (at the time I drove a 4 x 4 Dodge Ram) and went to the ATM. A minute or so later there was all this honking in the street. Quite a kerfuffle. After a bit, I began to be irritated and looked behind me…to see my truck had rolled backwards into the middle of the street…

And this weekend, I realized I ran my cell phone through the washer. No, wait! Ha! I just got it ready…didn’t start it! So I opened the lid to the machine…and there’s my phone, poking out the painter’s pocket of my jeans. Totally soaked in liquid soap.

The lady at the phone store commented on how nice it smelled…

Pretty cool car. :cool:

Too bad you’re not smart enough to take care of it :smiley:

I was doing some work on my MG once, can’t even remember what it was, but I had to back the car out of the garage and into the driveway. I hopped in, didn’t even bother to close the door, looked over my right shoulder and started backing out. Something in the back of my brain said “there’s another car on the left side of the driveway.” I stomped on the clutch and the brake, and stopped. I didn’t hit the other car, but it was so close I had to pull my car forward to be able to close the door.

Now that would have been stupid.

It looks like you wrecked your license plate too :smiley:

Poor car.

My worst rolling car story is when I had my dog in the car and I stopped at a convenience store to grab something to drink. I left my dog, forgot to set the brake/put it in gear and ran inside the store. A few seconds later a woman came in the store and said “your car is rolling across the parking lot with your dog in it”.

Luckily there was a curb with grass before it rolled into the street. It could have been bad, though. That was probably 15 years ago and I’ve been driving a manual ever since then and I’ve never again forgotten to set the brake and put it in gear. You probably won’t either.

I forgot to pull the parking brake on my car once. I (stupidly) figured “since I’m parked in a flat parking lot, my car’s not going anywhere so I can just leave it in neutral” :smack: x 100. I come back later that day and find my car under a tree. It had jumped the embankment and missed the tree by an inch or two. Apparently someone pulled up behind me and nudged my car. Fortunately no damage, but I quadruple check that parking brake now. And put it in first or reverse before I get out.

I got my license and first (and new) car at 29 so I went through some…learning experiences with it. Early on I went to visit friends and it was still daylight when I parked off to the side in their lot, with a utility pole right near me.

Came back out in the dark and started up, with my music blaring. That’s was kept me from hearing the SCRIIIITCH sound down the side as I backed along the utility pole and it gouged a trail down the driver’s side door and then part of the back door.

I ended up Dremmeling and repainting that section MANY times over the life of the car to keep it from rusting.

If the car is on a level surface, leaving it in low gear (first or reverse) suffices. Provided you remember to do this, there’s no more need for the parking brake than would be the case with an automatic transmission.

I’m not sure I get this. You forgot to leave the car in first gear? If you just park and shut your car off, it should be in first gear (or maybe reverse depending on how you park). Why would you take it out of gear after you parked it?

I’m not trying to be a dick, I’m just wondering how it happened.

FWIW, my sister was in church last weekend. They interupted the sermon to announce that a red Caviler* was blocking the street. And asked the owner to move it. Luckily for her, she was in the back of the church and was able to sneak out. The car just rolled straight out of the parking lot and stopped when it hit the curb on the opposite side of the street. She too, somehow left it in nuetral with no parking brake applied.

*car changed to protect the forgetful!

I nearly always put the car in neutral when I come to a stop. Habit. Much easier at a red light so I don’t tire my left leg by keeping the clutch depressed. This habit extends to when I park, so yes: it’s silly, but I will move forward into parking spot in first or second, stop while depressing the clutch, put it in neutral, turn off the car and then shift it into first.

The muscle memory of “come to a stop - put car in neutral” is strong enough that I do it automatically unless specifically focus on doing otherwise.

Shit happens man, I don’t think you screwed up all that badly; what are the odds that the car would move in the garage?

I’m with Xema, there’s no need to pull the brake on a manual, 1st will suffice. My dad caught me using the parking brake and scolded me; apparently they are prone to freezing. So, you hop in, release the brake, and take off, only the brake didn’t really release since it was frozen, soon your brake is ruined.

Everyone’s made a bonehead car move. I once ran over a beaver which I may have been able to avoid had I hit the brakes before trying to decide wtf it was. Poor beaver.

I just remembered my father’s sad little anecdote. He finally moved into a place (rental condo) with a garage, with a convenient garage door opener remote. After clicking it over his shoulder to open the door, and starting to back out, he was putting the clicker back in its spot in the truck when he accidentally clicked it again. The door of course starts closing on the truck and unfortunately it was just in the right spot to get wedged in the gap between the cab and the cap. Wrenching ensued. Of course it being a rental condo, he felt all the worse about the damage to the door but emerged victorious when he was able to repair it. That eclipsed any worry about damage to his truck.

It could always be worse.

When I first started driving, I had a shiny red 1978 MGB, while learing to drive a stick I backed it into the chain link fence that paralleled our driveway. That resulted in some scratches I’m sure, but wanting to extricate my car, I immediately drove it forward, leaving nice deep long scratches down the back fender of my car. It stayed like that for years too. Still hurts thinking about it.

GameHat, don’t feel too bad. I bent both my truck’s camper-top door and the garage door by closing the one on the other. Twice. :smack: