I went away for a couple of days with the dog and caravan. Coming home, I met a pheasant who had a death wish. I managed to slow down slightly, but he did an acrobatic jump onto my bonnet, as is testified by the wing marks, then , I presume, slid over the roof of the car and caravan. No apparent damage.
I arrived home and pulled into the drive. After rearranging my daughters car to get the caravan in it’s place, I got into the Fiat to reverse into my parking position. I put it into reverse gently let the clutch off, I was very close to next doors wall. Imagine my surprise when the car moved forwards ?. I checked and tried again...same result. What passed through my mind was the Star Trek song....Always going forward never in reverse !
So, with the help of another FF member, we diagnosed that the cable had broken / Unclipped . I was followed by him to the garage, me feathering the clutch because I couldn’t work out which gear I was in. 3rd I think ? Parked up at the garage with a controlled roll back down to a suitable parking space.
The garage man confirmed our diagnosis and rang me back later to say that he had ordered the cable. Now I wait for the work to be done, possibly up to 2 weeks as they are a good garage and always busy.
I have borrowed my daughters Vauxhall, it’s not the same ?

werdna said:

What passed through my mind was the Star Trek song....Always going forward never in reverse !

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I actually hummed that this morning because William Shatner went into space.

"We come in peace. Shoot to kill, shoot to kill"

gr J

I had a pheasant do that to a Renault Extra years ago, only because there was a step up to the boxy rear roof rather than a nice slope, the pheasant got that far, but got no further...

Pheasant soup all over the roof :yuck:

I had one go under the car, there was one standing on the white line on a back road, and I was thinking that such a stupid place to stand with cars going by. Then another came out and stood right in the middle of my lane as I got to it. It left a large cloud of feathers behind me.

Anyway, more likely to be the gear linkages or cables needing reset rather than anything pheasant related.

werdna said:

What passed through my mind was the Star Trek song....Always going forward never in reverse !

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Now I can't get the birdie song out of my head.

Sorry to hear you've had an unpheasant experience. At least you were able to wing it to a garage by feathering the clutch.

Glad you're OK; cars can be repaired.

But I'm struggling to understand how this could have taken out the gear linkage cable.

jrkitching said:

Now I can't get the birdie song out of my head.

Sorry to hear you've had an unpheasant experience. At least you were able to wing it to a garage by feathering the clutch.

Glad you're OK; cars can be repaired.

But I'm struggling to understand how this could have taken out the gear linkage cable.

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It's plucking hard trying to fit that many pheasant related puns into one paragraph

I was wondering the same, maybe it was a ninja pheasant which jumped over the top, ran underneath and disconnected it? Otherwise maybe it's just wear and tear and an unfortunate coincidence.

Thanks a lot - now you've got me about to go to bed with the pheasant plucking song running through my skull!

No pheasants out here but I have hit a wombat - fortunately not in the FIAT.

I think as mj2k says it was just a coincidence. I just felt angry with the pheasant for jumping on my bonnet. 50 miles towing the caravan and then this happened The garage called back to confirm Charlies, varescrazy, diagnosis that it was the cable and that a new one had been ordered at the cost of £220 !!!!! I still have to have the cost of the labour added to the bill, when I get the car back.

werdna said:

I think as mj2k says it was just a coincidence.

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Thanks for coming back with the update

werdna said:

a new one had been ordered at the cost of £220

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!!

Phew, that's a fair old cost for a cable

Still, at least the thread's provided some entertainment value and if you got the royalties for the songs people now have stuck in their heads it'd soon pay for itself

"I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son..."

That’s my exercise for today. The garage rang to say the car was ready, none of my near neighbours were in, so I thought I would cycle. Damn, tyres need pumping, the inflator was in the boot of the car ! So, as it was a nice day, I walked. It was a pleasant day, after all.
Got to the garage, paid lots and lots of money, it was the best part of £450 !
They had to dismantle the dashboard to get the double cable through.
The downside is that the stop/start has been reset.
It took me 4 years to stop it working ... !
But at the end of the day I am happy to have my car back.

werdna said:

They had to dismantle the dashboard to get the double cable through.

But at the end of the day I am happy to have my car back.

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Lucky your car only has 2 cylinders.. so a bit of space..

If it was a diesel they would need to remove the back window for their elbows

Glad its back for you..

My Grande is enough 'Vauxhall' for me

Update ! The Government saw fit to send me a Winter Warmth payment which almost matches the labour charge, so I feel much better now.

You'll have to burn some pheasants on the fire instead to make up for the winter warmth payment