Filed under: Etc., Euro, First Drive
Sat nav leads driver and four rescue vehicles into the mud
England. Jolly Old. Coventry, to be exact. There resides a seriously bored driver going by the handle vennuth. Vennuth willfully ignored the cardinal rule of using nav systems: use your own judgement! It's always amusing when the navigation system gets confused and directs you up your neighbor's driveway when you're really trying to reach the Raccoon Lodge. Most of us would just chuckle at the idea of driving our vehicle up a path marked "Not Suitable For Motor Vehicles" despite the nav system urging us on. Not vennuth.
Vennuth's a member of the gtr.co.uk forum, so we were quite relieved to see it was a Renault van he managed to mire up to its hubs. The funny part comes when his amusing recounting notes how his ex gets more and more "narky," he gets increasingly thirsty, and several successive rescue teams also become stuck. What should have been a simple tug-out turns into a 14-hour ordeal that ends with a lowly tractor succeeding where an ex-military Bedford wrecker failed. In proper fashion, there was a pub at the end of the unfit road, so it ended well.
Thanks for the tip, Leon!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
paul34 5:33PM (9/08/2007)
There's certainly much to be said for simplicity in our increasingly sophisticated world.
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Philip 7:57PM (9/08/2007)
Its like I always say,
Common sense isnt so Common anymore.
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Ramiro BA 8:36PM (9/08/2007)
It's not a Renault! it's a Gaz Maxus...a russian van...
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Barney 8:51PM (9/08/2007)
I wonder if rental car agencies keep a record of idiots, that they won't rent to anymore. All the trouble other people had to go through, because the guy could read but wouldn't heed.
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Guenther 1:04AM (9/09/2007)
I tried to get to a customer site up in rural Quebec (BRP) about 2 years ago using mapquest directions. I was left to re-route myself using the stellar National map when the snowmobile trail I got routed onto crossed a bridge with a 500kg limit (much less than my rental 'Bu)
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FireSermon 3:32AM (9/09/2007)
Ran into almost the exact problem with Google Maps in Quebec when it led me to a dangerous road that was closed for the winter when I was trying to reach Mont. Tremblant. The moral of such stories is to never trust a computer when it suggests a backroads shortcut; they'll send you up a hiking path if it might trim your travel distance by 100 ft.
Daniel McNeill 11:51AM (9/09/2007)
It Isn't exactly a GAZ Maxis, it's an LDV (Leyland DAF Vans), which is British, or was until recently, when GAZ bought them out.
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RicardoHead 12:15PM (9/09/2007)
Didn't that bunghole Clarkson just say that Brits are sooooo civilized that they dont need trucks like we neanderthals in the USA because Brits don't need to venture out in the country?
Eat me ... and this article, Clarkson.
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SuperSkyline89 1:48PM (9/09/2007)
Brits civilized?!?!?! Who the hell is he kidding??? They have such a horrible crime rate that makes Toronto look like a child's playground. Not to mention they're a bunch of drunk fools.
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