Small Car Sydrome
Discussion
The old girl was moaning that her car wasn't "happy" so I decided to go and have a look at the thing; a Y-reg Seicento Sporting in "jeez-look-at-me yellow". Mum had mentioned there weren't many miles on it (3000!) so figured I'd take it to work today, give it a good run. 
What a mistake. Small Car Syndrone resulted... a condition where all other road users become complete twats.
Driving along at 30mph (the speed limit) and the guy behind obviously boots it (in a Mondeo) to get right up to the bumper... that's starts flashing me! Eh? something wrong? Nope... he's just pulled off a near suicidal manouvre to get past me... WHY?
Bit further on.. approach a round about aiming to go straight on. Nothing on the right, but spot a car at the first turning (to my left). Quite happily carrying momentum over the roundabout... when the idiot deicdes to pull out! Bit of cadence braking (weather is appalling here!) and some choice swear words and we've avoided that one.
Down a small section of dual carriageway, I'm in the right hand lane at 50mph (the limit) so I can use the filter... some plonker undertakes and cuts right across the front to get in the filter lane! aaaaaaarrrgghh!
Next bit of dual carriageway and someone decides to indicate and move across almost taking the wing! INDICATION DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO MOVE!... What? you didn't see me? USE YOUR MIRRORS and FFS, I'm in a BRIGHT YELLOW car! (with lights on!).
Final straw was the copper that proceeded to tailgate me for the last mile of my journey. Sitting ON the speed limit, he was so close I couldn't even see the Volvo badge on the grill of his car.
These were just a FEW of the incidents that happened in a 20 mile journey. FFS, just becuase you're in a small car does not give you less right to use the road! WHY do people feel it necessary to "prove" their "skill" and their car against a 1.1 shopper? Most annoying bit is, I see the smae people/cars every day... and they DO treat me differently in the Puma.
What a mistake. Small Car Syndrone resulted... a condition where all other road users become complete twats.
Driving along at 30mph (the speed limit) and the guy behind obviously boots it (in a Mondeo) to get right up to the bumper... that's starts flashing me! Eh? something wrong? Nope... he's just pulled off a near suicidal manouvre to get past me... WHY?
Bit further on.. approach a round about aiming to go straight on. Nothing on the right, but spot a car at the first turning (to my left). Quite happily carrying momentum over the roundabout... when the idiot deicdes to pull out! Bit of cadence braking (weather is appalling here!) and some choice swear words and we've avoided that one.
Down a small section of dual carriageway, I'm in the right hand lane at 50mph (the limit) so I can use the filter... some plonker undertakes and cuts right across the front to get in the filter lane! aaaaaaarrrgghh!
Next bit of dual carriageway and someone decides to indicate and move across almost taking the wing! INDICATION DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO MOVE!...
What? you didn't see me? USE YOUR MIRRORS and FFS, I'm in a BRIGHT YELLOW car! (with lights on!). Final straw was the copper that proceeded to tailgate me for the last mile of my journey. Sitting ON the speed limit, he was so close I couldn't even see the Volvo badge on the grill of his car.
These were just a FEW of the incidents that happened in a 20 mile journey. FFS, just becuase you're in a small car does not give you less right to use the road! WHY do people feel it necessary to "prove" their "skill" and their car against a 1.1 shopper? Most annoying bit is, I see the smae people/cars every day... and they DO treat me differently in the Puma.
Hmmm. I drive a realativly small car (skoda felica 1.3) which is regarded as a old codger shopping car. However most cars seem to give me a wide berth probably cos they've spotted the "I drive like a loon" attitude to corners etc so decide for the sake of their body panels they'll just avoid me.
Andy
PS if people are tailgating you just switch on your fog lights. The high brightness rear light soon pisses folk right off
Not sure I'd try it with the cops though
Andy
PS if people are tailgating you just switch on your fog lights. The high brightness rear light soon pisses folk right off
Not sure I'd try it with the cops though
Wierd isnt it,...
before I got the lotus, I drove a citroen ax 10 e for a couple of years. People would drive over you if they could. Much like Andy, I soon found out that to make any headway, you have to make like death is a long lost friend and you cant wait to be reunited, taking anyone else with you on the way.
before I got the lotus, I drove a citroen ax 10 e for a couple of years. People would drive over you if they could. Much like Andy, I soon found out that to make any headway, you have to make like death is a long lost friend and you cant wait to be reunited, taking anyone else with you on the way.
Well I don't behave that way when in my A8, and they don't come much bigger this side of the "Pond". I'm the very embodiment of respect and courteous behaviour - chilled you might say. And thats not just because of the aircon.
Glad it's not just me... but they really do make downright stupid manouvres just to show that their car is bigger. Pathetic really.
I too notice this, big style, when driving the missus Polo, so I know what you mean. It suspect its the sort of driver to whom a 16v badge or foglights are Very Important Things (ie repmobile man). It is indeed very sad when people measure their own worth and the worth of others by something so meaningless.
