Just witnessed the most bizarre argument in a Petrol Station

[Gary29]

Lgfst said:

I was filling up in Porthmadog once, this car went around the other pumps and parked in front of the shop but in front of me. This guy gets out, looks like the hulk but not green, very red. Starts walking over so I'm playing cool but inside im reviewing if I had done something wrong whilst slightly bricking it.

He says "excuse me mate, you look like you work out, can you recommend a gym near here? I'm not from around here."

I say sorry im not from here either.

Cool story I know

He thought you were gay.

[jimmy the hat]

thelawnet1 said:

nipsips said:

I had a young lad in a fiesta the other day come barrelling down behind me whilst I was in the outside lane overtaking slower traffic, sat at 65mph following the car in front (as is common for the A12 at peak time). He decided that his journey was much more important than mine, and starting flashing, indicating right behind me, and in the end undertook in the three lane section near Ingatestone on the immediate left lane, swerving across the MLM's in lane 2, into lane 3 in front of me and promptly brake checking me.

At least he gained a car length I guess.

Didn't look too impressed at the M25 junction when I applauded him and pointed at my dash cam...

where's the youtube link??

Yeah, get it up. I want to see if it's the colossal belter I encountered last night on the A12 between Witham and Marks Tey.

Blue Mk4 Fiesta, shaven head. Inside presumably as well as out.

All sorts of weird, passive aggressive stuff, topped off by two fingers out the window for 30 seconds before I got anywhere near alongside him again. Genuinely no reason for any of it. Weirdo.

Cheers, Jim

[havoc]

It's all very simple:-
- Modern life has got far too stressful for a lot of people. Combination of economic times, social media trying to persuade everyone that their life is sttier than all their mates, and 'normal' media peddling a metric st-load of hate and bile just to sell papers.
- Life has got busier and busier - everyone always seems to be on the clock;
- Cars are, for many, their only refuge from a st job / unhappy home / etc.;
- Many people haven't been taught / learned how to apply those internal filters that SHOULD operate in normal society...or have realised that the police actually don't care about little stuff like this anymore.

Wind all that together and ANY little incident on the road (or even, just seeing someone in a nice car having a better day than them) can be enough to ignite their fuse.

[Downward]

itcaptainslow said:

This is why I try my utmost not to engage with people on the road. You just don't know how angry/mad/unhinged/stupid the person you're dealing with is. Life is far less stressful now I've concluded that 90% of the drivers and mostly population are utter aholes

Kenneth Noye

[Limpet]

havoc said:

....ANY little incident on the road (or even, just seeing someone in a nice car having a better day than them) can be enough to ignite their fuse.

I think there's something in that. I have noticed since I started using a £500 Focus as a daily in early January that I see a fraction of the cockish driving or aggressive behaviour that I used to see when in a sub 3 year old VW CC, Audi A4 or 3-series. I'm not aware that I drive the Focus any differently, and I'm using the same roads at the same times of day. It's just nobody seems to notice it, or react to it. Most cars out there, even the people carriers or base spec repmobiles driven by the frustrated and unhinged, are worth more / better, which seems to translate into their drivers having nothing to prove. It's the only explanation I can think of.

I'm actually going to miss that aspect of having it, alongside being able to park it anywhere without giving it a second thought. It's definitely been a less stressful experience than my previous company cars.

Edited by Limpet on Monday 27th February 14:05

[mickthemechanic]

V10Ace said:

This everytime...

It just entertain's me

When you ask them what you did to garner such a response, they honestly have no answer... It truly is crazy...

Or people swerving at you head on from the otherside of the road as you overtake... I just laugh and think," if you think I'm being a dick, why would you join in, in the name of road safety or teaching me a lesson and what would happen if you actually would have hit me ???

Also brake checker's and cyclists, are abandoning the idea of self preservation for a insane love of man made law's

Madness...

Just more reason to laugh at the common, white English male or female's of this country even more, gone to the dog's....

Will probably get an insane response to this aswell.... Lol

Edited by V10Ace on Monday 27th February 11:58

Similar happened to me. Turned right out of a T junction onto a NSL road which can be a bit busy and being NSL you have to get out when you can. A Vectra coming from the right must have decided that I had pulled out in front of them. So violently swerves onto my side of the road flashing his lights probably trying to teach me a lesson. The thing is I was on my side of the road travelling straight by then he had time to come onto my side of the road flash his lights then get back on his side of the road before hitting me. Now I may be wrong but that tells me I had plenty time to pull out. Never saw what was driving as the sun was reflecting off there screen. Just a stupid thing to do over nothing

[chrisb92]

Why do people get annoyed at being overtaken? I notice it most when accelerating on a slip road or off a roundabout. I think some people get annoyed when they are flat out but still getting passed. Some people are fking weird.

