Had the morning from hell today, Set off at 4:30 am to meet up with a couple of friend's to share transport to spend a day watching the Malcolm Wilson Rally in the Lake District. Set Amundsen sat nav to the meeting point as never driven their before. All going fine until it told me to turn off main road earlier than I would have otherwise done . Ok, maybe there is a faster or shorter route so went with sat nav guidance.

All went well for a few miles and sent me down some great fun driving back roads but then it all went pearshaped very quickly.

It directed me to take a left hand turn onto an un tarmaced road which did have a road name that came up on the nav screen. Not knowing the area and any other roads I had no knowledge to overide what the nav was telling me so I went with it and quite often go off pistr on forest tracks etc whilst watching rallying.

Anyway, road was drivable at a slow speed of about 5 mph and I was only about 1 mile from my destination so thought ok, and carried on. Then after 1/4 mile, it got very nartow with rocks on edges and I was concerned about trying to reverse out in the dark without damaging the Neptunes on the rocks at the edges. The track was now too narrow to turn around on and reversing out in the dark was not a viable option either. Turns out it was a byway open to all traffic and not an actual road and would be ok on a horse or quad but not in a 62 plate Octavia VRS.

Now I have real problems. The track narrowed and there is a big rock on left of the track. Only way around it is to get as far left as I can but there are tree branches that are going to brush against the car. But not much other way out at this point. Had to go for it. Wish I hadn't though. Get past the rock and around the next corner the track narrowed even more and more branches against each dide of the car now. Gutted.

Arrived at destination now late and my friends have set off without me as they couldn't get in touch as no phone signal where I was stuck. So got out and looked at the car under torch light and its a real mess. Scuffs along every panel on drivers side, bonnet, front and rear bumper, even light ones on the roof. Goes tound the otherside and a chip on my previously perfect black alloy. And a cut on sidewall of the tyre.

Game over and gave up on going to the rally and turned round and took it round to a body repair centre that a friend works at to get it assessed.

It's bad and after washing it off we also find scuffs on passenger side too, and both drivers side alloys light scuffs to the black paint from the tree branches.

Estimate to put the car and alloys right again is somewhere in the region of £2000 so is going to have to be done on my insurance.

I have only had the car two months having paid £13645 for it, so I am totally gutted at the moment.

Lession for today, DO NOT TRUST THE SAT NAV !

Sorry to hear

Yes

Take everything including satnav with pinch of salt.

Is there an option on satnav to not go on certain types of roads?

Yes, think I need yo look at the Sat Nav settings.

Don't know what I am madest about, the Nav taking me down that road ( which in my opinion shouldn't have even shown up on sat nav) when it turns out the road it turned me off would have got me there in theoretically about 30 seconds later.

Or the fact that I chose to follow its guidance. Either way I am madder than a wasp now.

We've all done it!

My sat nav took me down a french motorway that was still being constructed.

 

Hope you get your car sorted

I think I would have cut my losses and stopped a lot earlier.........but it's easy to say that in hindsight :(

This is exactly why when I'm going somewhere unknown, I research the journey before hand and have a look at actual maps before setting the sat nav. No offence but at the point where "It directed me to take a left hand turn onto an un tarmaced road" would have been the point where common sense would have kicked in.

Blame the sat nav haha rule 1 if it doesn't look like it will fit it won't!

I'm a artic driver and this can happen a lot. Common sense needed.

Yes but I am used to regularly driving on forest type roads which never showed up on my Audi sat nav but were perfectly drivable.

This road not only was on the sat nav, it had a road name displayed for it so had no reason to think it wasn't going to be passable half way along the road.

Lured in by it having a proper road designation and my past off piste driving history watching rallies.

wait till daylight and reverse out - or was that nasty sat nav making you do it!

Did the same today but ended up in a cul-de-sac. Not quite the same but the principle's there....

Don't know what I am madest about, the Nav taking me down that road ( which in my opinion shouldn't have even shown up on sat nav) when it turns out the road it turned me off would have got me there in theoretically about 30 seconds later.

