Some car incidents are instantly understandable. “Oh, that guy got rear-ended.” “Oof, that lady struck a curb.” Others just make you stop and ponder what curious events led to the bending of fenders, or worse. I’m sure all the people who buzzed by me on I-70 probably wondered how on Earth I got a U-Haul truck stuck in mud on a dry and sunny day with great visibility. Honestly, I used to wonder the same when I passed by similarly stranded cars, and now I know at least one way how it happens.
Today’s COTD involves another automotive mishap of the what the heck? variety, this time at Goodwood, where some of your favorite Autopians were on hand with our SsangYong Rodius. I’m jealous – I’d love to go to the UK, and I actually like the Rodius. Anyway, our team found a Renault Trafic in the dreaded shiny-sidedown position, which is all wrong. Our readers gave the best, worst guesses as to what led to the unfortunate inversion and reactions to it.
Saul Goodman:
Saw the Rodius, fell over in horror and shock, and died.
Andrea Petersen:
Was it within the sightline of the Rodius? Clearly it passed out in horror.
Frank Wrench:
Torch: “There’s a van upside down in the parking lot!”
Uncle Adrian: “The Rodius?”
Torch: “No, a Renault”
Uncle Adrian: “Bummer”
Hugh Crawford:
Hey, it’s hard being a roll model.
Sid Bridge:
Given the ever-increasing costs of work vans, I feel like it’s pretty easy to get upside down in one.
Ricki:
Everyone knows they drive on the opposite side of the car over there.
Sofonda Wagons:
It wants a belly rub and a treat.
TRD amatuer:
It’s an Aussie van. When back home, it’s right side up.
Anoos:
Please welcome our Australian friends to Goodwood.
GENERIC_NAME:
I do hope someone shouted ‘You can’t park there, mate’ as is traditional. Even though I guess in this case you probably could park there, just not in that orientation.
In today’s Morning Dump, Matt wrote about how to navigate the current car market with preparedness and a level head. Spikedlemon offers pretty straightforward advice on selling your car:
The best bet at the moment …
No.
If it works: just keep your car.
There are no Jones’ to keep up with.
Save your money.
Or, hear me out: just never sell your cars! There’s absolutely nothing wrong that can happen then, right? Have a great evening, everyone.
Learning Dutch, I struggle with using the correct verb of position.
There’s no generic “The car is on the grass”, but rather it needs to specify the orientation/position of the object, thus “The car stands on the grass” is typical.
This, however, appears to be a textbook challenge question on which verb to use, but clearly “the car lies on the grass” (de auto ligt op het gras) is the only appropriate answer.
Danish does the same thing, but as an English speaker it seemed familiar. All these Low German languages…
My wife is good friends with a Danish woman who had come to Canada for a while in grad school. We visited them a few years back and had a lovely time. Good food and all. Anyways, I learned that the Danish word for timetable is “fartplan”. I absolutely love that word.
When I turned on cruise control in my rental there, the instrument panel said FARTPILOT and suddenly I was sniggering like a 12-year-old.
Lol.
Orlove’d
The top picture… I’m glad you got it right side up again. And the comments, as usual, are funny.
But I’m still curious how it got the wrong side up.
My brother managed to roll a Ford pickup truck three revolutions and everyone (there were three) survived with nothing more than bruises.
I messaged Richard Porter and asked him if he saw it. Apparently it tried to take a short cut along a steep bank. The traffic jam leaving each day was horrendous so someone was trying to be clever.
Too clever by half.
Sooo – The Trafic came to it’s end trying to beat the traffic?
There’s a certain irony…
Thank you, Adrian.
That must have been a pretty steep bank. I don’t know how high the CG is on one of those, but it doesn’t look particularly top-heavy. It also looks intact enough that someone (probably multiple people given the vehicle) survived and got to do a walk of shame. If there were passengers along for that ride, I imagine someone was saying “I don’t think this is a good idea” or words to that effect.
As this was the press parking, I’m guessing that the combination of motoring journalists plus a hire van, proved unstable.
Lovely collection today! Solid gold