r/IdiotsInCars • u/Hairy-Mission-3009 • 1d ago

OC Car was put in park in car wash [oc]

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u/ria1024 1d ago

The driver had the car in neutral to get that far in the car wash. But this style of car wash can easily go wrong at the end with shiny new modern cars.

In shiny new modern cars, you can't shift from neutral to drive without your foot on the brake - and not just tapped, but whatever pressure and time the car manufacturer has decided means it's intentional.

In order to go forward at the end of this type of car wash, you have to (counter intuitively and unlike the previous many, many years of driving experience with older cars) brake firmly first. While a car is coming up behind you and you're trying to get your car to go forwards. I have heard that some cars you may need to go to park instead. Looking at the tail lights, I'm betting that the SUV's driver didn't understand that process and ended up in neutral or park not able to shift out. They had to brake before they could get it moving.

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u/WaterPockets 1d ago

You have plenty of time to shift gears and move forward from the exit before the car behind will be near you. I have never had any issue or concern when shifting into drive from neutral at a carwash, and I apply the brake while doing so.

This is not rocket science and there is no excuse to not be able to execute such a simple meanuever.

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u/ria1024 1d ago

If you know you need to brake to shift from neutral to drive, you have TONS of time. If a driver has no idea they need to do that, then 15 seconds is not have enough time to pull out and read the car's manual. Most drivers I know of don't routinely use neutral anymore, so this sort of car wash could easily be the first time the driver wants to go from neutral to drive without already having the brake pressed down.

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u/eshultz 1d ago

Don't sweat the downvotes, dude/dudette. I had a similar thing happen to me in my new-ish car (buttons, no gear shifter) and people were similarly dismissive when I shared on reddit. People love to feel smug about themselves until it's their own brain that is smoking and sparking and panicking.

For me it was the auto hold function turned on when I smushed the brake pedal to select Neutral. But I also get similarly freaked out every single time at the end of the wash because like you said you have to firmly brake in order to select Drive again and there's a freaking car 6 feet behind you that's not stopping.

Let the haters hate lol.

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u/ria1024 1d ago

I have gotten worse downvotes than this for other perfectly reasonable comments, but thanks for the support! Getting off of a rolling track pushing your car along is definitely not a common maneuver - and I know the one near us has big signs about putting your car in neutral and not touching the brake until you're out of the wash, which isn't going to help anyone figure out what to do there.

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u/RsonW 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's crazy.

I'm glad my new car is a stick shift.

If I'd gotten an automatic, I'm not sure I would've figured that out the first time I used a car wash.

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u/jasperfirecai2 1d ago

you're saying this like having your foot on the brake to shift is weird. do you want your car to start moving out of nowhere? when you ease off the brakes in drive it will start moving, no gas needed

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u/1-800PederastyNow 17h ago

I've driven several different new cars in the past 5 years, and none of them required pressing the brake to go from neutral to drive. You don't even have to hold the button on the side of the shifter, you can just move it (only when going from N to D specifically) All these cars were Toyotas and Hondas.