Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

I almost bought a Soul, back about 2 or 2.5 years ago. Drives okay, priced reasonably (read cheap), I fit in it, it fits in the parking garage. And I am not afraid to be seen in one. Heck, I almost bought a Juke once upon a time!

So far the Soul has been an ok car. Not exactly thrilling but it’s comfortable and useful. Got about 1300 miles on it and the gas mileage has been getting steadily better. The latest tank was over 28mpg in city driving which is better than the 26mpg EPA rating. That’s at least 8-10 mpg better than the PT it replaced. Most importantly, my wife can get in and out because of the boxy shape which I can't say for my other vehicles.

imidazol97

The ease of entry and exit that you mentioned is why it caught my attention. The Cobalt is low and my wife has trouble getting in and out, despite its wide open door design. The Malibu of course is a little higher and easier entry. But sometime I need to replace the Cobalt...

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m just hoping that Ford has a contingency plan to bring in sedans from their overseas operations on short notice if things go sideways.

I'm not sure they are going to continue making sedans overseas either.

ruking1

driver100 said:

Just noticed my E has 15000 miles on it, Mrs D's GLK though just past the warranty period has 18000 miles on it, and the C has 28000 miles on it. Hard to justify buying a new one except 2 out of 3 are out of warranty....ha ha

When we took the GLK in for the super expensive A service on May 16th the advisor said too bad you didn't bring it in by May 9th, then you could have still bought an extended warranty. Yeh sure, an extended warranty on a car with 18000 miles that goes 4000 miles a year, the warranty time limit will run out long before the car should need a major repair....hopefully.

What a difference a foreign country makes? The 2014 MB GLK 250 BT, if I remember correctly had 4 years or 50,000 miles in warranty. The dealer offered a free oil change, which if one strictly went by the 10,000 miles, between oil changes would put one out to about 20,000 miles. For us, this put us out to 50,000 miles. Again, as I remember the dealer probably did a (n/c) B service.

@ 83,000 miles, the vehicle has been flawless. While it probably will not make too much difference to most on this board, it still gets 36 miles a gallon per tank full in a normal five day commute. (18,000 miles year)

ruking1

oldfarmer50 said:

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

graphicguy said:

@driver100 ....Nothing is currently on my radar except the Acura TLX S-Type. Don’t expect to see that for another year. That said, if something catches my fancy (like the Kia Stinger GT), hard to tell what I might do. 2 years in, I couldn’t be happier with my Acura TLX A-Spec, however.

Problem with Tahoes, as others mentioned, they are way overpriced. It would probably take another $10K off in addition to the $15K rebate they currently have. That might not get it done, either. You can get a Toyota 4 Runner, Volvo XC90, Acura MDX, Audi Q7, Kia Telluride, etc for less. And, as much as I loved my Tahoe, the afore mentioned vehicles would be better vehicles.

@roadburner ....I just bought a barely used 18” sub from a now defunct company. It’s a beast. Will probably get it hooked up and dialed in today and tomorrow to see how it does. My son took me to ENDGAME when it first came out. Agree with you assessment of the movie....WOW! I think my new sub is meant for a movie like that.

Very strange that Ford is dumping sedans in favor of SUVs but manufactures (Ford included I assume) are discounting them $15k or more. Seems like going in a bad direction to me.

.....another thing....if there is a problem with oil supplies, for example a problem with Iran like there is right now....oil prices could rise, and demand for trucks and especially SUVs could fall.....but sedans could be back in favor. Ford could be right, but if they are wrong they will be out of the game completely.

I’m just hoping that Ford has a contingency plan to bring in sedans from their overseas operations on short notice if things go sideways.

If I can read between the lines of the articles that I’ve read about yearly world wide auto production, the real problem is overproduction on a worldwide basis OF sedans, cars in general. There are a host of indicators in evidence of: not cutting back nearly enough. Indeed there is more supply/are more sellers of sedans then buyers.

