Word Order and Meaning

[niwre123]

I am at loss to understand the meaning of the following sentences that I have come across recently:

"On 20th July I rented a Vauxhall at Gatwick Airport. As the clutch stopped working and started to smoke and smell I had to park the car in Brighton one hour later."

Does the writer want to express that he/she noticed the damage after driving for one hour and then stopped the car? Or did he/she say that he continued driving the car for one hour after he had found out about the damage? The latter would have been quite an uncomfortable experience.
I would be glad to read about your opinion.

[5jj]

I think it is reasonable to assume that the writer parked the car very soon afer the clutch stopped working, and the smoke and smell started.

[nouamaneer]

I am at loss to understand the meaning of the following sentences that I have come across recently:

"On 20th July I rented a Vauxhall at Gatwick Airport. As the clutch stopped working and started to smoke and smell I had to park the car in Brighton one hour later."

Does the writer want to express that he/she noticed the damage after driving for one hour and then stopped the car? Or did he/she say that he continued driving the car for one hour after he had found out about the damage? The latter would have been quite an uncomfortable experience.
I would be glad to read about your opinion.

I can understand your loss. I think the time expression,"one hour later" is misplaced, and thus making the sentence ambiguous. Yet, I would assume that the driving took an hour and when the clutch stopped, he parked the car. That means all the actions in the sentence happened successively after an hour's driving.

I hope this helps,