[Rajeevraj]

Remembered another one. When in US for an assignment, me and my colleague went to pick up a rental car. They had the usual models. But oh no we don't want 'normal' cars we are budding petrolheads( with not much knowledge) and want to try something different. So we picked up a Prius hybrid. Got inside. Everything looked alien to me. Dug out the manual and spent 15 min trying to figure out what everything meant. Ended up more confused. It said press start and wait for few seconds or something like that. Fiddled around and somehow got moving. Stopped at a traffic signal. Car seemed to switch off. Absolutely no sound. Tried pressing buttons. No change. Signal changed. Honk from behind. In a panic pressed accel and the car moved. Relief.

It was only later on that we realized that till 20-30 kmph only the electric motor works and it will be noiseless.

Encountered few other bloopers also. Needless to say, returned it the very next day.

[glenmz]

Happened during end 90's. The luxury car options available were mostly Cielos and Esteem.

An uncle came to visit us in his son's Cielo. When he was leaving, he had to reverse the car out. But whatever he tried he could not engage the reverse gear. We had mostly Marutis in our family and hence unfamiliar with the gear system. Almost everyone tried and we ended up pushing the car out - all the cousins and uncles joined in.

Later on, figured out from uncle's driver (who was not there when all this happened) that we had to pull the ring on the gear lever (a.la the Fiats - which again were not around much).

[nishantbhatia84]

My first and recent experience of driving an automatic:
- Start the vehicle (Ecosport) with foot on break, drive-off slowly and smoothly - accelerate normally and almost immediately my left foot goes - thud and left hand is on the gear lever wanting to change gears - but then quickly realized it's an automatic with NO CLUTCH!! This happened with me more than a few times during the 15 minute test-drive period! Extremely embarrassing - but the sales guy was kind enough to acknowledge that it does happen a lot with people who've always driven manuals.
- A few days later I was test driving the Hyundai Xcent. Now I've been driving a Figo since the last 4 years and am now completely used to the inverted setup of the headlight and wiper stalks - so kept switching on the wiper on the Xcent every time I wanted to change lanes / turn. Also, when it started to rain i ended up starting the left indicator in-place of the wiper!

[Thad E Ginathom]

I'd hate to cut short the conversation, but there is an answer to all these things.

Clue: it's usually found in the glove compartment.

But hey, sometimes I go out without my reading glasses!

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by Shanksta

Since it detected the keyfob wasn't in the car, why didn't the engine stop??

If you have the keyfob on you and get in the car and start it and then for some reason leave the car running while you leave and come back without the keyfob, the engine will keep running until you turn it off. It would not restart without the fob once you have turned it off but you can drive all you want until you switch it off.

[Astonite]

1. I planned to take my sister's Honda City for a drive before which I decided to attach my pendrive. I took my about 45 minutes to find that I have to pull the display of the music system downwards to find the USB slot. Uff. Sitting in the basement parking, reading the user manual was one of the most horrible things.

2. Few years back, I drove my cab driver's SUMO. We stopped to have a cup of tea where the driver got down first and went inside the shop. I turned off the car and was searching for the hand brake. Been searching under the steering wheel, near the gear lever, still couldn't find any. Called the driver and then realized that the hand brake is in the right side (near the door) and not the conventional one.

[Metallicar]

So I am not the only one with such stories. Especially of hand brakes.

I remember in the beginning I was with my gf and was coming out from underground parking of a mall which had a steep slope. Due to very less experience, I was in 2nd gear but on slope the car didn't pick up and stopped. I used the hand brake but car was still sliding back slowly. There were cars behind honking madly. I didn't know what else to do so applied the main brakes and the car stopped. But how to accelerate now ? Just then I used all my force and tried to pull up the hand brake further. Luckily it moved by upto 30% I guess. Released my foot from the brake and car didn't move. Now it was easy.

Very scary at that time.

[bowser]

I remember whenever I borrowed my uncle's Ford Ikon I could never figure out how to lock the doors. Drove around several times with the doors kept unlocked and one day when we were both in the car I sheepishly asked him how to lock the doors. He showed me that the door open lever has to be pressed inwards into the door to lock it! Now I pride myself with being able to figure out anything in any car so my ego took quite a beating that day

I remember there were several other things I couldn't figure out like how to open the boot, how to fold the side view mirrors, etc. I try to stay far away from that car!