Compact to midsized sedans in the US PVF (passenger vehicle fleet) have been under 25% & SHRINKING for @ least a decade to more. The numbers then indicate large sedans to pick up trucks have been/are the majority (75% plus+) of the PVF. (290.4 M, 2017 FARS.nhtsa.gov)

explorerx4

Electrification is being added to ICE, so body style won't matter as much.

ruking1

explorerx4 said:

Electrification is being added to ICE, so body style won't matter as much.

That would indicate an even faster demise of compact to midsized sedan/cars going forward & faster growth of larger cars & trucks.

driver100

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m just hoping that Ford has a contingency plan to bring in sedans from their overseas operations on short notice if things go sideways.

I'm not sure they are going to continue making sedans overseas either.

Sedans sell well overseas....when gas is about $8 a gallon, people try to find ways to cut back. In Europe SUV sales are growing but before they were none existent. Smaller cars still outsell SUVs, but people like the fact SUVs have more room, and get almost the same gas mileage.

CAR/SUV Sales in Europe

explorerx4

A lot of sedans have designed themselves out of the market by getting too swoopy. No head room in the back seat.
If t's really bad, like a Camry, despite fold down rear seat, you can't even fit something a foot high through the small opening between the trunk into the seating area. Gives up even more practicality.
Open concept isn't just about homes.

houdini2

In the U.S. sedans are under a lot more regulation, including design, than SUVs and trucks. Because of this most sedans look very much alike. The front has to be big and a certain height to protect pedestrians, and the rear has to be big to match the front. The roof can only be so high, and on and on.

oldfarmer50

houdini2 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

imidazol97 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

Just finished a marathon of car washing. Washed the PT so I could put it away until I give it to my son in the fall. Washed the convertible and the Kia because the birds were busy with them. Cheated and took the Mustang to the car wash but the brushless places always seem to miss spots so I may have to hand wash that one too. Every bone aches.

Everytime I see a Soul I think about your purchase of a Soul.

I remember when I first saw those Soul hamster commercials I thought “that would be the last car I’d ever buy”.

I'm holding out for the Venue. If you get to drive one when they come out, I will expect a review and comparison with the Soul.

From what I saw at the auto show there’s no difference except for a slightly more sloped windshield and a different interior.

driver100

henryn said:
Heck, I almost bought a Juke once upon a time!

I consider a Juke to be an anti-social statement. You can sit in it and drive it, but, we have to look at it!

ruking1

driver100 said:

ab348 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m just hoping that Ford has a contingency plan to bring in sedans from their overseas operations on short notice if things go sideways.

I'm not sure they are going to continue making sedans overseas either.

Sedans sell well overseas....when gas is about $8 a gallon, people try to find ways to cut back. In Europe SUV sales are growing but before they were none existent. Smaller cars still outsell SUVs, but people like the fact SUVs have more room, and get almost the same gas mileage.

CAR/SUV Sales in Europe

Euro sedans do cut back any number of ways that are NOT acceptable to US markets. The PVF is slightly bigger than the US’s 290.4 M.

Here are just a few:
1. The majority of cars are manual transmission
2. The majority of cars are diesel
3. Smaller cars to aid in better fuel mileage
4. The average miles per year of 9,000 miles vs US of 11,000 to 14,000 miles.
5. One important key is that they have to be “Americanized” TMI of course

berri

I don't mind a 4 banger sedan to drive around town. But the latest Camry and Accord basically threw out many older buyers with the very low step down into it and the tight headroom. I guess they are now aimed at getting first time buyers from the younger gen that can't afford a crossover yet, hoping as they make more they will have become brand loyal (although I'm not sure brand loyalty is a big thing these days).

suydam

imidazol97 said:

The ease of entry and exit that you mentioned is why it caught my attention. The Cobalt is low and my wife has trouble getting in and out, despite its wide open door design. The Malibu of course is a little higher and easier entry. But sometime I need to replace the Cobalt...

