Anyone else falling out of love with driving a 'fast' car?

[slk 32]

I never thought I'd feel this way but with the relentless war on the motorist and the constant roadworks / gridlock in West London having a powerful car seems pointless.

Not only am I surrounded by 20mph zones springing up but the whole A316 from the M3 to Chiswick (approx 9 miles) is, from the summer, going to be one giant safe speed zone controlled by average speed cameras.

I took my slk55 out today for the first time in months as the salt has all gone. As much as I love it, a car like that seems totally at odds with today's driving environment . I've been using my polo bluemotion over the winter which gets 70mpg around town compared to 18 mpg in the slk and as I can't even begin to use a tiny proportion of the slk's performance I'm really questioning what the point is in owning a car like that.

anyone else feel the same?

[slk 32]

Chris1255 said:

Not quite the question you're asking but I live in West London and have been considering buying something 'fast' to replace my shed. Every time I come close I wonder if it's worth it precisely because of what you've said. The truth is that 99% of the time I've already got more than enough power because either speed limits or dawdlers mean I can't go any quicker.

I checked the MOTs earlier. Last year I did 5k in the polo and 3k in the slk. Originally just planned to use the polo as a winter snotter but for round town it just made sense. A lot cheaper to run and most of the time you're just crawling along anyway

[slk 32]

Mr Tidy said:

slk 32 said:

I never thought I'd feel this way but with the relentless war on the motorist and the constant roadworks / gridlock in West London having a powerful car seems pointless.

Not only am I surrounded by 20mph zones springing up but the whole A316 from the M3 to Chiswick (approx 9 miles) is, from the summer, going to be one giant safe speed zone controlled by average speed cameras.

I took my slk55 out today for the first time in months as the salt has all gone. As much as I love it, a car like that seems totally at odds with today's driving environment . I've been using my polo bluemotion over the winter which gets 70mpg around town compared to 18 mpg in the slk and as I can't even begin to use a tiny proportion of the slk's performance I'm really questioning what the point is in owning a car like that.

anyone else feel the same?

Yes, I have a Z4 Coupe and go to Worcester Park at least once a week, but the A3 has no cameras (yet) so give it some while you can!

I take my hat off to you!

I thought traffic round Richmond was bad but having experienced the A3 around Hinchley wood that's a different league!

[slk 32]

Mastodon2 said:

You're in the wrong end of the country to be using the performance of a car like that.

This could well be it
I was watching Matt Farah on the smoking tire driving down some canyon road in LA with virtually zero traffic. That's when it hit home