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Small Cars = Bad Drivers

2K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  Tony Rome 
#1 ·
Anyone else noticed a correlation between small cars and bad driving? It seems that the smaller they are, the worse they are driven. Case in point, drivers of Smart cars. Every time you see them, they are parking: on the pavement/corner of a street/after the last legally parked car, always apparently with the attitude that "it's only small, so it won't cause any inconvenience".

Likewise, in traffic, they drive illegally between lanes and along hard shoulders, with the same care-free attitude. Speed restrictions don't seem to apply to them either (in towns, anyway ;)).

I also question the green credentials of something which carries a maximum of 2 people or 1 with a small amount of luggage! Time for a special new government tax, I think :lol:
 
#3 ·
I think my local constabulary may agree with that. IJust got pulled an hour ago for pulling off to quickly from the lights!!!!! Let me off though, may be because he was on his own:)
 
#4 · (Edited)
I am not sure I agree. It doesn't seem to matter around here. Bad drivers drive all sorts of cars, from Nissan Micra's to BMW's.

Then there are the chavs that thrash around in their Corsa's and paxos.
 
#6 ·
Yup, the older drivers dawdle and drive slow. The women drivers weave around and are constantly playing with their hair, and the male drivers sit on your bumper trying to push you along when you are already doing the speed limit.

There is also a trend around here for people to stop in dangerous positions to talk on the phone. Like on blind bends, and on the zigzag parts of pedestrian crossings. :tut:
 
#7 ·
To be honest the thing I've noticed recently is people in large 4x4's, or those cabbed pick-up things that people seem to but as a fashion statement, pulling out of side roads without stopping :mad: :mad: :mad:

The reason you might see bad driving in small cars is because that's all the 1st time drivers can afford - and they're not as good as they think they are
 
#8 ·
I noticed this many years ago Tony...A big ariculated lorry can get through a gap with no problems but clowns in their wee punto sized cars have difficluty and blast their horns..............I put it down to the small car driver's inadequacy and that is why they drive wee cars.....An indication to us all to avoid them and leave then loads of room.

Pomeo
 
#9 ·
Hmmm... I know I like scooting around in a small car and it seems to be more fun than in a bigger car. The badly driven small cars that I notice tend to have a dustbin for an exhaust pipe and lairy aftermarket wheels. Then there is the 4X4, BMW and volvo brigade who seem to drive as if they are indestructable. I used to be lucky enugh to be able to pick my son up from school on a friday and it was these three types of vehicles that were parked on the zig zags, double parked and sometimes in the gardens of nearby houses. It was really disgraceful. Then you start looking around on the round....and guess what! its those same types again. Send them to Room 101!
 
#11 ·
Small cars can't get through big gaps that big cars can get through, there must be a branch of physics at work that we are unaware of.
Following a fat Merc the other day with a HUGE Corsa in front the Corsa had to stop and crawl through every gap that the Merc and I could drive through easily.

Smart cars are driven by dumb hippies, was overtaking last weekend had my gap to fit back into which was in front of a Smart car the driver of which thought it would be smart to close up the gap trying to leave me to play with a car coming the other way, didn't work though made sure I fitted in there anyway.

Then 2 days ago boy racer in a Corsa decided that because I was doing 30 in a 30 speed limit he should overtake me on double white lines, he looked very silly on the wrong side of the road trying to overtake a car that was pulling away from him.

I must agree small car drivers are some of the worst.
 
#12 ·
I generally find small car drivers to be worse - as a very general rule - than others. I think there are three reasons:

- Old dearies driving to the shops. Slow reactions, poor vision. That's OK, good on them for still driving. Curb your impatience, give them plenty of room and imagine what it must be like to lose that last bit of independence. And when they started driving everyone was in Morris Oxfords and the like which only went at 30 mph anyway.

-Young ladies who are more interested in talking on mobiles or looking at themselves in the mirror than watching where they are going. Don't know if this is the case in the UK but hereabouts many of them seem to have stickers on the rear window that include the word "b*tch". However none also feature the words "silly little" which is what I usually think.

- Young blokes with too much testosterone but not enough money to buy the car that is on the poster on their bedroom wall, or enough experience to drive anything properly. Often wearing baseball caps. For some reason an Alfa in the rear view mirror seems to make them think they are in a Lamborghini.

