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Un-Freakin’-Believable
By JLP | May 16, 2006
We have had our Rendezvous for nearly 4 years now. I drive it most of the time. I do the same thing every time I drive it. I get it in, open the garage door, back out, shut the garage door, and drive off. This morning for some UNKNOWN reason, I started backing out BEFORE the garage door was all the way up! DUH! I heard this terrible C-R-AAAAA-C-K! I was like “what the hell?” (yeah, I said “hell”). Anyway, I got out and inspected the damage. My lens cover for the light at the top of the tailgate is busted and I also pulled the little washer fluid sprayer out of its place so now it just hangs there.
It just goes to show you that you can’t get too comfortable with routines. You always have to be aware of what’s going on around you. Geez… I wonder how much this is going to cost to get fixed?
Topics: Cars | 13 Comments »
May 16th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Don’t know about the washer fluid thing, but if you can find one in an auto parts store, it’s pretty cheap and simple to replace the tail light cover (and even light bulb) yourself. NAPA, GI Joe’s, or a similar store will have it.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Heh. A few years back, I did it one worse adn started backing out without even raising the door. No damage to the garage door, but the handle on it gouged the back of my van.
And yes, it was on a monday morning.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Sounds like quite a boneheaded move.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:07 am
djb,
Thanks for stating the obvious. I’m sure you have never done a boneheaded thing in your life. But yes, you are right, it was stupid of me.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:26 am
I know how you feel… I once drove into our garage with the tailgate on our minivan up.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Cars, man, cars.
After we got the “6-months-to-live” prognosis on my wife’s 1994 Chevy Beretta – that she bought used & paid for in college – we decided to get her a new Honda CR-V (say what you will about buying new – 2-3 yr old used models were selling at $1,000-$2,000 max below new base model invoice – so we went new). Anyhow, since the Beretta was still running, and was worth all of about $300 on a trade, we decided to keep it, and I’d drive it in place of my gas-guzzling truck when possible, until it just outright quit.
Long story short, she comes back in after leaving for work one morning – managed to back her nice, brand new CR-V into the old, decrepit Beretta. The CR-V sustained $2,500 in body-related damage; the Beretta was not noticably damaged. D’OH!
May 16th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I’ll do you one better. A few years ago I purchased a huge rooftop carrier (enclosed) so that we could bring a load of Christmas gifts and luggage to my brother-in-law’s for the holidays. Since he had extra high garage doors in order to put his boat in the garage, I assumed I could get in without a problem…..except only the stall for the boat had the higher door so….I tore off the carrier, damaged the door and dumped all the presents. After all, we’re all human.
May 16th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Curses, sorry about that JLP.
I have closed the garage door, with the liftgate open on the minivan, a few times… nice long scratches. It is a good things I plan on driving until the wheels fall off.
May 16th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
I was once backing out of my garage in my Civic and for some reason hit the button on my opener before I was all the way out. It was an older door so it didn’t have those automatic stoppers so it just kept coming down. As soon as I realized what was going on, I gunned the car to try to beat the door closing on the car only to have it bend my antenna and break it right off. That was a nice $75 mistake.
May 16th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
After reading all these, I feel less bad for backing into a parked car–same type of thing, did my usual routine, backed around the cement elevator shaft of my building, and right into a car (illegally) parked there! Of course his car only got a scratch & I had to replace my whole bumper. So dumb!
May 17th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Backed over my gas-powered Homelite weedeater/edger with my wife’s ’67 Mustang last year.
Sure didn’t hurt the Mustang any. The weedeater, on the other hand . . ..
May 17th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I don’t have this problem. My garage door opener is broken and I haven’t had the time to fix it. I park outside.
May 19th, 2006 at 5:31 am
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