Had my first boo-boo today

Busi_Girl08

I drove home from UL with my Dad in his Focus, first time on the main roads without my instructor.

To be honest, Dad was kind of pissing me off, he was over instructing me, and I was feeling rather patronised. Fair enough it was his car, and he is going to be over cautious and nervous.
That kind of put me a bit off edge, and I was maybe a bit less confident than I am with my instructor.
That, and the weather was against us :rolleyes:

Anyways, I was at a stop sign and managed to cut out 3 f-ing times. Car started to pass me out on my right, and in my mirror I could see a LOOONG line of cars.

I then managed to set off, and turned into my housing estate. I decided that I'd try and turn into the driveway, which is a very tight turn, with 2 gates and brick pillars, and about 6 and a half feet of space between them.

Of course, it all goes horribly wrong.:(
I made the hard turn to the left, and braked quickly just short of the right hand pillar. Car cut out again, I then turned the wheel hard left, and started crawling in slowly to turn away from the pillar. I then started focusing so much on straightening out, that my clutch control went completely hay-wire, suddenly darted to the left, went completely mental on the wheel, suddenly heard a "SHRRRRRR" sound, which was the side of the car scraping along the left hand gate.:(

Dad pulled up the handbrake, and I broke down in hysterical tears, thinking "**** I'm after destroying the car!!!"
Dad was surprisingly calm, trying to reassure me saying that it's a very difficult maneuver, and that it took him ages to master it.

After I had calmed down a bit, Mum, Dad and I nervously went to the side to see the damage. A lot of green scrapes along the back door and near the wheel, a couple of small scrapes, and one big curved scrape by the wheel.

I then spent and hour on my knees scraping off the paint...:o

I knew that it was inevitable that I was going to end up having some mishap in the car, either with Dad or my instructor. All part of the experience I suppose.:)

Anyone else want to share their experiences of crashes or scrapes in their driving life?:)

sxt

Ha! great story!:) I knocked big chunks of brickwork out of the pillar that lead into our drive, another time bent the gate into a shape of a boomerang .I think its everybodys rite of passage to do this:D!

TheInquisitor

As a man i will never admit to boo-boos. EVER!

Alanstrainor

Well at least no one was hurt! Best bet is to just take it slowly and be mindful of your clutch control. I know it's easy to say now, but that's life:o.
When i was learning to drive, i found it very stressful driving with my Mum in the passenger seat, she was a nightmare, complete bag of nerves which didn't help my confidence at all. She was the kind of person who, almost instinctively, hovered her hand over the handbrake, as if it would make situations better travelling at 50km/h!
My Dad on the other hand was the complete opposite, calm and kept things simple for the most part. By the sound of things your Dad was doing quite well, since it was the first time he had been in the car with you on a main road, i suppose it was natural for him to over explain things, as he didn't know what you had already covered etc. And it seems he handled that "mishap" at the end quite well too!
Best advice, is to just keep in mind what you've learned in your lessons and keep your cool.

Oh and as for my experiences with crashes and scrapes, so far i've managed to survive without any worth a mention. I remember very gently taping the rear bumper of my old focus against the garden wall when i was reversing it in, but other than that i've gotten off lightly. I better not have just jinxed myself there!

zuroph

I survived my entire learning experience without a boo boo. Passed my test first time, and was quite proud. Drove out to Ennis from Limerick with my sister to pick up my pink licence. went in, got it done, came out proud as punch. hopped into the car, and reversed it into a wall and old cast iron drainpipe on opposite side of carpark. there was a hole right through the bumper which i managed to hide by getting a new licence plate that matched the old one, and lowering its position by a few inches.

Richie Blackmor

My Dad was a cool instructor too. He used to bring me on narrow country roads and say 'Just remember, there is a maniac coming around the next bend .... and he's driving a bus!' I drove his Ford Escort for years on a provisional licence (some of our mature readers will remember those). It wasn't until I was quite experienced with a full licence that I came around a bend too fast one wet summer's evening that I remembered about the maniac so I hit the brakes ..... skidded for 50 metres and flipped it over on the roof! He was cool alright. He just said 'Sure that's what insurance is for'.
Don't mind about a few scratches over a wheel arch.

waraf

I crashed into a petrol pump in my mother's car when I was learning. When told by the owner of the station that I would have to pay I did the typical bloke thing and blamed it on him instead. I think my warped logic confused him cause he let me go without paying (either that or he thought I was a complete mentalist). Anyway, I still go there for petrol sometimes and even though it was about 15 years ago I still feel like a twat when I see him.

