Remember this extraordinary outburst?
you say you weren’t used to the car?LIAR,LIAR,LIAR… As EVERYBODY knows,in a VW,1st and reverse gear are TOTALLY on the opposite side to each other.
*pauses for dramatic echo effect*
Well, helpful reader @pimrie has helpfully taken a photograph of his VW gear lever, and he’s kindly allowed me to share it with you.
Please excuse the fact that his car could probably do with a bit of a clean. That’s not what this is about.
No, what this is about is the fact that in this particular VW, 1st and reverse gear are… er… not “TOTALLY on the opposite side to each other”.
Maybe there’s more than one sort of VW gearbox. And evidently, internet commenter and legal threat donor Paul Murray was thinking of the other sort of VW gearbox. Which makes it all the more confusing, because when you’re panicking because several tonnes of angry, infected pachyderm is bearing down on you, you might well forget which sort of VW you’re in and, with that vital information, the layout of the gearbox.
Rule one of posting outraged allegations on the internet, Paul: make sure that you’re actually correct in your outraged allegations.
Yeah, the car is dirty, is due for a clean soon. Promise.
The other bit with getting a VW in reverse is that you have to push down and then move to the left and up. I might also struggle to get my own car into gear if faced with a raging bull elephant.
Also, if you look really closely at the reflection in the lever you will notice I am not wearing any clothes…
Just kidding.
Henry Crun > Wildlife ain’t called “wild” for nothing. But this does sound like an unfortunate incident. Please join the Paul Murray suee queue.
The Pete > No, now you see your “down and move to the left” thing is for your VW. You’ve got the model 2 transmission, which was installed in cars from 1999-2008. The model 4 transmisson kit (oddly, there was no model 3, due to 3 being an unlucky number in Germany (why do you think they stopped at 2 World Wars?)), anyway, the model 4 transmission kit requires you to move the lever upwards and slightly forward. Bit of a design flaw, as it’s pretty much what you have to do to find 5th as well.