You might look at the Buick Encore. Much nicer than the Trax, and very easy ingress and egress. Good for dogs too if you have one, although our very aged lab mix can now only get into the Volt with a ramp.

driver100

Best car if you have dogs is to get a Subaru....according to the ads.

oldfarmer50

I just got back from breakfast and I’m wondering if everyone is on a holiday drunk already. During the ten minute drive I had a big SUV almost sideswiped me as we made a left turn and a few minutes later a woman making a left turn cut into my lane and almost took my bumper off.

Think I’ll stay home the rest of the day.

tjc78

I thought it was only me... yesterday I had to run up the street for one item at CVS. This is less than 2 miles round trip.

I witnessed some oblivious driver nearly plow into an emergency vehicle with its lights on. Then I had to slam on my brakes because someone made a left turn in front of me. To finish the trifecta someone driving an old GMC Envoy decided to run up the curb and nearly into a house about 7 or 8 doors up from mine.

Everyone coming to my house for a get together was talking about it.

stickguy

My daughters's BF's father is in the hospital after a car accident Wednesday. Someone pulled out in front of him and got T-boned. Dad ended up with a broken Femur that needed surgery. Way it was explained to us he was driving next to a truck and when the person wanting to cross the road saw the truck clear he went, not seeing his Cruze. So, bammo. Making it worse, he was driving home from the mechanic after getting new tires and some other work done to the Chevy, which is now totaled, so unless they can argue with the insurance company, $900 down the drain.

nasty stretch of road (TJC, the WHP near Clementon road by La Esperanza). 4 lanes, no center lane for turns, all commercial along it with many driveways. Lots of accidents.

he did get to the hospital in record time. Her BF is a local cop (not that town, but all these little towns work together) so they radioed ahead and every town along the way sent someone out to block the signaled intersections. made it to Camden in record time. Even the ambulance people said they had never seen anything like it. Connections are everything in life.

stickguy

don't recall any crazy people out yesterday, but more traffic that I expected. Took the girls to the outlet mall, and the place was packed. Hard to even find a parking spot.

berri

Maybe it is all a combination of over tech'd and over stressed.

imidazol97

I'm going to the cemetery again because last weekend they didn't have the flags up on the military grave sites.

The crazies have been out most of the week here. People who own the road. People who act like they don't have a driver license to even know basic skills and don't come out but once a year to go shopping.

But they all have their cell phones. Look like nice large ones sometimes when I see them up to their ears. Then there are those talking to themselves in their cars sitting on green lights because they're talking on their car's microphone and speaker.

The streets nearest the Kroger and Meijers are the most dangerous.

Even inside the grocery the folks park their carts in the middle of the aisles and stand blocking part of the aisle with their body which they look at the shelf. Then they see someone they know and it's a cluster of hugging and loud talk about how wonderful it is to see them here.

I think I've lost the needed patriotism attitude for this important holiday that used to be Decoration Day.

imidazol97

stickguy said:

My daughters's BF's father is in the hospital after a car accident Wednesday. Someone pulled out in front of him and got T-boned. Dad ended up with a broken Femur that needed surgery. Way it was explained to us he was driving next to a truck and when the person wanting to cross the road saw the truck clear he went, not seeing his Cruze. So, bammo. Making it worse, he was driving home from the mechanic after getting new tires and some other work done to the Chevy, which is now totaled, so unless they can argue with the insurance company, $900 down the drain.

nasty stretch of road (TJC, the WHP near Clementon road by La Esperanza). 4 lanes, no center lane for turns, all commercial along it with many driveways. Lots of accidents.

he did get to the hospital in record time. Her BF is a local cop (not that town, but all these little towns work together) so they radioed ahead and every town along the way sent someone out to block the signaled intersections. made it to Camden in record time. Even the ambulance people said they had never seen anything like it. Connections are everything in life.

Hope you daughter's friend's father is doing okay. I'd go after the insurance hard on car value. Cruze stock is sold low so replacement will be hard. New tires? Will the dealer take them back? Hardly used?