I suspect Mr Plod was doing something that we all know they do, but I'm sure MadCop will be very quick to deny - incitement. Little yellow "look at me" car = boy racer, so lets wind him up then book him. Either that or he was distracted by talking on his radio, which is very, very dangerous as we all know. Oops, sorry thats mobile phones isn't it.
VM - I'm not saying ALL drivers of big cars do it.. but a hell of a lot do... like Mr Vectra SRI (Sales Rep Inside) did this morning.
Hmm... I appreciate plod has a difficult job to do and I for one, would not wish to be in their position - all credit to the guys that do. However, this sort of behaviour is simply not on... got a damn good mind to make a complaint. It's not funny having a 2 tonne behemoth of a V70 behind you that's SO close you can't even see the badge on the grill, the number plate or the lights... especially in something as structurally sound as a piece of paper.
Hmmm... a 1.1 in yellow means I'm a boy racer... even though it's my mother's car, perfectly standard and I didn't even have the radio on! - not that you'd hear it from the two tiny speakers. I wish they had pulled me over, since then I'd have the guys number - probably would have made a complaint too.
Even if he was on his radio - that's not MY fault, so why should I feel threatened by the Police when I am obeying the law and following the highway code?
Just becuase I'm a young lad driving a yellow car does NOT mean that I am a boy racer, nor that I break the law.
>> Edited by Podie on Tuesday 15th October 10:33
I suspect Mr Plod was doing something that we all know they do, but I'm sure MadCop will be very quick to deny - incitement.
Hmm... I appreciate plod has a difficult job to do and I for one, would not wish to be in their position - all credit to the guys that do. However, this sort of behaviour is simply not on... got a damn good mind to make a complaint. It's not funny having a 2 tonne behemoth of a V70 behind you that's SO close you can't even see the badge on the grill, the number plate or the lights... especially in something as structurally sound as a piece of paper.
Little yellow "look at me" car = boy racer, so lets wind him up then book him. Either that or he was distracted by talking on his radio...
Hmmm... a 1.1 in yellow means I'm a boy racer... even though it's my mother's car, perfectly standard and I didn't even have the radio on! - not that you'd hear it from the two tiny speakers. I wish they had pulled me over, since then I'd have the guys number - probably would have made a complaint too.
Even if he was on his radio - that's not MY fault, so why should I feel threatened by the Police when I am obeying the law and following the highway code?
Just becuase I'm a young lad driving a yellow car does NOT mean that I am a boy racer, nor that I break the law.
>> Edited by Podie on Tuesday 15th October 10:33
) Mind you I'm convinced some of the drivers simply don't see you or care. ie the small car won't damage my car so I'm okay (ala volvo driver syndrome)Well, I've got a black Seicento Sporting and I don't think I get that much grief driving it (maybe I'm just used to it??)
I don't get cut up that often, perhaps as a result of the potential offender drawing level and catching a glimpse of the drooling troglodyte behind the wheel before hastily re-thinking the maneouvre when the realisation dawns that I won't give way.
I did get cut-up the other day though, on the way back from Milton Keynes with my girlfriend. Passing a Shogun and a truck in the right-hand lane, coming up to a roundabout. Chump in the Shogun decides to pull out in front of me to swerve round the truck.
After jamming on the brakes to avoid parking between his kids I pulled alongside and managed to remain calm and not offer him coffee. We both pulled away from the roundabout and I moved to pass him on the left (naughty, I know) as we were joining the two-lane road on the far side of the roundabout.
I'm now level, and he starts moving over into my lane!!! In the absence of any BIB I just pulled in front and left him there. Still had to put up with the monkey tailgating my all the way home, though.
I don't get cut up that often, perhaps as a result of the potential offender drawing level and catching a glimpse of the drooling troglodyte behind the wheel before hastily re-thinking the maneouvre when the realisation dawns that I won't give way.
I did get cut-up the other day though, on the way back from Milton Keynes with my girlfriend. Passing a Shogun and a truck in the right-hand lane, coming up to a roundabout. Chump in the Shogun decides to pull out in front of me to swerve round the truck.
After jamming on the brakes to avoid parking between his kids I pulled alongside and managed to remain calm and not offer him coffee. We both pulled away from the roundabout and I moved to pass him on the left (naughty, I know) as we were joining the two-lane road on the far side of the roundabout.
I'm now level, and he starts moving over into my lane!!! In the absence of any BIB I just pulled in front and left him there. Still had to put up with the monkey tailgating my all the way home, though.
I used to drive a Cinquecento and invariably people did carve me up a bit. Thing with the baby Fiat's is you can absolutely lean on the bazzas round the twisties and so long as you keep your foot in you're a match for all but the best driven repmobiles. Knackered on the straights mind...
Many such small cars are driven poorly by clueless numpties, so there is an expectation by some that they are all driven by such people in such a myopic, somnambulant fashion..
People who spend a lot of time on the road do often categorise different cars on the road according to their prevailing driving characteristic - because generally such assumptions hold true and can be put to vaulable use not only making progress, but in calculating who to carefully avoid and who to let in/not let in.
