My wife forgot she had a massage scheduled for 10 this morning, and so at 9:50 we rushed out and got into the minivan.
I put it in reverse and backed up to clear the car we were parked by, then shifted into drive. And the car kept going backwards.
To begin with, I thought I was pressing the wrong pedal. But the brake and accelerator hadn’t magically swapped. I looked at the gear selector: definitely in Drive. I put it into Park, back into Drive…and kept going backwards.
Turning the car off completely and on again cured it, but this felt like a mad aberration. It didn’t repeat itself the next time I turned the car on, but then at lunchtime we drove to the lumberyard to pick out wood and this time, in reverse the car would go forward.
I’m glad that both times my wife was there to witness it, because otherwise I’d think I was fantasising. Thankfully, a call to Enterprise and half an hour later and we had a replacement car, this time a reasonable sized Ford SUV instead of Digby The Largest Minivan in the world. And I have to count myself lucky this happened without the kids in the car, or any sort of collision. Does this make me very lucky, or very unlucky?
One response to “Going forward in reverse”
I’d never heard of the errant model so asked Mr Google. Horrified by all the negativity, so very pleased, A – you’re all safe, B – it’s been replaced.