|
I drove a rental Citroën C3 up a set of stairs. I'd never driven in Italy before, it was pretty shocking to see how narrow their roads are compared to the big luxurious roads we have here in the states. I was at the exit of a parking garage in Milan, with a sharp u-turn onto a one way street. On the inside was a set of stairs. I took the turn a bit too tight, and *CRUNCH*.
There was a restaurant with outdoor seating on the outside of the turn. Everybody stopped talking and looked at me. At this point, I figured I had it a curb. Weighing the options of A) backing up and taking a new angle or B) powering through, my friend thought that I might have punctured a tire. So, fearing the absolute worst and being unsure if the tire really was punctured and how fast it was losing air, I powered through. Dump the clutch, crank the wheel and get out of there. More crunches, super bumpy, but it worked. Once free, I parked on the side of the street and inspected the damage. No punctures, thankfully, but the side skirt was pretty effed up. I walked back to the scene of the accident, since my friend said he saw parts come off. Sure enough, a piece of black plastic was just sitting there. I think it's a jack point cover? Not sure. I just knew the tabs were broken off so it was probably futile to try putting it back on. Thankfully, no punctures. I drove back to the hotel, bought a tube of toothpaste in the lobby, and used that and a bath towel to buff the scratches out of the black plastic side skirt. All the obvious stuff came out. The toothpaste didn't do anything about the deeper scratches, but at least it was the same color as the rest of the side skirt, right? I pulled it back into shape and went to bed.
The next day, I returned the car. The guy from Avis briefly glanced at the exterior of the car, made some sort of note on his paper, and thanked my friend and I. It's been a few days now, surely this car has been rented out again. No damage charge. I'm 99.9% sure I'm in the clear now. He also didn't notice the light damage on the passenger mirror from when I took a turn too wide and whacked into an ancient building. It feels so good to be in the clear for all this, though I am anticipating the bill from the toll fiasco.
|