I thought I’d share this story because it’s a bit funny. Maybe.

In the UK, there are two types of driving licence. I have a Full UK/European licence, meaning that I can drive any car whether it is manual or automatic. However, if I learned and passed my test in an automatic, I would have a licence allowing me to drive cars with an automatic gearbox only. If I wanted to drive a manual, I would have to re-take a full driving test in a manual and pass.

This is all well and good. I learned in a manual (a Toyota Avensis 1. and drove that for the first year after passing. It had to go in for a big service, so we got a Vauxhall Omega 2.2 for a few days. This was an automatic. Well, I was pretty excited – I had always wanted to try driving an auto. Our drive was on a bit of an incline, and in order to get out I usually left the car in neutral, rolled back a bit then pulled out to the right (I parked across the drive because of the way it was, and there was a bush in front of me).

Anyway, I started the car. Fine – it’s an auto, easy. I was wrenching on the gearstick and trying every damn button I could find to make it move, but it wouldn’t come out of park! Could I get it to change? Yeah, right. Although I was supposed to be able to drive an auto, I didn’t have a clue. Eventually, I was told that you have to put your foot on the brake in order to release the gearstick. Fine – into “drive”. I let go of the brake while I steered the car out, but didn’t realise that it was moving ahead slowly. I crushed the unfortunate bush that got in the way…

After a bit of messing about, I had it sussed and got out of the tight driveway (this is a big car). I drove to my mate’s house to pick him up, then drove down to another friend’s house. A mile at 40mph… With the HANDBRAKE ON! Little did I know, you can’t stall an auto and they don’t care what holds them back, they’ll just go forward like they’re told.

I got out the car and was greeted by the smell of burning rubber and that funny “hot metal” smell. The rear discs were glowing a dull red and it was so hot you couldn’t get too close. Oops! From then on, I was forever checking the handbrake to make sure it was off… Glad it was just a rental/company car!

I didn’t have too much trouble after that. Just a bit funny that I was supposedly qualified to drive an auto, but in actual fact I didn’t have a clue. Probably didn’t help that I was relatively inexperienced at the time, too. Maybe the DVLA should give out a leaflet to all manual passers telling them how an automatic works!

Hope I didn’t bore everyone with that…

Cobra

PS – I went more than 200 miles that night with my mates. Big spacious car, good stereo, full tank of petrol… No worries!