That happened to me at Kroger's entrance within the year. The lady decided because the car in the right lane was turning into the lot she could pull out. However I was going about 30-35 in the second lane. The [nonpermissible content deleted] driver stopped her car blocking my lane when she saw me coming. I had anticipated as soon as I saw her start moving and I got stopped with 2 feet of her rear fender. If she had kept going, it would not have been as much of a problem.

stickguy

I think they asked for the tires back. Probably depends on where the car is (again, the connections come into play)

oldfarmer50

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

https://youtu.be/-0H8BX8OM9s

stickguy

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

oldfarmer50

imidazol97 said:

I'm going to the cemetery again because last weekend they didn't have the flags up on the military grave sites.

The crazies have been out most of the week here. People who own the road. People who act like they don't have a driver license to even know basic skills and don't come out but once a year to go shopping.

But they all have their cell phones. Look like nice large ones sometimes when I see them up to their ears. Then there are those talking to themselves in their cars sitting on green lights because they're talking on their car's microphone and speaker.

The streets nearest the Kroger and Meijers are the most dangerous.

Even inside the grocery the folks park their carts in the middle of the aisles and stand blocking part of the aisle with their body which they look at the shelf. Then they see someone they know and it's a cluster of hugging and loud talk about how wonderful it is to see them here.

I think I've lost the needed patriotism attitude for this important holiday that used to be Decoration Day.

At least you had it at one time.

https://youtu.be/WzoY92cPgYQ

jmonroe1

stickguy said:

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

I agree and thought the same thing. I think a lot of dash cam owners should remove them because from what I have seen, it only incriminates their owners.

jmonroe

Mr_Shiftright

oldfarmer50 said:

I just got back from breakfast and I’m wondering if everyone is on a holiday drunk already. During the ten minute drive I had a big SUV almost sideswiped me as we made a left turn and a few minutes later a woman making a left turn cut into my lane and almost took my bumper off.

Think I’ll stay home the rest of the day.

The waters are filled with sharks.

abacomike

imidazol97 said:

I'm going to the cemetery again because last weekend they didn't have the flags up on the military grave sites. The crazies have been out most of the week here. People who own the road. People who act like they don't have a driver license to even know basic skills and don't come out but once a year to go shopping. But they all have their cell phones. Look like nice large ones sometimes when I see them up to their ears. Then there are those talking to themselves in their cars sitting on green lights because they're talking on their car's microphone and speaker. The streets nearest the Kroger and Meijers are the most dangerous. Even inside the grocery the folks park their carts in the middle of the aisles and stand blocking part of the aisle with their body which they look at the shelf. Then they see someone they know and it's a cluster of hugging and loud talk about how wonderful it is to see them here. I think I've lost the needed patriotism attitude for this important holiday that used to be Decoration Day.

I went to my father’s cemetery (South Florida National Cemetery) where his ashes are entombed on Friday to avoid the traffic expected today.  The VFW placed flags at each gravesite and small flags on the area reserved for cremated remains.  It was so befitting in memory and honor to those who served.

I left the cemetery with tears in my eyes - Dad was the recipient of the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Silver Star.  He was a true hero.

henryn

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

I agree and thought the same thing. I think a lot of dash cam owners should remove them because from what I have seen, it only incriminates their owners.

jmonroe

The words on screen at the end said the Accord driver was found 100% at fault. But I have to agree, my first thought on watching the video was that the guy driving the truck was paying no attention at all.

It's easy enough to look away for a second, to change the channel on the radio, or observe something off the road. But the truck changed lanes immediately before the accident, and one would hope he was looking at the road when he changed lanes.

henryn

driver100 said:

henryn said:
Heck, I almost bought a Juke once upon a time!

I consider a Juke to be an anti-social statement. You can sit in it and drive it, but, we have to look at it!

Now you're catching on! I am a revolutionary, and the first step in the revolution is to inflame the masses!

suydam

henryn said:

driver100 said:

henryn said:
Heck, I almost bought a Juke once upon a time!

I consider a Juke to be an anti-social statement. You can sit in it and drive it, but, we have to look at it!

Now you're catching on! I am a revolutionary, and the first step in the revolution is to inflame the masses!

