Wednesday 18 July 2007

Welcome home Peugeot!


From http://bblmedia.com/women_drivers.html

Not funny, but then, yes - funny!!!

My little car's been poorly sick and needed a new clutch so off she went to the momo doctors. (Why she's a she I've no idea?) In her place they gave us a bright red Hyundai summatorother, which was fine, except it was an automatic and I'd never driven one of those before! What larks! Hubby took me out under cover of darkness in it and instructed me to "sit on my left foot"!? Bloody good job he did! I felt as though half of my body had been tied up and was struggling to break free - my foot wanted a clutch very badly and my left hand was desperately trying to accept the fact that all it had to do was hold the wheel.

So I put the stick shifty thing into R to back out of the drive and took my foot off the break and - - - - - it MOVED!!! All by itself! How weird is that!? And in P it went forwards all by itself!

But then comes stopping. How horrid it is to have to fight off the belief that the car's gonna stall if you don't depress the clutch! Except there's no clutch.

Soon got used to it, but not a fan I'm afraid, so I took hubby's beast instead and let him enjoy the automatic! Not great getting hateful looks on the school run in a massive 4 x 4 though, although people don't seem to mind as much if I get out wearing my jodhpurs!

I took the red thing to get petrol last night, and parked it next to the pump. As you do. Only the petrol cap was on the other side so had to get back in, work out the shifty stick thing, and turn it around. Done. Only when I tried to open the petrol cap I realised it had no lock. And pushing it revealed no release mechanism. I looked inside the car. On the door panel. By the shifty thing. Nada. After 10 minutes of this I got back out of the car and went to the man in the booth to explain that the reason I was driving away was because I couldn't figure out how to open the petrol cap... and he said, "Did you look under the seat?" Under the seat?! Why would I look under the seat?! I went back and had a look under the seat and there it was - a huge knob with a huge pic of a petrol pump on it. Sheesh. I am soooo stupid!

So welcome home to my baby blue tiny 1.4 car, that won't get me filthy looks for bing very ungreen, and has a petrol cap that opens with a sensible mechanism called a KEY!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like my peugeot too :-) Uncomplicated, easy to drive and at 1.4 trying to be green too :-)

Jon M said...

We had an automatic on holiday once and really loved it. I like little cars, preferably Fiats.

I'd be a bit worried finding a huge knob under my seat, missus!!!

ooer...sorry possessed by the spirit of 'Carry On' for a spell there!

hesitant scribe said...

Chilli - but you have the sexy sporty model ;-)

Jon - trust you!

I drove it earlier on - went to see Harry Potter with the kids (v. good BTW) - and it feels sooo weird! The clutch is all, well, different, and even the gears feel different. Gonna have to get used it all over again. Argh!

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

It takes me ages to get used to a new car. Best of luck for Sat - remember, they won't know you're nervous unless you let on. And I love Russell Brand too. I'll get to 'Hesitant Scribblings' soon, promise - I'm doing my weekly round of the novel racers for now.

hesitant scribe said...

thanks Zinnia - needed that! :) You are so good at keeping up with everyone too!