Actually, now I come to think about it there may be a fourth category. I had to go interstate last week and because I was paying I hired the cheapest car I could get. It was a little tin box called a Hyundai Krapz (or something). A horrible little car that I would not dream of owning, ever. But if you make sure you buy the insurance excess reduction option, and if you never let the revs get below about 4000, you can have quite a bit of fun. If anyone from Budget Car Rentals is reading this, it wasn't me, it was my evil twin.
 
G
#14 ·
The worst drivers on the road IMO are reps, typically in medium/large saloons.

Sandwich in one hand, phone/blackberry in the other, steering with knees at 100mph whilst glued to the bumper of the car on front. Flashing headlights while they hold the sandwich in their mouth, seemingly unaware that the car in front can't actually get out of the way because of the artic in the inside lane.
 
#20 ·
Both hands occupied and using knees to steer. What do they use to flash the lights??!!:eek: :lol:

Hateful drivers of the week for me are in Audis.
 
#15 ·
Sandwich in one hand, phone/blackberry in the other, steering with knees at 100mph whilst glued to the bumper of the car on front. Flashing headlights while they hold the sandwich in their mouth, seemingly unaware that the car in front can't actually get out of the way because of the artic in the inside lane.
Agreed - and applies equally to WVM (White Van Moron.)
 
#17 ·
Interesting that we seem to have concluded the worst drivers are those driving small cars, medium cars, executive cars & 4x4s :lol:. Oh, and where I used to live, the tractor drivers were pretty bad, too ;).

Re my original point and the Smart cars, though, there was a perfect example of what I was talking about yesterday. They are sometimes parked 'nose-in' to the kerb, right? That's fine, if the road is big enough. But some d*ck had done it on a tiny road and therefore decided it was better to park it half on the kerb and half on the road. So, despite owning a tiny car, he/she still managed to obstruct part of the pavement :rolleyes:.

It's definitely more common with the small cars and I'm sure it's because the owners think they're too small to cause a problem...whatever they do!
 
#18 ·
When I'm in the GT, every time I see one of those little smart coupe things they always come up my arse and think they stand a chance. Annoying really.
 
#22 ·
Bad drivers aren't usually restricted to one type of car.

HOWEVER, commercial van drivers come out consistently worst in my experience. I've been astonished at the aggressive, inconsiderate nature of their driving. The attitude seems to be one of pure contempt for fellow road users...they spend all day driving and that somehow puts them in an elite...we non-van drivers are just a collossal pain in the arse preventing them from doing A to B in the shortest possible time. So we get treated accordingly. And what's with the standard EN-GER-LAND flag stuck to them? Shaven headed ******s.


I nearly had a head-on with a van driver one day. He was in my lane going around some cars, bombing along at I'd estimate somewhere around 50 in a 30 zone. All he had to do was wait till I got thru, but NOOOO....got to barge through because his journey time is automatically more important than mine. He was on the phone while he did it. My temper got the better of me and I called him a f&*khead out the window as he went by in my strongest Aussie accent. Then looking in the mirror I see him stopped and gesticulating angrily out of his window (with phone still in his hand!)

When I came to the UK, I was indoctrinated with all the local stereotypes, and of them all the most accurate has been the "White Van Man". I've got a better name for them. :p
 
#23 ·
Then looking in the mirror I see him stopped and gesticulating angrily out of his window (with phone still in his hand!)
As though he's Mr. Innocent and can't understand why you were angry, eh? T*sser. Over here, you can be booked purely for such a gesture, let alone abusive language, believe it or not :rolleyes:
 
#25 ·
Exactly...that really completes the profile doesn't it? I've seen it too many times, not just with White Van Arseholes (WVAs).

The seemingly authentic righteous indignation routine. I think they have such little sense of their own anti-social behaviour they think they are the ones being hard-done-by.

I think the ingredients are: lack of empathy and common decency + thick as sh*t + commercial van = WVA
 
#27 ·
That's only 'cause the police haven't caught you yet :p :lol:

Just to turn this on it's head slightly. Whenever I drove the wife's Punto I felt I was invisible. People cut me up, pulled out in front etc.

It didn't/doesn't happen to anywhere near the same degree in the Alfa.

My thinking is that people either think a small car isn't travelling as fast or it's a case of "I'm bigger than you so I've right of way" whereas in the Alfa they expect you to be driving like a hooligan so think twice :lol:
 
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