DrivingInfo

Hi Busi_Girl08

I love this line:

To be honest, Dad was kind of pissing me off, he was over instructing me, and I was feeling rather patronised.

But love this more:

Dad was surprisingly calm, trying to reassure me saying that it's a very difficult maneuver, and that it took him ages to master it.

I hope you understand that cars can be fixed and you have a good dad there.

Keep at it and best wishes.

Regards

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

giddybootz

Hi Busi Girl,

All I can say is read this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055552397&highlight=wrecked and I promise you will feel better!!!

Here are some photos to go with that story.

crash1.jpg

crash6.jpg

(ps it was my boyfriends MOTHERS car!!!!)

Just give your dad a big hug and get back in that car!!

kaimera

friends car back in college;

reversing out of the house, driveway was curved round past a lamp post; all going well until I left it a bit late to straighten out the front end.

cue the front bumper catching the lamp post; loud tearing sound and me thinking i'll power thru it and it'll be ok.

end result = front bumper lying on the ground, one not so happy friend and several friends rofl-ing on the ground after seeing it happen.

Busi_Girl08

DrivingInfo wrote: »

I hope you understand that cars can be fixed and you have a good dad there.

Keep at it and best wishes.

I do, thanks. The funny thing is my mum came out the door and saw me crying in the car, and my Dad looking rather...stern (well he had a right to sure, he didn't know what state the car was in ), and she thought Dad was ripping into me over it...:D

Luckily no major damage, just some green paint scraped on it, a couple of small scratches and one big-ish scratch near the rear wheel

Could have been worse I suppose, nothing a j-cloth, warm water, a long fingernail and just the right amount of anal retentiveness couldn't sort out

giddybootz wrote: »

Hi Busi Girl,

All I can say is read this http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055552397&highlight=wrecked and I promise you will feel better!!!

Here are some photos to go with that story.

crash1.jpg

crash6.jpg

(ps it was my boyfriends MOTHERS car!!!!)

Just give your dad a big hug and get back in that car!!

Woah!!!!!:eek:
So what happened in the end? Did you get the other car?

Have a lesson tomorrow in the Focus, I'm ok on the roads, it's just parking I need to work on.

I think I will stay away from the driveway for a while though

giddybootz

No they got the car fixed...it's amazing it altually looks perfect!! Couldn't get them to take money off me so got my mom to intervene money wise and that worked. But still I reckon they paid nearly half themselves

My Driving has gone to all hell since though

DancingDaisy

I'm not sure if I posted mine up at here before, but basically I was driving maybe four weeks at the time and I had had a really bad drive with my step dad and was in terrible form and swearing I would never get into the car ever again, when a family friend came over to get me to come out for a drive to try and get my confidence back. The drive went splendidly, was feeling great again and we decided to pick up my boyfriend on the way home, so I pulled up outside his house and went to turn the car and swung the car too wide. Was about to hit the pillar with the left side of the bonnet and stopped the car just in time. I pulled up the handbrake, switched the engine off and took a deep breath.

The family friend told me I needed to reverse away from the pillar so I turned the engine on and the car jumped forward and hit the pillar. I had left the car in gear and never realised. The boyfriends pillar crumbled on top of my car and all I could do was cry.

Turned out in the end that the Pillar had been knocked down before and they had basically stacked it back up and pebble dashed over it! The car was fine, and the I payed for the pillar to be fixed. The boyfriends parents found it hilarious, but I was mortified!

All I can say was that I'm happy my first (and only so far) tip didn't include another car!!

waraf

DancingDaisy wrote: »

I turned the engine on and the car jumped forward and hit the pillar. I had left the car in gear and never realised. The boyfriends pillar crumbled on top of my car and all I could do was cry.

The boyfriends parents found it hilarious, but I was mortified!

In fairness to them, that was f**king funny :D

SuperDude87

On my first few tries driving my recently purchased car I was driving up and down the row and was loving it! I went to the bottom of the very small cul de sac and failing to turn in time ran over a wheelie bin that had been left out til 5pm in the afternoon and syphered off its wheels.

In my good intentions I went up to the door and knocked for ages got no reply. Never heard anything more of it since but it put the ****ners on me!

I thought my mam was going to kill me but she thought it was hilarious!

