Yesterday was a seriously bad day. I made the mistake of going to a local town to do some Christmas shopping. Of course, when I got there the world and his dog had decided to do the same, so finding a parking space was challenging to say the least (well, it could’ve been worse, I could’ve been in Basingstoke).

The usual car park I use was full so I went a bit further down the road and found one that looked as if it were on an old building site. The ground was rough and uneven, cars were badly parked, but I thought I’d give it a go. Big mistake. I’d hardly got into it before I realised that, not only was it full, it was jammed full and cars ahead of me couldn’t move. The simplest thing to do was reverse back up to the exit.
So I selected reverse, checked it was clear behind, and accelerated gently back the way I’d come. Thump! I came to a sudden halt.

Not all crashes are this severe

I got out to find that I had hit the wheel of another car. Whoever had parked it had left the steering on full lock, so that the outside front wheel was standing proud of the bodywork and I had managed to drive into it. Apart from a slight scrape on my bodywork though, it looked as if I’d got away with it.

I drove forward to clear the car and selected reverse again. As soon as I started to move I knew something was very wrong. A loud graunching noise told me that something was fouling on something else and that I wasn’t going anywhere for the moment.

I got out again to see if the bodywork was catching on the wheel, as this is what it sounded like, but I could see no evidence. In fact there was nothing to suggest where the noise was coming from. I tried driving the car forward a bit and it seemed to do this without any problem, so I set off gingerly for another car park. As I went along I noticed a smell of burning and could see a thin haze of white smoke in my mirror. I quickly got parked up and checked again. The wheel was extremely hot and my first thought was that the brake calliper had seized on.

If you smell burning, get out of the car

There was nothing for it but to call out the AA and an hour and a half later they arrived. A quick inspection revealed that the impact, although at slow speed, had bent the trailing arm of the rear suspension and it was this that was fouling the tyre, causing the smoke. The AA man managed to hammer the arm straight enough so that it wasn’t catching on the wheel or tyre anymore and I was finally able to set off.

Thank God I’ve got fully comp insurance because the damage I’ve caused is out of all proportion to the speed and apparent severity of the impact. The car needs a new trailing arm, new suspension bushes and some cosmetic work on the bodywork. By the time I’ve paid the excess on the claim, it’s going to have been a very expensive day’s shopping.  From now on I think I’ll buy everything on the internet and not leave it all to the last minute