I'd add Insignias to the Zafiras for tt drivers.

[MorganP104]

Limpet said:

I think there's something in that. I have noticed since I started using a £500 Focus as a daily in early January that I see a fraction of the cockish driving or aggressive behaviour that I used to see when in a sub 3 year old VW CC, Audi A4 or 3-series. I'm not aware that I drive the Focus any differently, and I'm using the same roads at the same times of day. It's just nobody seems to notice it, or react to it. Most cars out there, even the people carriers or base spec repmobiles driven by the frustrated and unhinged, are worth more / better, which seems to translate into their drivers having nothing to prove. It's the only explanation I can think of.

I'm actually going to miss that aspect of having it, alongside being able to park it anywhere without giving it a second thought. It's definitely been a less stressful experience than my previous company cars.

A £500 Focus is the very definition of "invisible car". You've got less of a radar footprint in one of those than a Stealth Bomber, or a teaspoon in the bottom of the washing up bowl.

I'm surprised that the getaway car from bank jobs isn't always a £500 Focus. A total no-brainer!

[LordLoveLength]

Just wondering if all these Richard Heads are in some way sponsored by dashcam companies?
Kind of like reality adverts?

[xjay1337]

LordLoveLength said:

Just wondering if all these Richard Heads are in some way sponsored by dashcam companies?
Kind of like reality adverts?

• cough* Matt Stockdale *cough M1 lorry accident*.

[itcaptainslow]

MorganP104 said:

Limpet said:

I think there's something in that. I have noticed since I started using a £500 Focus as a daily in early January that I see a fraction of the cockish driving or aggressive behaviour that I used to see when in a sub 3 year old VW CC, Audi A4 or 3-series. I'm not aware that I drive the Focus any differently, and I'm using the same roads at the same times of day. It's just nobody seems to notice it, or react to it. Most cars out there, even the people carriers or base spec repmobiles driven by the frustrated and unhinged, are worth more / better, which seems to translate into their drivers having nothing to prove. It's the only explanation I can think of.

I'm actually going to miss that aspect of having it, alongside being able to park it anywhere without giving it a second thought. It's definitely been a less stressful experience than my previous company cars.

A £500 Focus is the very definition of "invisible car". You've got less of a radar footprint in one of those than a Stealth Bomber, or a teaspoon in the bottom of the washing up bowl.

I'm surprised that the getaway car from bank jobs isn't always a £500 Focus. A total no-brainer!

There's some mileage in that-I noticed in particular other drivers behaved differently to me when driving the Rover Metro I used to own and to a lesser but similar extent my shed Peugeot 106. It's like they seem to think said cars won't make reasonable progress so it's OK to pull out into a gap that isn't there, tailgate and generally be quite aggressive.

My Focus ST170 garners the least response, to most people it will look like a clean old shape Focus, so falls nicely into the invisible bracket.

The Elise tends to attract chavs in hot hatches trying to race. Sigh.

[BobSaunders]

MorganP104 said:

Limpet said:

I think there's something in that. I have noticed since I started using a £500 Focus as a daily in early January that I see a fraction of the cockish driving or aggressive behaviour that I used to see when in a sub 3 year old VW CC, Audi A4 or 3-series. I'm not aware that I drive the Focus any differently, and I'm using the same roads at the same times of day. It's just nobody seems to notice it, or react to it. Most cars out there, even the people carriers or base spec repmobiles driven by the frustrated and unhinged, are worth more / better, which seems to translate into their drivers having nothing to prove. It's the only explanation I can think of.

I'm actually going to miss that aspect of having it, alongside being able to park it anywhere without giving it a second thought. It's definitely been a less stressful experience than my previous company cars.

A £500 Focus is the very definition of "invisible car". You've got less of a radar footprint in one of those than a Stealth Bomber, or a teaspoon in the bottom of the washing up bowl.

I'm surprised that the getaway car from bank jobs isn't always a £500 Focus. A total no-brainer!

The type-7 always bought thumbs up and waves and kids & adults running - if i was an aspiring pedophile i would buy a type-7.
The 535D never had a problem.
The 320I used to get abuse in city centres - bog standard M-Sport.
The M5 always used to get windows dropped, or thumbs up, but mostly bought the nobs driving A-AMG's out - as if they needed to prove something.
ZX6r - used to get left alone.