BrigR

This happened about a year ago...Was supposed to go out in our car with my OH. To simplify things for me he had gone through the trouble of reversing the car into our drive, so that I only had to drive out. For months I had reversed the car out of the drive and had never had a problem. So I got into the car, walking around it i had noticed that the front wheels were not exactly straight, pointing straight at the pillar, but thought nothing of it. So innocently I drove off, straight for the pillar and even more innocently asked" Am I not getting a bit close to the pillar there?" Crunch... Basically the car was stuck and couldn't be reversed back (slight slope), my OH eventually just drove on to get the car out. More crunches. The way it sounded I expected the side of the car ripped off, but in the end there were only a few scratches.
So, an almighty crunch might not even mean a lot ao damage! Btw, we kindof settled for the standard procedure of driving in and reversing out!

zuroph

BrigR wrote: »

Btw, we kindof settled for the standard procedure of driving in and reversing out!

BTW, that's illegal.

Busi_Girl08

zuroph wrote: »

BTW, that's illegal.

Really?!:eek:

DancingDaisy

I'm guessing here, but is it because you aren't allowed to reverse onto a road of greater importance, and reversing out of a drive counts as reversing on to a road of greater importance?

dudara

Years ago, when I was 14, my Dad taught me to drive on our lane. Mom used to let me drive when we came home from town, that is once we got onto our own land.

I was coming into the yard in front of our house, turning and slowing down, when one of the cats ran out in front of me, and I braked. Or i thought I braked... Instead I floored the car straight into the coal bunker. Thankfully, it was a plastic one and not fixed to the ground, so it moved with the car. No damage done at all, but I got a hell of a fright.

Since then, I've only scraped one of my cars once. I drove from Cork to Dublin at night, arrived shattered and tired and left the car on the road outside. Later when a space opened up in the yard, I decided to bring the car in and managed to scrape the wheel arch on one of the pillars. All because I was tired. Should have left the car where it was for the night.

On a serious note - scrapes and bumps will happen. A car is only a car, not an inviolate possession (much as I would like), so take a deep breath, learn from the incident and move on.

In a weird way, getting the first bump/scrape out of the way is a good thing.

jaffa20

Never had a boo boo yet and i've been driving 5 months. Although, there have been some very close collisions. I'd like to think they weren't my fault but they happen all the time, i know when to avoid them now,

eg People driving right out in front of me when i am taking my exit of the roundabout.

People undertaking me on dc and not leaving enough distance that i have to brake suddenly.

I was driving up a narrow road once in Wicklow and there where cars parked along each side of the road. Someone just opens their door wide in front of me while i'm passing and the SCREAMS of her. I nearly **** myself. Luckly i swerved out of her way. It was only after that i was in shock so it was good that i reacted instead of freezing. Can't imagine how she was feeling:eek:

Rubberlegs

Drivin 9 months now, guess u'd call me a more mature learner driver(in yrs only ha ha). once while doin the hole peep n creep thing, nearly went under a truck. Hit accelarator instead of brake at stop sign, at a school of all places. Go 2 pieces when himself is beside me, 2day kept goin in2 3rd when wanting 5th. Luckily my Dad is great, do most of my practise with him, he's retired n has the time. i stalled 4times on dual carriageway recently, panicked, legs wobbled, Dad had2takeover. Oh the shame!! some load of traffic built up behind me, horns blowing, the works. worst of all we'd 2 turn n drive back past em all! oh yeah n i reversed in2 a boat in a harbour. N thats just off top of my head. ya jus gotta keep gettin back on the horse!! still not plucked up nerve 2 apply for test. Hope i,v made u feel bit better!!!!

Omnomnom

Im only allowed to drive down the little road from my house and around my land because im 16 but the other day i drove into the neighbours lane a little bit so i could reverse out and drive back up my road. I drove in anyway at a fair speed but the neighbours gate was open:eek: and 99% of the time that gate is not open! I hit the gate full force and it swung in and back out and hit the car again! Not much damage was done to the car though..just a few scrathes near the headlight:pac:

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

The Big Red Button

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

I drove home from UL with my Dad in his Focus, first time on the main roads without my instructor.

To be honest, Dad was kind of pissing me off, he was over instructing me, and I was feeling rather patronised. Fair enough it was his car, and he is going to be over cautious and nervous.
That kind of put me a bit off edge, and I was maybe a bit less confident than I am with my instructor.
That, and the weather was against us :rolleyes:

Anyways, I was at a stop sign and managed to cut out 3 f-ing times. Car started to pass me out on my right, and in my mirror I could see a LOOONG line of cars.

