We can’t do everything right the first time–it would put those people who put erasers on pencils out of business. And what are you, some sort of heartless, industry-murdering millennial? No, you are a proud doer of things, even if that doing can go horribly wrong, occasionally in front of an audience, and damage something expensive, like your vehicle, to boot.
I’ve done several deeply stupid things in my life, and one of the most memorable was while driving my second press car ever out of a parking space. Messing up your own vehicle is bad enough, but when you scratch the life out a car someone lent to you thinking you had a good head on your shoulders and you both realize that assumption was incorrect, it really stings.
Almost everyone knows this pain, so I’d like you to share yours; what’s your biggest parking blunder?
My story of woe
For you see, it’s not just BMW M3s and Miatas in the press fleet. This vehicle was a Nissan NV 3500 HD, which the automaker handed over to us only because I was moving and needed a big vehicle. I’d taken it all over southeast Michigan for an entire week with no problems. I even took it to the dentist to get a tooth pulled and made it home unscathed.
On return day, I got this giant beast nestled in an unfamiliar parking spot at the Autoblog offices when I noticed the fuel was just a tad under the half-a-tank mark. The guys who run these vehicles out to us and bring them back, they work hard. Not wanting them to work harder on my account and having a little time, I thought, “Oh, I’ll just take it to the gas station real quick and fill it up. Easy peasy.” Now this is in the era before back-up cams were on every vehicle, so I had no idea what was going to happen next. I throw the van in reverse and immediately hit a tiny 2-foot high retaining wall.
That teeny, tiny wall absolutely ripped open the sliding door, costing the press fleet guys some $8,000 to fix, and all because I wanted to make sure the tank was topped off. I’ve yet to beat that kind of damage to a vehicle since, privately owned or a press loan, thank goodness. That was the day when my coworkers learned you don’t really need to punish Erin Marquis, she’ll punish herself enough.
So what about you? What parking job did you royally biff? Let us know in the comments.