We test drove one and found it to be very uncomfortable. So I wouldn’t even want to sit in one!

ab348

I firmly believe in my theory that there is a direct correlation with how poorly people navigate with a grocery cart and how well they drive their vehicles.

fintail

It's that kind of thing that keeps me off a motorcycle on streets here. Left turners cause a huge amount of motorcycle casualties.

Avoiding them reminds me of a crash a friend was in years ago. Oblivious entitled airhead high school girl runs a stop sign and T-bones him. Her defense to the cop was literally "he should have stopped for me". Thankfully, the cop wasn't having any of it. I suspect right now she's curbing the wheels on an RX or driving the wrong way down a parking lot lane in an X5 that she worked hard to buy and certainly wasn't gifted.

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

tjc78

henryn said:

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

I agree and thought the same thing. I think a lot of dash cam owners should remove them because from what I have seen, it only incriminates their owners. jmonroe

The words on screen at the end said the Accord driver was found 100% at fault. But I have to agree, my first thought on watching the video was that the guy driving the truck was paying no attention at all. It's easy enough to look away for a second, to change the channel on the radio, or observe something off the road. But the truck changed lanes immediately before the accident, and one would hope he was looking at the road when he changed lanes.

Was he trying to avoid the Accord?  Either way while the Accord would always be found at fault in this case it certainly seemed as if the truck driver saw the Accord turning a bit late. 

What I really want to know is how the heck didn’t the Accord see the truck?  It was a pretty wide open road. Sometimes here in NJ (actually on the road @stickguy was just talking about) the intersections have people stacked up making lefts on the opposite side and makes it really difficult to see the oncoming traffic.  Lots of close calls in those situations.  

fintail

When I've ran into idiots with carts (as we all probably know, Costco is the worst for this, it causes sensory overload for people who can barely function to begin with - I often wonder how they were able to pay for membership - probably built it themselves!) I will say to them "I bet this is how you drive a car". Never received a word in reply, just a dirty look, which I can return 10 times over.

ab348 said:

I firmly believe in my theory that there is a direct correlation with how poorly people navigate with a grocery cart and how well they drive their vehicles.

oldfarmer50

henryn said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

I agree and thought the same thing. I think a lot of dash cam owners should remove them because from what I have seen, it only incriminates their owners.

jmonroe

The words on screen at the end said the Accord driver was found 100% at fault. But I have to agree, my first thought on watching the video was that the guy driving the truck was paying no attention at all.

It's easy enough to look away for a second, to change the channel on the radio, or observe something off the road. But the truck changed lanes immediately before the accident, and one would hope he was looking at the road when he changed lanes.

That’s another thing I notice, the “victim” in these crashes could have avoided the collision if they had slowed down, let the bad driver merge or tried to avoid contact. Lots of them seem to be almost looking for trouble.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

henryn said:

jmonroe1 said:

stickguy said:

was he paying attention? Doesn't look like he even tried to brake or evade, almost like did not even notice until the impact.

I agree and thought the same thing. I think a lot of dash cam owners should remove them because from what I have seen, it only incriminates their owners.

jmonroe

The words on screen at the end said the Accord driver was found 100% at fault. But I have to agree, my first thought on watching the video was that the guy driving the truck was paying no attention at all.

It's easy enough to look away for a second, to change the channel on the radio, or observe something off the road. But the truck changed lanes immediately before the accident, and one would hope he was looking at the road when he changed lanes.

That’s another thing I notice, the “victim” in these crashes could have avoided the collision if they had slowed down, let the bad driver merge or tried to avoid contact. Lots of them seem to be almost looking for trouble.

That reminds me of what I told my son's when I was teaching them to drive. I told them, "driving is kinda unique. All your life you've been told not to look for trouble but when you drive, if you don't look for trouble, you're sure as hell going to find it".

jmonroe

ab348

oldfarmer50 said:

That’s another thing I notice, the “victim” in these crashes could have avoided the collision if they had slowed down, let the bad driver merge or tried to avoid contact. Lots of them seem to be almost looking for trouble.

Many people simply have no clue how to properly drive. I just had a first-hand example.

