No it was a van not a vectra.


Taxi!

you clearly wish you never had kids!

You could at least have mentioned the american supercars by the same name ;)

Don't mean to sound like I'm coming to his defence here but...

What van was it!?

I had a company Vauxhall Combo (new shape, 52 reg) with the last company I worked for (about 2 years ago). I had a accident where I'd reached a roundabout on a 40mph, single lane carriageway... I'd almost come to a complete stop, saw that my exit (exit 1, at 45 degrees from my direction of travel) was clear and proceeded to enter the roundabout.
As I did so, some cretinois local oik (was in a local rough area!) decided to ride his pushbike from the pavement, straight across the road in front of me without so much as a cursory glance! (I know this for certain as he was wearing a hoodie with the hood up!)

I had 3 choices as I saw it at the time:

1 - Hit said oik!
2 - Hit pedestrian haven kerbstone in middle of road
3 - Move into other lane and tae my chances... With a long wheelbase Transit! :shock:

Obviously, I took option 2 and with the fact that I was doing no more than 15-20mph at best, I assumed that there wouldn't be too much damage!
Oik fell off his bike any way & got straight up and came to block my door so I couldn't get out, before hurling a torrent of abuse at me! The van driver on the other side of the road had a go at him as he saw the whole thing and was willing to be a witness if necessary...
As he was a cyclist, he had no insurance and his parnts probably had no house insurace - even if they did, they'd probably beat the hell outta me before claining on it for something their charming little turd of a child has done!

Any way - it didn't look too bad - there was NO visible damage to the van at all...

HOWEVER - it wouldn't drive!
It had to be collected on a flat bed truck and it turns out that it needed:

New O/S suspension wishbone
New O/S suspension strut
New O/S suspension linkages & bushes
New O/S front wheel & tyre
New O/S driveshaft
New steering rack
New power steering linkages

Total cost of just over £1700 worth of repair - to a 2 year old van worth about £4000! :shock:

Luckily for me, one of my bosses was following me in his car and saw the whole thing! If it wasn't for that, he would never have believed that it had happened so slowly - the other boss never really did! :evil:


Just worth bearing in mind that id really doesn't take that much to do a whole heap of damage to a vehicle. (This is also highlighted when marshalling! Some of the most stupid, little crashes result in rather full skips and empty wallets!!)

Next time, choose option 1 :twisted:

Tim me old mucker,that is the joys of fatherhood

As a foot note when that passes its then" Grandad can you fix this and don't tell dad ". Fortunately its only pushbikes and prams at the moment


Be honest to yourself,would you change it?

Fortunately my granddaughter has just made sitting up, not yet into talking/walking. however, I have already had to build the rocker, come pushalong quadbike. which required a hammer, and screwdriver, so definately beyond the skill set of her father, AKA David, my useless son. In saying that. he has only ever succeeded in one thing in his damm life and that was producing the most delightful little girl you could ever hope to meet.

This actually makes me a bit angry …

You are clearly a loving farther, and it is not my place to say what you should or shouldn’t do …

But what makes me a bit angry is this … you are actually not doing him any favours by bailing him out all the time!!! Let the boy pay for his own mistakes … I mean **** he is a farther now for goodness sake!! ... if it cost him £325 out of his own pocket he might think twice about driving like that in future?!?!

As for his accident, we all did/do it when young and stupid including me :oops: :lol: … but I fixed my own car (physically and financially) … having just set myself back £many and put many hours work into fixing my car, I didn’t really do the same sort of p1ssing about for quite a while …

Had daddy waved a magic wand then I wouldn’t have learnt my lesson so well …

Like I said, it is not my place to tell you what to do, and I can see you are a caring farther, I am just explaining what it was like for me and how it ‘worked’ much better than a stiff talking at would have ever done …

Soulkiss mate, Reason 4 is actually Reason 1 and when she changes her mind you'll find the others evaporate.

But hey, you'll love it :D