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I have just seen the most horrific thing in Marks and Spencers! I live in Berkshire and was just at 'The Meadows' shopping centre doing a spot of food shopping. Me and my boyfriend were walking into the entrance of Marks and watching a red tin top Mini reversing out of it's space and we did are usual 'awww' it's a Mini thing.
An hour and a half later we came out and to our horror, we saw this same mini, several feet from where it was when we saw it reversiing, but it hadn't been reversing, it had been rolling without a driver, and hit another car in a car parking bay!!!! (About 5 spaces away from my baby Norbert).
A security man was wondering around the cars and we went to talk to him. He told us that he had found the owner of the car which had been hit, but not the Mini owner as yet.
It didnt even occur to me that the Minis reverse lights weren't on as we were walking towards it, I was just so occupied with how cute it was and getting in the shop to do some shopping. Just keep thinking if I had noticed I could have stopped the whole thing from happening!!!!!!!!
Oh that's terrible The same thing happened to my car - but by shear luck there were no other cars behind mine and when I got back, I found it resting against the kerb in the next parking bay
It happened to a Peugeot 206cc which I last owned. It rolled down a hill and hit my boyfriends dads police car before then continuing down the hill and hitting a lamp post. The headbreak was on yet it hadn't worked. Peugeot said it was just general wear and tear on the car and wouldn't help me pay for any of the damage, even though the car was a month old!
Apparently there is something technical which sometimes happens when you drive a long distance, some lead or another warms up and then when you stop the car is cools down and gets loose and then makes the handbreak not work so well - I'm afraid that's a bit of a girlie thing to say but I don't understand these things.
Hey..... we finally found an advantage to the MCS Auto !
Seriously, this is a horrible feeling to have when you are the owner of the car and come back to find it like that. I had a similar thing happen to me with my current car (71 Beetle).
Left for the evening, and grabbed something out of my beetle on the way out the door. Drove off and hit the "close" button on our garage door opener on the way down the drive. Came back that evening and found the garage door open, my car half in the street, half in my neighbor's yard. It had hit a huge brick mailbox on the way into her yard and totally demolished several things in the rear of the car (remember, rear engine here).
Best we can guess is that I had not put the e-brake on, had hit the shifter to neutral when I got the bag out of the car, and it had started to roll out of the garage as we drove off. Must have tripped the electronic eye that the garage door opener has to protect small children, thus sending the garage door back up, letting my car keep rolling out of the garage. A weird serious of events that left a hole in my pocketbook (and a mailbox in the front of my neighbors yard).
happened in the work car park. thank god it wasnt my MINI but someone elses! i didnt find this out until i was asked to go and see if it was mine that had rolled into the side of another car.
Ever since owning a series of four Citroen XM's (what is it with french handbrakes?) I've learnt to leave my car in gear when it's parked.
The XM's used to have a cable operated handbrake working on the FRONT discs. The front discs would be nice and hot when I parked; however, as they then cooled down they would contract and release all the pressure that the brake pads were under. Combine this feature with a drive with a good slope on it and I found my car parked completely blocking the road one morning (fortunately, the road is only shared with 3 other houses).
It is a bit rough on you that Peugeot don't expect the handbrake to work after only one month. Perhaps Peugeot ought to fit some sort of warning sticker when the car is new:
"Beware, do not use this brake to hold the car is position when unattended."
& the reason it happens to minis is that they have disc brakes front & rear, so even when the handbrake is operating on the rear discs the same happens
Indeed - it's all to do with cooling and contraction. Disc brakes shrink away from the shoes whereas drum brakes shrink onto the shoes. I now always leave the car in gear when parked up.
Karly - I know it's awful but would think twice about trying to stop something already rolling if it's going at speed. I tried to stop a shopping trolley rolling down a hill onto a busy dual carriage way and ended up going over the top of it! It didn't seem to be going that fast but I guess I misjudged.
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The same thing happened to my car - but by shear luck there were no other cars behind mine and when I got back, I found it resting against the kerb in the next parking bay 
- obviously never specced the handbrake when ordered!!! 
