Those of you who don’t know me very well might not know that I have been taking driving lessons back in England. I am doing pretty well and I have about 19hrs experience. I took a break from that to go on my vacation, which I am spending with my good friend Gina and her family in New York.

Gina’s step-dad, Steve, wanted to move the cars from the driveway so that he could mow the grass on either side of it. He told me to call Tod from American Auto Transport Inc.

Lets just say that the car Gina has been driving up until recently is pretty beat up. She can’t drive it anymore because it won’t pass the NY DMV Inspection which is due now.

This is the car; it’s a 1991 Chevy Cavalier.

So I thought that I would try and help Steve out by moving Gina’s car. All I had to do was reverse it 30 feet down the driveway. The last thing Steve said to me before I started the car was “Don’t hit that dumpster!”.

This is the dumpster; it’s about 1.5 cubic yards in capacity and made of solid steel!

Now, I have never driven in the US before and I have never driven an automatic car before; so both of these were very different to me, since we drive on the left in the UK.

I started the car and put it into reverse. Now I am pretty sure I didn’t hit the gas pedal, but then I didn’t hit the brake pedal either! According to Gina and her Mom who were watching, the car shot backwards at 40mph and went straight into the dumpster, knocking it over and pushing it back about 5 feet from its usual spot.

Apart from being knocked over and moved forward, the dumpster didn’t sustain any damage apart from some paint which rubbed off the car. Although Steve had to use a tractor with a snow plough to push it back to its usual spot.

The car however, was damaged. The trunk was dented and the plastic covering the rear lights was smashed up, there was also damage to the bumper.

Apart from a very dented pride, I was fine and Gina was cool about it too, since it is not economical to do any work to the car to get it to pass the inspection.

I think I’d better stick to driving cars with dual controls and manual gearboxes that have the driver’s seat on the right hand side for the time being! But wit that being said, take a look at this extraordinary remote control cars. I already bought one for my son.

Stay well!