Do you think, for example, that I'm going to let a Micra in front of me when I'm in lane 3, only for the lane to then open up and me have 1000yds of free lane, but be behind a wheezy little pimplemobile which gasps past the car in lane 2 at a staggering 68.7mph, completely unaware or unmoved by the cars behind?
I'm not defending the tail-gating/cutting up, but you surely understand how this attitude towards small cars comes about in general?
>> Edited by CarZee on Tuesday 15th October 11:40
People who spend a lot of time on the road do often categorise different cars on the road according to their prevailing driving characteristic - because generally such assumptions hold true and can be put to vaulable use not only making progress, but in calculating who to carefully avoid and who to let in/not let in.
Do you think, for example, that I'm going to let a Micra in front of me when I'm in lane 3, only for the lane to then open up and me have 1000yds of free lane, but be behind a wheezy little pimplemobile which gasps past the car in lane 2 at a staggering 68.7mph, completely unaware or unmoved by the cars behind?
I'm not defending the tail-gating/cutting up, but you surely understand how this attitude towards small cars comes about in general?
>> Edited by CarZee on Tuesday 15th October 11:40
Girlfriend got suckered with a Rover 100 rental once (she'd just arrived in the UK from the US and knew what a Metro was, but they called it a Rover 100 - she still shakes at the thought of making a journey in one ever again - zero respect on the road and she got cut up all the time. That was only driving from LHR to Egham too!
I tend to let tiny cars out, 'cos they need a break! Just like learners - have you noticed how they get cut up too! The only people I don't give way to are people carriers and 4x4s (I mean when it's my right of way). Have you noticed how they use their 'weight' to pull out/nudge into gaps. Not with me around mate - these are usually the only type of vehicle that gives me road 'rant'.
I tend to let tiny cars out, 'cos they need a break! Just like learners - have you noticed how they get cut up too! The only people I don't give way to are people carriers and 4x4s (I mean when it's my right of way). Have you noticed how they use their 'weight' to pull out/nudge into gaps. Not with me around mate - these are usually the only type of vehicle that gives me road 'rant'.
managed to remain calm and not offer him coffee
Nescafe? I used to own a Cinquecento, which when provoked was pretty nippy (maybe it was the fact that the 1.1 gave way to a 1.3 with a 6 speed box?)... and the Seicento, although a little softer can still be hussled along.
I wouldn't mind if I was pootling along, but I was giving the little thing some stick, and wasn't hanging about (too much). It just seems to me that I was on the brint of some over-zealous rep-types that seem insistent on showing me that their 1.8 Mondeo is quicker than my Mum's 1.1 Seicento.
Granted, some small cars DO pootle about, but in commuter traffic, keeping up with the flow, WTF is the point in making dangerous, stupid moanouvres, JUST so you can overtake a little car. My point was that these people are more than happy to play follow-my-leader when I'm in the Puma.
Carz,
That's as bad as seeing someone in a TVR S and thinking that they must be a mug for buying such an unreliable pile of pony!
The more informed of us know that a nice S is absolutely fantastic and that a black Seicento Sporting with a PH sticker in the window travelling in the correct lane at a sensible (not numptyish) speed with due care and consideration for other road users deserves equal respect.
At least until the traffic disappears and the road goes straight and then you're all free to storm past as all 54 of my horses fail to translate themselves into anything resembling acceleration.
That's as bad as seeing someone in a TVR S and thinking that they must be a mug for buying such an unreliable pile of pony!
The more informed of us know that a nice S is absolutely fantastic and that a black Seicento Sporting with a PH sticker in the window travelling in the correct lane at a sensible (not numptyish) speed with due care and consideration for other road users deserves equal respect.
At least until the traffic disappears and the road goes straight and then you're all free to storm past as all 54 of my horses fail to translate themselves into anything resembling acceleration.
Podie,
I see your point. Perhaps I just don't seem to see it that often, given that I usually seem to be driving quicker than the people around me.
Thanks for the tip about UAD Motorsport, but I think I'd rather just buy a Mk II Golf GTi!
>> Edited by Animal on Tuesday 15th October 12:08
I see your point. Perhaps I just don't seem to see it that often, given that I usually seem to be driving quicker than the people around me.
Thanks for the tip about UAD Motorsport, but I think I'd rather just buy a Mk II Golf GTi!
>> Edited by Animal on Tuesday 15th October 12:08
I reckon most of them think that I'm a posing twat in a noisy dangerous sports car.
Animal said: Carz,
That's as bad as seeing someone in a TVR S and thinking that they must be a mug for buying such an unreliable pile of pony!
That's the image that goes with any fast loud convertible - I don't care and I don't look on in disbelief when such an attitude is displayed by those who don't know or don't care about TVRs.
Point is, Animal, yes it might not be 'good form' but it's human behaviour to categorise people and I am a firm believer that in a lot of cases, the type of car you drive says a lot about your interest in - and hence skill at - driving.
Do you think I should sit patiently behind evry Micra, learning nothing from successive encounters with them, or should I learn from experience that a pattern is emerging and adapt my attitude/behaviour accordingly?
The former might be good and kind and benevolent, but someone who doesn't learn from experience and adapt is dead weight AFAIC.
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