I then managed to set off, and turned into my housing estate. I decided that I'd try and turn into the driveway, which is a very tight turn, with 2 gates and brick pillars, and about 6 and a half feet of space between them.

Of course, it all goes horribly wrong.:(
I made the hard turn to the left, and braked quickly just short of the right hand pillar. Car cut out again, I then turned the wheel hard left, and started crawling in slowly to turn away from the pillar. I then started focusing so much on straightening out, that my clutch control went completely hay-wire, suddenly darted to the left, went completely mental on the wheel, suddenly heard a "SHRRRRRR" sound, which was the side of the car scraping along the left hand gate.:(

Dad pulled up the handbrake, and I broke down in hysterical tears, thinking "**** I'm after destroying the car!!!"
Dad was surprisingly calm, trying to reassure me saying that it's a very difficult maneuver, and that it took him ages to master it.

After I had calmed down a bit, Mum, Dad and I nervously went to the side to see the damage. A lot of green scrapes along the back door and near the wheel, a couple of small scrapes, and one big curved scrape by the wheel.

I then spent and hour on my knees scraping off the paint...:o

I knew that it was inevitable that I was going to end up having some mishap in the car, either with Dad or my instructor. All part of the experience I suppose.:)

Anyone else want to share their experiences of crashes or scrapes in their driving life?:)

I've no stories myself yet (touch wood!) - but a bit of practical advice - it is so much easier to reverse into driveways than to drive into them, once you get a bit of practice at it (assuming yours is a normal estate driveway and not some big long windy one!) Some people have a bit of a mental block against it, but basically when you're reversing in you're going straight, instead of the angle of the car moving as you're going in - which is why you hit the pillar. When you're reversing in, once you have the car lined up so that you can see a space between you and the pillar on each side, you're sorted. No maneuvering in and out half-way through to get straightened up. And it makes it a lot easier for getting out too.

I haven't explained it very well but try it out and see what I mean! But it might help if you practice reversing into a space between the white lines in an empty car park first, before you try between the pillars again

Good luck with the driving!

taram

Three years ago out with a friend on her very first time out in the brand new '06 family car, bought that morning she'd had a good few lessons so was happy out being out getting practise, all was going well. We pulled in to let another car pass on a narrow stretch, car drove out too far in the middle, scraped all the side of the car! White car, big streak of red paint, looked way worse than it was. Had to call her mother to collect us They still have that car, never got even a single scratch since that day

Michellenman

Haven't had anything too bad myself. Just one scratch so far. I'd just finished my last lesson and I was cocky enough to attempt to reverse in to my drive. Scraped all above my wheel arch and the side of my front bumper. Burst in to tears pretty soon after that but most of the scratches just wiped away, go figure.

Also, on my 2nd to last lesson I'd just finished and was pulling up to my house with my instructor and he told me that I was good to go, No need to take anymore lessons, I was ready for the road. Upon telling me this I got so excited I knocked over a wheely bin and forgot to put my foot on the clutch when stopping. That'd why it was my SECOND last lesson.

galwaytt

DancingDaisy wrote: »

......so I turned the engine on and the car jumped forward and hit the pillar. I had left the car in gear and never realised. The boyfriends pillar crumbled on top of my car and all I could do was cry.

...not quite the same, but.........

my sis-in-law had a mint 318Ci. Sold it, and as part of the sale, had a few tiny touch-ups done to the rear bumper, and........1 week later, the new owner.......well, the front porch (one of those unsupported ones....just little roof, over the front door........) fell off his mother-in-law's house........and landed on the front of the car !! 4 k worth of damage !! bonnet, wings, headlights. :eek:............OMG, I'd be ill !!

Rubberlegs

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Sorry about that, did not know that. Had only just signed up. Proper English from now on;)

Thumpette

Had a couple of near misses myself when learning but nothing too dramatic.

My friend and ex house mate was learning a couple of years ago though and we were in the car cos she was gonna drive us both to work. She reversed out the driveway and on the way spotted that our wheelie bin was blocking the way so did a swerve out to avoid it and smashed the car into next doors brand new bmw (the two driveways kind of came together at the end)

It was about 7 in the morning but we had to go and knock on the neighbours door (who we had never even met before) to tell him about the little mishap. When he went out and saw it he went mental (looked really bad, the two cars were still crunched together) but we both started crying with the shock of it all and he did the usual man thing when presented with lady tears and looked really scared and told us it was ok.

All got sorted anyway and she payed for his replairs. Everything was grand then until a few weeks later when she wrote the car off totally- woops!