OT: "Mixed up the brake and accelerator"?!?

The Morris what? Is that a car for terrorists?

Is that what they call a dogleg? Where you get R instead of 1st?

When I first drove an LHD car, I was flummoxed for a moment because I expected the indicator and wiper stalks to be the *opposite* way round to an RHD car ;-) I suppose my brain was expecting *everything* to be a mirror image.

I ran into the back of a roadworks van in a queue (while I wasn't looking forwards, but instead to the side at the colossally inefficient roadworks to my right). I had two weeks previously ran into the back of another car when I forgot my car had no ABS but the one I had previously did. The damage to the bonnet from the first accident was still there, and the roadworks bloke was so horrified as he thought that had happened on his collision, that he made no attempt to claim against me. Mind you I think all I did was knock his rear lights off.

Commander Kinsey:

My mixup is, thankfully not with the Go & No pedals, but on console-shift automatics:

Starting about ten years ago, when shifting out of Park into Drive, I consistently land in Neutral!! ARRRGHH!! It happens to me in straight-line PRNDL/321, or in more recent 'jagged' offset console automatic shifters, doesn't matter - I always end up trying to drive off in f-kin Neutral!

Is it just a part of growing older(I'm now fifty), or should Neutral be someplace else in the auto-tranny pecking order? Maybe PRD321N? Never happened to me until my early forties.

You're probably having trouble auto-groping your tranny pecker because you're a retarded dumbfuck.

I have no idea where my fog light switch is as I never use it. A light precisely the same as a brake light does not ever get used on my car. I want folk to know when I'm slowing down.

So you borrowed a car where the brake and accelerator were the other way round? No, you're just a dumb ass.

I've never even got that far. Here's a clue - the loud pedal is on the right.

That would be acceptable if they only used them at night. But a light during the day, WTF? I can already see the bicycle, due to something we call sunlight.

Agreed. They're far too tentative.

The only woman I've seen that drives fast is one that works in a garage. It was quite funny when she was giving me a lift while my car was in getting fixed. She was cursing at everyone for getting in her way.

Definitely not and I never said it was.

Actually the "powerslide" was pretty reliable and durable. The performance and efficiency stunk - but lots of Dynaglydes etc were replaced with PowerSlides - and they are still the transmission of choice for many bracket racers - and even a lot of "class" dragsters - some of them putting out mega HP.

This was a manual with all the gears inline? I've seen automatics with column shift where all the positions are inline - but then they are in a floor-mounted selector lever.

Our CRV, like my wife's previous Civic, has the gear lever coming out of the dashboard rather than the floor. It still moves in the same way: forwards/backwards rather than up/down. It looks slightly odd, but it's very convenient.

It's rare that our CRV engages the rear wheel drive - or at least it's rare that the relevant dashboard light comes on to tell you it's done so. But then we've not had much snow since we've had the car. The only time I saw the light come on was when I had to pull onto a verge to let an oncoming car past on a very narrow road, and then accelerated away afterwards. Normally that doesn't put the light one, but this time it did.

No real logic to it. In the days of BMC and column gear shifts, Morris had the 1&2 plane towards you, Austin away from you.

Freezing in panic is absurd. Nothing was ever gained by remaining still. Rabbits do that then get run over.

Er.... ABS doesn't brake for you, you still have to be able to react to the danger and press the brake quickly. That should still be tested.

It's very easy in fact. The tester taps his clipboard on the dash and you have to brake immediately.

You half release the clutch first, which prevents rollback while you move your right foot over to the accelerator. I don't even have to think about it, it's automatic.

Handbrakes operate using a feeble cable instead of the hydraulics of the footbrake. Handbrakes wear out. And since I don't need one, I don't care for repairing it properly. The garage makes it work for the duration of the MOT test and that's it.

A footbrake can be pressed lightly or heavily or anywhere inbetween. Try doing that with a handbrake, especially as they latch on.

That's an unusual car, I've never known one like that.

That's what you get for living in the outback.

A rolling road isn't that expensive when it's used many times a day. It saves the mechanics a lot of time, and wages cost money.

I do laugh when I see the person in front of me physically moving from side to side to release the handbrake.

Then they can't have hit you very hard if they didn't reach other parts of your car. I very much doubt the gearbox would have even felt it.

And since most cars have a handbrake far too weak to stop another car shoving it forwards, the gearbox will still get shunted.

When that happens you make a massive great profit. Especially when the insurance says it's a right off but you manage to repair it. I was given £700 for a write off. I repaired it for £70. £630 into my pocket.

Ebay is your friend.

Everyone I know does. Belt and braces incase one fails or you forget one.

Stupid law.

And if there isn't? Australia is hardly that crowded.

More in other people's actually, people who can't park straight so give me less room in the space next to them. Anyone over the white line gets my door or supermarket trolley rammed into their paintwork.

It's not wise to threaten me. Last person to do that got 13 stitches.

A few cans sorts that out. Anyway, don't you use a dishwasher?!