I was on a fairly busy crosstown expressway, traffic moderate and moving between 50 and 60mph. There is an entry ramp/lane from a busy business park area that continues about 1/3 mile to an exit to another major artery. In my experience about half the vehicles using this stay in that lane because the are going to that artery, while the others merge into the expressway.

Approaching all of this I saw 2 large tractor-trailers moving down the ramp along with several other vehicles. I moved over to the empty far-left lane, but noticed that the vehicles some distance ahead of me in the main travel lane did not. It was not all all surprising to see one of the vehicles suffer brain freeze when the trucks signaled to merge. Despite having plenty of room to either accelerate ahead of the truck and nothing to prevent them from doing as I did and moving to the left lane, instead they froze, hit the brakes, and almost caused a chain-reaction collision. We have our fair share of overly aggressive drivers here, but I think far more than our share of overly timid ones along with those who practice misplaced "courtesy" by letting people make left turns in front of them on multilane roads, stopping short to let people shortcutting on side streets enter the road, and my favorite, freezing up at 4-way stops and simply not moving, presumably out of fear.

ruking1

Interesting takes on Ford/GM. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investors-still-underestimating-gm-ford-140600112.html

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

https://youtu.be/-0H8BX8OM9s

Using the Driver100 System of Defensive Driving (DSDD) the accident could have been avoided. Although the Honda is clearly in the wrong....and it does appear made a left turn from a driving lane, not the left turn lane, the truck driver did not use defensive driving at all. Maybe he did what an average person would do....assumed he had the right of way and the Honda would wait.

If he used DSDD and "Thought about the stupidest thing the Honda driver could do - then be ready because the Honda driver will probably do it", he would have been prepared to stop or slow down in time. Could have saved him a lot of time, inconvenience and possibly pain.

I will say, it takes a toll on you having to drive defensively all the time.......have to really be concentrating and thinking constantly.

berri

One thing that would concern me a bit if I was a GM shareholder is that it seems Ram's jump in sales seems to disproportionately be coming out of GM's truck hide.

ruking1

I should have also posted the news of the even shakier Fiat Chrysler/Renault merger. According to the article, the merger would hoist the new entity to # 3 WW @ $ 37 B. This would be behind VW and Toyota. This inevitable NEEDS match up (of a rich French family, French government, & shareholders) was created before the bankruptcy during the 2008/2009 financial crash. GM was another car company declaring bankruptcy.

Indeed in a number of years, they could add Nissan, Mitsubishi, to the stable.

imidazol97

ab348 said:

Approaching all of this I saw 2 large tractor-trailers moving down the ramp along with several other vehicles. I moved over to the empty far-left lane, but noticed that the vehicles some distance ahead of me in the main travel lane did not. It was not all all surprising to see one of the vehicles suffer brain freeze when the trucks signaled to merge. Despite having plenty of room to either accelerate ahead of the truck and nothing to prevent them from doing as I did and moving to the left lane, instead they froze, hit the brakes, and almost caused a chain-reaction collision. We have our fair share of overly aggressive drivers here, but I think far more than our share of overly timid ones along with those who practice misplaced "courtesy" by letting people make left turns in front of them on multilane roads, stopping short to let people shortcutting on side streets enter the road, and my favorite, freezing up at 4-way stops and simply not moving, presumably out of fear.

I've felt a lot safer on multilane interstates by driving ahead of what the tractor-trailer drivers are going to need to do to keep their speed up especially on hills. If I'm in the middle lane next to a semi and I see he's (she's) gaining on a slower car in the lane ahead of him, I move over into the 3rd lane leaving the middle lane open for the semi driver to move over and pass the vehicle going slightly slower.

I did that on a trip to Columbus last summer on a mild day with light traffic on 3-lane I70. Truck in right lane coming up on another slower semi. I was in middle lane coming up on rear of trailer at a point where driver would not pull over in front of me.

The semi driver waved his whole arm out the side window in appreciation. He never had to drop below 70. He probably rarely sees a 4-wheeler thinking ahead for the semi driver, who can't regain speed as easily if they have to slow down for a vehicle ahead in their lane.

