Confidence shattered after an accident

So, having acquired my first car since passing my test in 2009, and done the necessary paperwork for it, I decided to take the car out for a spin and brush off the rustiness.

I'd taken it for a test drive so was happy with it, and decided on Sunday night to take it out. Now it was parked right next to my driveway wall and the there were other cars parked so it meant I'd have to engineer my way out by taking it out to the left and reversing to the right, then taking it straight out.

However, it was chucking it down slightly that night, so attempted to do what I described above, I didn't do a left turn strongly and tried taking it too quickly so hit the driver's side door. It's not created a dint but scratched it. Needles to say, it's shattered my confidence. I work on the weekends so am trying to build my inner confidence to take it work. I do feel my general driving is OK but taking abit of time to get comfortable with the clutch which I had problems with when I was learning but overcame as time went on.

I'm going to spend abit mroe time working the bite etc and try and take it out before I go to work aswell but any tips/words of wisdom etc would be appreciated

:smile:

Reply 1

Nuffles

19

Even in a small petrol car you should be able to roll around on the clutch with no throttle. Once you get the hang of that, you can start adding a bit of throttle to help speed things up a little. By a bit, I mean feathering it just to raise the rpms by a couple of hundred. Try going to a big multi-storey car park on a Sunday afternoon when it's quiet and challenging yourself to manoeuvre between increasingly harder spaces. Give it an hour in a car park and you'll be pretty confident. There's nothing to hit and no one to watch and laugh. Once you've nailed the skill you'll have it for life and will be able to pick it up again pretty easily. It's just about learning how to modulate pressure on your feet.

Reply 2

The Wild Youth

13

If you can afford it, quite a few driving schools offer a "confidence booster" in which you drive with the instructor with you for a couple hours and just work your way through everything calmly and slowly. It should help put your mind in the right frame of driving again.

If you can't afford it, go for a drive with a friend who's a confident driver and who has a calm personality. It should settle you right down again! It's like riding a horse, if you fall off, get straight back on or it will develop into a real phobia :smile:

Reply 3

oh_1993

13

I will never drive because it is too hard and stressful. Buses all the way.

Reply 4

snozzle

12

You just have to get driving I am afraid. You could try driving around some quiet suburbs for a bit, that might help.

Reply 5

Né Stig

15

This is pathetic! I'm sorry mate, grow some.

Reply 6

limetang

19

If you're implying that you haven't driven since 2009 I would strongly suggest getting some refresher lessons.

Reply 7

Grimezy

At the end of the day it was a bit stupid to go out for your first time properly at night in the pouring rain. You just need to get over it, I reversed out of my sister's drive once and misjudged it and scraped my door down all of her spikey hedge. Yes it made me feel a bit stupid but at the end of the day if you've only just started driving properly you're not going to be an expert.

When I first read the title of this I expected to read that you'd pulled out of a junction and somebody had rammed into the side of you or something leaving you in a coma and your car in the scrapyard. Not that you'd scratched your car on a wall... We've all done it, learn from it.

Also the bite really shouldn't be an issue. It was a major part of driving in your lessons because you had to put the handbrake on each time, find the bite, release the handbrake, etc. In regular driving you'll find you just whack the clutch down at a junction with your brakes on, then brakes off, clutch up slowly while adding a bit of gas. Yes sometimes you might have to sit on the bite if you're up a hill or something but it's nowhere near as major as what it was during lessons.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 8

Pixiefairy

15

I thought i would never be able to drive, after i passed my test i was terrible my sister actually said, 'i think you need to sit your test again', but i continued driving when it was quiet outside, you need to keep driving, don't let this one incident change that

Reply 9

dora_explorer

1

When I got my first car, it was soon after I passed my test and I drove it appaullingly. Seriously you would have sacked the guy who passed me! But go out on a quiet afternoon, and pootle about. If you stop driving it will make it worse. Most people have a few 'bumps' when they first start driving on there own. Theres the old adage 'you learn to drive a car after you have passed your test'...

Reply 10

LucoTF

2

I put my car in a (shallow) ditch three days after passing. It seriously knocked my confidence but I still had to get home, so I had no choice but to carry on driving. You have to do the same, just keep going and you'll get over it.

Go stand in your local Tesco car park for an hour and watch all the people coming and going. You'll soon realise that plenty of drivers make plenty of mistakes - a lot of them can't even handle a trolley!

Reply 11

PataynaRolaay

10

Relax bro, it was minor. Be more careful though

Reply 12

laura130490

13

I reversed into a parked car when I'd first passed my test, I wasn't paying attention and misjudged how far away I was from it and bumped into it with the corner of my car. It really shattered my confidence as well, but that was three years ago and I haven't had an accident since. I think you just need to get out there and carry on driving, most drivers will have had at least one bump or scrape, especially when they were new to driving, don't be too hard on yourself.

Reply 13

medicine gapper

you can run from it, or, learn from it.

best wishes OP

Reply 14

username129099

15

I don't think its a big deal. Its just part of getting comfortable with a new car. Little things like the clutch, the turning circle, the length and width are all things that you have to get used to an learn. You won't even think about them after a while but until you do, driving can be quite stressful as you have extra things to think about. Just account for that, and take your time doing things, perhaps find bay spaces or quite areas until you get used to the size of the car.

Reply 15

Aky786UK

OP

19

Thanks for all the supportive words people, have to say it did help me re-focus and make me realise it was something, that given time, I could overcome. I took the car to work today, a 20min drive there and back. After I set off, I parked up like you would in a driving lesson just to get comfortable with my clutch etc. Got to work OK and back aswell. I finished at 5 so a tad busier but good experience to build things up. It helps driving on weekend mornings just to ease in.

I think I'm revving the car up abit too much when I'm stopping and leaving a junction etc, think it maybe that I'm putting on gas but not releasing the clutch smoothly enough so it jolts abit, same when it comes to roundabouts although I manage to get up to speed quickly and move on.

It's a 1l petrol Yaris and is it just me or when I was driving at 40, it seemed I was doing 30, when I did the latter, it seemed I was doing 20 so it felt I was going slow whilst I was trying to adhere speed limits. Not sure if that's the case with all 1litre petrol cars.

Reply 16

username492312

Original post by Aky786UK

Thanks for all the supportive words people, have to say it did help me re-focus and make me realise it was something, that given time, I could overcome. I took the car to work today, a 20min drive there and back. After I set off, I parked up like you would in a driving lesson just to get comfortable with my clutch etc. Got to work OK and back aswell. I finished at 5 so a tad busier but good experience to build things up. It helps driving on weekend mornings just to ease in.

I think I'm revving the car up abit too much when I'm stopping and leaving a junction etc, think it maybe that I'm putting on gas but not releasing the clutch smoothly enough so it jolts abit, same when it comes to roundabouts although I manage to get up to speed quickly and move on.

It's a 1l petrol Yaris and is it just me or when I was driving at 40, it seemed I was doing 30, when I did the latter, it seemed I was doing 20 so it felt I was going slow whilst I was trying to adhere speed limits. Not sure if that's the case with all 1litre petrol cars.

A 1lt Car will be slow to accelerate but it won't feel slower than any other car once your up to speed. Your perception of speed will get better once you drive more. It's always odd when you've been on the motorway for a few hours doing 70 and when you come off 30 feels like crawling pace.

As for your confidence just keep on going you'll get better in the end. I rolled my car over after a month of having it. And I got another car a month later and carried on and I'm fine :smile:

Confidence shattered after an accident

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