E91 320D - i just get left alone.. never a second glance. I get let into merge in turn queues(!).
The 114i - attracts f**king idiots - like they think it's ok. to bully people in small cars.
S1000rr - every f**king idiot wants to race me off the lights now.

[VISE]

Had something similar the other day, pulled out of BP on to the A13 and it's dual lane at this point... I'm in the inside lane and move over to the right hand lane, the car behind me is maybe 50ft back (a LOT of room to move over). He starts flashing me non-stop, so I move over a bit bemused by this situation and let him get back in front - as he overtakes, he doesn't even look at me. You think that'd be it, right? WRONG. I move back out to overtake a car in the left lane behind him, we're doing 70 and he slams on his brakes to a full stop, nothing in front of him... I get beside him in a 50 and he's not even looking at me or doesn't even look angry.

I was pretty puzzled lol...

[Fastdruid]

Not petrol station related but crazy mental.

The other Saturday we were going to some fete or other on a Saturday at my childrens school, so two adults, two children in the car. I enter a roundabout where I'm going right, third exit. Enter a bit quick because there was nothing coming (but still <30mph), signalling right. As we get to the 1st exit I see a BMW x5 that appears to not want to stop and as I get close he just pulls out. I do an emergency stop (we would have crashed otherwise) and beep him. He swears at me and pulls out. Tragically he's going straight on but I'm not chasing him, just driving normally. He signals and pulls over so I overtake.

In hindsight he obviously wanted to stop to "have a word" because he then chased after me. Tail gated me. Flashing his lights before overtaking (over double white lines) into what wasn't really a space to the car in front then slowing down (I just gave him lots of room) before speeding off (massively over the speed limit through a 30).

I just don't get the mentality of someone who nearly causes an accident and *then* goes on to be massively aggressive about it.

[havoc]

Fastdruid said:

I just don't get the mentality of someone who nearly causes an accident and *then* goes on to be massively aggressive about it.

You embarassed him. (Well, you caused him to embarass himself)

So his ego is dented, particularly if his partner was in the car.

So, being the powerfully-built company director that he clearly is, he needs to re-assert his driving prowess...which in his narrow mind involves either telling you in explicit detail why it was all your fault, or, failing that, overtaking you in as dramatic a manner as possible so you KNOW you've been overtaken by such a driving god...

[IanH755]

The vast majority of people now are just unable to "take criticism" and being in a car just amplifies that in some of them.

[PUA]

Six Great Ways to Vent Your Frustrations:
1. Cry
2. Punch
3. Write
4. Exercise
5. Talk
6. Create Art

add 7. Drive like a complete tit

[Biker's Nemesis]

I see a few posters from BB in this thread.

[Mr Alan]

IanH755 said:

The vast majority of people now are just unable to "take criticism" and being in a car just amplifies that in some of them.

It's called generation snowflake and it's getting worse

[vikingaero]

jjr1 said:

This happened years ago at a petrol station on the M1.

I was driving down the BMW lane in my BMW when some in a POLO doing 70 and with nothing on his left just stayed in the wrong lane. After a little while I had the arse (these days I just undertake and don't even bother waiting behind) and flashed my lights. Despite nothing in the other two lanes to his left he just stayed there and I continued flashing. Eventually he moved left and I continued on but left the BMW lane and went to the inside as any good driver would do.

Sometime later I pulled in for petrol and whilst I was filling up a POLO came in at full pelt and did a big skid up behind me. Out jumped a little lad a bit younger than me and in the car sat his girlfriend just looking bemused. Whilst i still continued filling up with fuel the little lad came storming up to me and was basically going mental. He was verbally slagging me off and going nuts. I told him in a relatively calm way to ps off and had he not been blocking the lane i wouldn't have been flashing him.

After a couple of minutes my car was full but the little tt was still screaming at me. I wasn't bothered but suddenly he went to swing a punch. Completely random as he had just spent 2 minutes spouting ste and you would think he would be tired by now..

Without hesitation I just ttted the fker and he fell on his back.

I went to pay for my petrol and by now the little st had scurried back into his car but the girlfriend had come chasing me into the petrol station. She was now going nuts saying I had hit her boyfriend for no reason.

It was then the cashier piped up with 'we have it all on film love and you should basically walk away now with your boyfriend in tow'.........

Petrol stations -just a scream a minute !

The problem here isn't you or his girlfriend. It's that he has a girlfriend and will one day breed and drag up another mini version of himself into the world.