If more people drove thinking ahead for themselves and for trucks, lot few accidents.

thebean

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

https://youtu.be/-0H8BX8OM9s

Using the Driver100 System of Defensive Driving (DSDD) the accident could have been avoided. Although the Honda is clearly in the wrong....and it does appear made a left turn from a driving lane, not the left turn lane, the truck driver did not use defensive driving at all. Maybe he did what an average person would do....assumed he had the right of way and the Honda would wait.

If he used DSDD and "Thought about the stupidest thing the Honda driver could do - then be ready because the Honda driver will probably do it", he would have been prepared to stop or slow down in time. Could have saved him a lot of time, inconvenience and possibly pain.

I will say, it takes a toll on you having to drive defensively all the time.......have to really be concentrating and thinking constantly.

@driver100, that’s a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking there. There’s no way to anticipate every dumb thing that someone is going to do. The Honda was clearly in the wrong. The truck could have made more of an effort to avoid it or slam on their brakes, but to say that you would have been omniscient enough to see that the Honda would do that is really 20/20 hindsight, no matter what your system of defensive driving.

ab348

driver100 said:

Using the Driver100 System of Defensive Driving (DSDD) the accident could have been avoided. Although the Honda is clearly in the wrong....and it does appear made a left turn from a driving lane, not the left turn lane, the truck driver did not use defensive driving at all. Maybe he did what an average person would do....assumed he had the right of way and the Honda would wait.

If he used DSDD and "Thought about the stupidest thing the Honda driver could do - then be ready because the Honda driver will probably do it", he would have been prepared to stop or slow down in time. Could have saved him a lot of time, inconvenience and possibly pain.

You realize, Driver, that you have just self-identified as one of those old geezers who brakes when approaching green traffic lights. Those folks make my BP go up. :@

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

https://youtu.be/-0H8BX8OM9s

Using the Driver100 System of Defensive Driving (DSDD) the accident could have been avoided. Although the Honda is clearly in the wrong....and it does appear made a left turn from a driving lane, not the left turn lane, the truck driver did not use defensive driving at all. Maybe he did what an average person would do....assumed he had the right of way and the Honda would wait.

If he used DSDD and "Thought about the stupidest thing the Honda driver could do - then be ready because the Honda driver will probably do it", he would have been prepared to stop or slow down in time. Could have saved him a lot of time, inconvenience and possibly pain.

I will say, it takes a toll on you having to drive defensively all the time.......have to really be concentrating and thinking constantly.

How can you expect a person to concentrate on controlling a 4000 pound machine when he has to worry about his status on Twitter? I mean, come on.

imidazol97

oldfarmer50 said:

I’m amazed at how many of those dash cam videos show crashes with someone failing to yield while making left turns.

https://youtu.be/-0H8BX8OM9s

I started watching the video and kept on watching some that it plays automatically after that one ends. I wasted 45 minutes of my life watching those accidents.

houdini2

stickguy said:

My daughters's BF's father is in the hospital after a car accident Wednesday. Someone pulled out in front of him and got T-boned. Dad ended up with a broken Femur that needed surgery. Way it was explained to us he was driving next to a truck and when the person wanting to cross the road saw the truck clear he went, not seeing his Cruze. So, bammo. Making it worse, he was driving home from the mechanic after getting new tires and some other work done to the Chevy, which is now totaled, so unless they can argue with the insurance company, $900 down the drain.

nasty stretch of road (TJC, the WHP near Clementon road by La Esperanza). 4 lanes, no center lane for turns, all commercial along it with many driveways. Lots of accidents.

he did get to the hospital in record time. Her BF is a local cop (not that town, but all these little towns work together) so they radioed ahead and every town along the way sent someone out to block the signaled intersections. made it to Camden in record time. Even the ambulance people said they had never seen anything like it. Connections are everything in life.

I have had that same scenario happen to me a couple of times. Both times, with lots of braking and horn blowing I was able to avoid being hit.