Or the fact that I chose to follow its guidance. Either way I am madder than a wasp now.

So what u going to do ref damage?

Claim insurance?

Sorry to hear this, and I know Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I liked to see a map, get the basics, then use sat nav as an aid.

I often street view too when closer, to note landmarks (pubs,road layouts etc) that will help.

Cornwall is bad for "narrow roads" making sense to sat Nav but not Me..

I think everyone who's used satnav has had one of these moments - yours just turned out worse than most. I remember one taking me off the M60 and down some back roads of Manchester for half a mile (then back onto the motorway) because it figured the trip would be slightly shorter than just staying on the M60 

 

Now I check the map first and use it as a bit more of a guide...

On a recent road trip through France and Spain, my satnav decided to take me off the main motorway that runs through Madrid. For approx 45 mins I was driving through some dodgy run down estates and industrial areas, only for it to bring me back onto the motorway at the junction I came off.

Fin

I was returning from a show in LA , following the Sat-Nav to the hotel , stopped at some lights , glanced up at the sign to see "Crenshaw Boulevard" - South Central !!

I was returning from a show in LA , following the Sat-Nav to the hotel , stopped at some lights , glanced up at the sign to see "Crenshaw Boulevard" - South Central !!

 

Nice!

 

Pulled quite a few people out of fords and other water features when they've blindly followed sat navs. Would never trust one completely otherwise this sort of stuff is the potential. Other downside to people I see following them is that they don't notice things on and around the road so the reverse journey or returning to the same place is like they've never been there before as they don't recognise things they would have seen if they'd been looking around instead of staring at the screen. I even see myself doing it the few times I've needed satnav to find somewhere.

 

Love a good, old fashioned map.

Google streetview is great for assessing route and is often the route the sat nav will take by default.  I always do this going anywhere new.  Just in case.

I was at Wyangala Dam wanting to get back to Orange but using a slightly different route than how we got there.  It should be a 2hr /120km trip.  Stupidly, I didn't have a paper map with me.  Smart phone was useless as there was no reception.

 

First of all the GPS took me on a loop road that was 5km long.  I ended up 1km from where I started.

 

Then it took me along a road about 50km long (can't remember the name) that finished at a locked gate.  The rest of the road started 50m away on the other side of the locked gate. 

 

So I retraced my route and took a guess / asked a few farmers / road workers that were on the road.

 

Then we did another 200+km BUT IT TOOK 6 HOURS!!!

 

https://goo.gl/maps/n77nm

 

Lesson learnt from that little experience - paper maps & plan your route.

 

 

 

Theres a reason satnavs have female voices. It's to remind you not to trust them to be able to read a map.

Going to have to be done on the insurance as no other option at the cost being estimated. Lucky that no dented panels, only paint.

In hindsight I should have abandoned the car and come back later in the afternoon in the daylight and reversed it out with my friends help rather than try to continue out the other end. But my brain doesn't exactly function all that well well at 5 am and usually wakes up around 9 am on a normal day.

Lesson learned but in a very expensive way.

ouch .. could have been worse I guess.

 

could you have called your mates to ask where the heck you were and whether you were going the right way i guess .. but at 4:30 am who is going to pick up ? ... 

I tried but had no signal where I was. Estimate has come back this morning at £3564 which is definitely out of my league so will have to go through the insurance.

I see the OP had his "common sense" and ears switched to off. See a hazard or what appeared to be dangerous obstacles or conditions, and just "go for it?"

Good luck with the insurance but I'm inclined to think they'll throw the claim out due to negligence and/or driving "off road"

This could be a very expensive lesson as next few years insurance cover could rocket in price, in addition to no payout.

Feel for the OP though as we've all had those "why on earth did I do that?" moments.

Edited 9 March, 201511 yr by xman

Good luck with the insurance but I'm inclined to think they'll throw the claim out due to negligence and/or driving "off road"

 

A BOAT (byway open to all traffic) is a road, same as the M1, its just one that is not tarmacked  or maintained the same.