[kp1992]

I learnt driving in a Gypsy, owned another Gypsy after that. The beast barely had any creature comforts even in its top trim.
Then came a time in 2012 that we decided to go for i20, the so called feature studded hatch on Indian roads. This incident occurred when I was driving to college and there was rough patch of road in the vicinity. Suddenly the guy ahead of me applied brakes out of no where and decided to steer to the right.
Stimulus played its role and I decided to brake as hard as possible, Boom- I get a thudered feedback from the brake pedal and the car took its on sweet time to stop (luckily I dint rear end the car ahead).
This took me by surprise and I parked my i20 to the side and did the usual customary of circling around the car to identify what went wrong.
Everything looked fine. Sat inside and Googled, understood that the reason was- ABS kicking in!

[NowNew7]

Originally Posted by Srikanthan

At this point, the mechanic pointed to the red START/STOP switch on the handle-bar and asked what is this for?

I did the same on my own Avenger 180 once. Back after a long vacation found the self wasn't starting the bike, so kept on kicking to no effect... until after 20 minutes in the basement garage and sweating with my efforts realized the the switch was in off position!

My dad however did one better. We'd got him upgraded to an i10 auto from the M800. Was on one of our regular calls as I'm staying elsewhere, when he told me that he drove 20 odd kms to the service centre as the power windows had stopped functioning. Just to be told that he had locked them with the window lock switch! Told him since then to give me call before getting worried that he'd broken the car .

My father in law did one better when after years of driving an Alto he recently asked how to engage low beam on the headlights...

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Hi everyone.

I have not had an oops moment with any car so far. But here is a funny incidence with a two-wheeler:

A senior non-engineer friend of mine invited me one day to see the electric scooter he had recently purchased. He called me specifically because I am an engineer and requested me to see how the vehicle performs.

I sat on the vehicle. He was standing by my side.

Me: OK... Where is the START button?
Friend: Just pull (twist) the throttle.
Me: ya, but how to start the scooter before that?

Then he reminded me that the scooter had no engine to start! Just pull the throttle and it starts moving!

[D C]

Originally Posted by nivatakavacha

So guys, what other such issues have you faced? Let us know. Let the world know for posterity!

Nivatakavacha

Originally Posted by sudeepg

I picked up my city and drove straight to the petrol bunk. Started searching for the fuel lid opening lever in the driver side. Looked everywhere, but couldn't find it. Ran out and checked if the fuel lid had a keyhole. It didn't. I was holding up other cars waiting to fuel. After a bit of worried conversations, someone came and gently tapped on the fuel lid to open it.

I have an exact same experience with Chevy Cruze. That was the first time I rented a Cruze and never knew the fuel lid can be opened without a lever. I called someone at the fuel station for help, after searching for the lever all over the car. I even tried pulling the fuel lid, but never pressed it

[Ricci]

Great thread !

Even without opening the manual, I figured out the buttons for lock/unlock and mirror adjustment, bootlid release. Yet there'll be a ton of features I haven't used - or even realized, on my Fiat Linea. It doesn't have the auto headlamp and auto wipers , that's for sure!


But I couldn't find even after reading the manual - was how to get my audio playlist to advance to next track. It would do that by itself, until one fine day several months ago, I managed to make it repeat one track over and over unless I manually select the next track. Now I can't get it out of the repeat mode !

Also, other than the steering wheel button, is there a button on the faceplate that changes the next/previous track ? There damn well should be, but I can't figure it out !

As for the Daytona, I still haven't gotten hang of how to browse the LCD information and reset it. I mean, I can do it, I have done it, but it's such a pain to do and involves a few hits and misses each time. It displays the odometer only at start up, for a second then shows DTE. The Daytona's dash functions are an ergonomic disaster.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I don't remember where or when it was, but the window-lock button has certainly caught me out too.

[Pontiac]

First few weeks of owning the Audi A5 Coupe. Fuel lid wont open at a gas station. I almost made up my mind to pull open the fuel lid with some kind of lever thinking that it could be stuck. (It usually has to be pressed to open). Was running out of time and was pretty low on fuel.

After minutes of Agony, I figured out. I had locked the car while getting out thinking that the lid is anyway push open and it locked the fuel lid too. Thank god I saved couple of hundreds in a matter of few minutes.