Is there likely to be gearbox damage?

Most unlikely.

Rob Graham

a gearbox fault as a result would be VERY unlikely . There is the slimmest chance on some engines that turning the engine backwards can jump the cam belt, but again that is so unlikely I wouldn't worry about it. In all probability the wheels just skidded along rather than turn anything.

you can sometimes get the insurers to individually appraise the viability of repair on an older car. my neighbours old toyota is being repaired at the moment, initially they just said it was scrap without even looking, purely due to its age, he refused to let them take it and got an assessor round, the condition and mileage were so good that the insurers agreed to fix it.

Mrcheerful

I don't think the wheels locked as I didn't see any skid marks and when we eventually managed to crow bar the bonnet open I noticed one of the fins of the radiator fan was touching the alternator belt which had a score mark along the belt.

The insurers initially arranged to have the car towed away but I said to my dad that once the car is moved I doubt very much you will ever see it again. We then got back in touch with insurers and they said we can get the RAC to bring it back home and the assessor will come to look Friday. The car's been in the family for 13 years with full service and never wanted for anything so it would be very sad to see it go. It's been in various other no fault accidents but always came out unscathed. I'm quite surprised that the Ford Focus who caused so much damage to several cars appeared to suffer the least damage. Incidentally, the automatic Focus was a mobility car that the driver recently had adapted with the throttle pedal placed on the left hand side of the brake pedal - go figure?

"Redwood" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Is that legal?

Tunku (Tunku ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Why wouldn't it be?

The order of pedals hasn't always been standardised.

It actually had 2 throttle pedals. One flips up out of the way as the other side drops down. Here's a pic

As others have said, probably not.

On another note... WTF thumping the brake pedal down anyway? Don't people progressively roll on and off their pedals any more? If people can't do this, don't they have their licence removed?

Can't and don't do this being two different things!

DervMan ("DervMan" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Agreed.

Serious Words Will Be Had, hopefully, by plod with this driver who will then voluntarily chose to give up driving. In practice, the only way the licence can be actually removed other than on specific medical grounds is (IIRC) to ban 'em and require 'em to re-take their test.

Adrian (Adrian ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Meant to say that it sounds rather as if the car is toast. If the rad has physically been moved that far, then there's obviously damage to the bonnet slam and the rest of the front end panelwork. Add that in to an Audi of this era having ProCon-Ten, with a cable round the block, designed to pulls pretensioners etc on in a front-end impact, and there may well be other damage.

Tesco rang plod (3 of the cars were actually Tesco staff) but, you guessed it, plod didn't even want to know unless there had been injury. The area was carnage. Bloody lucky nobody was walking past at the time. Had it been

5 mins later my parents would have been loading shopping at the rear of the Audi!!!

Here's a pic of the front of our car shunted out of its bay into the rear of the Peugeot on the opposite side. The Focus then shot right and ploughed head on into the Fiesta pushing that out of its bay into cars parked behind. I've heard of car parking dints but this is taking the piss a bit too far!!! It was like an RAC convention!

LOL!

Most of that will polish out though... :)

Wow! I'd like some of the polish you use then!

Chris