I have a 2016 Mazda6 with the 6 speed manual. It has about 30K miles. I parked it in the driveway (which has a slight incline) this afternoon. I went outside a few hours later to discover it had rolled down the driveway and the trailer hitch of my truck was now jammed through the front piece where the factory fog light would be located. The big front cowl is now cracked and the insert that fills the fog light hole is just dangling inside. I assume the wire holding it in is for the fog light, not some kind of important sensor...or rather I hope.

Now here’s the thing: the transmission was in gear, but it was in second. Obviously the parking brake was not engaged. Stupid me tries not to use the electronic parking break for fear of wearing it out. I miss the manual one in every other car I have ever owned.

We’ve lived here for a long time and there have been a lot of manual transmission cars parked in this driveway without ever rolling downhill. If the truck hadn’t been parked there it would have rollled into the front of the house. Is it possible the clutch is already bad to allow it to slip, or could it have “chugged” downhill in second gear turning the engine along the way? I’m mad as h*** that my nice car now has a big gaping hole in the front, but it would be even worse if this is a symptom of a bigger mechanical problem. The clutch has been feeling a little “grabby” in first lately, but I kinda thought that was just me. I still have the warranty, but I don’t know how receptive the dealer would be to a claim when the clutch still seems to work.

One bright spot: the trailer ball stopped a couple of mm shy of jamming through the washer fluid reservoir.