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Towing explosives and nukes a speciality.
james
I find it so funny that he has to state teens are higher risk takers. DUH! Where has he been hiding? We know that! Whatever happened to common sense? People as so hung up on 'my rights' and 'their rights' that they don't use common sense to protect the masses. Why would you give a deadly weapon (ie...car) to a kid who isn't even accountable under the law as an adult?
but my point about the SUV was made because of the higher rollover potential and a child's poor understanding of vehicle physics and rapid changes to control inputs. SUVs can be dangerous for adults in this respect as well.
james, (happy to be in last place)
I'm not sure if anyone is arguing. I think we're all moving towards a common agreement. It's really sad for me because now I'll have to pick fights with my mother for some action. Can't we all disagree on something???
Teens scare me when they're in cars. When I used to ride my bicycle around Omaha, Nebraska, the frequency of harrassment increased when school was out.
I think it is undeniable that folks can be killed in SUV's and by suvs. but even more so by small cars!!!!! I think a lot of folks are missing the point that structurally both % percentage and volume and RATE wise,most folks get killed in and by small cars!!
This ideal that SUV's only cause accidents with small cars and kill only the small car folks is NOT, I repeat not backed up by the NHTSA statistics. It is also not backed up by the IIHS data. Are the suv more prone to rollover accidents? Absolutely. But it is more of self danger than danger to other participants in the collisions. Small cars are more of a danger to themselves AND to other participants. This again is in % volume and more importantly RATE.
The running order : I'm in the right lane, following an F350 that's behind a semi. There's a semi behind me in the right lane, and another in the left lane off my rear quarter. We're all travelling about 60mph. The exit lane appears to my right, and after a couple of hundred feet, the F350 puts on his signal and starts to move into the exit lane. Suddenly, I see a stopped delivery type pickup in the exit lane appear out of the mist the semi is throwing up. No 4 ways, no lights, just sitting there right in the middle of the lane with PLENTY of shoulder to pull off the road available. The F350 swerves back into the right travel lane JUST missing the MAJOR accident that could have happened. Less than 6" of space between the vehicles is my estimate. Had he hit the parked truck i think he would have definitely been thrown back into the right travel lane at least, and there was no place for anyone to swerve or slow down to.
I did NOT notice if anyone was sitting in the stopped truck or walking down the side of the exit. I'd LOVE to hear the excuse why you left a vehicle sitting in a lane where vehicles routinely are travelling 55+!! :mad:
I've also noted that truckers are not inclined to slow down for rain... higher speeds > more road spray.
james
Be WARE.
What I hate is on state roads with huge 15-foot shoulders and 55-60 mph limits, you have people making right turns and they are too afraid to get a little ding on their precious vehicles, so they slow down to about 20 mph turning speed on the road instead of using the gigantic shoulder. And then they say cyclists block the road! I have to ride my bicycle in that crap...the least they can do is get their gigantic rump off the road onto a shoulder built for them so the rest of the sane public doesn't have to slow to a stop for them to make their turn. So rude...that always deserves a honk.
Tried to slip in a little cyclist propoganda...
I think that is a big flaw with CC, that you can't just let up the throttle to let the tires regain traction.
OT, it would have been very inconsiderate of me to start doing donuts in the middle of a wet highway!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Recommend tying in the headlight switch to the wiper switch.
Recommend a beginner driver learn on a four speed stick including starting uphill without rolling back using the parking brake in conjunction with the clutch and gas pedal while pulling out into traffic from the curb!
On all questions, the answer is unequivocally "YES!"
I use the terms "unwieldy" and "cumbersome" based on the reference point of a modern day mid-size car. Many folks today would argue that modern full-size SUVs or any SUV fits this bill, but again, point of reference! For a child just learning, there is no point of reference. This individual's point of reference is the van - which, BTW, is probably far more prone to rollover, etc., than any modern vehicle, period. Even modern full-size vans catch a lot of flak for this tendency. Heck, the university here recently retired all of their full size vans for this reason and replaced them with.... of all things..... Ford Excursions (the biggest SUV out there... I think....)!
I learned to drive using this very vehicle (the Econoline)... well, passenger vehicles anyway. I had driven tractors, etc., for years. I started driving it at 13 with my dad on crummy dirt roads with no traffic. I drove that and a '79 F150 manual tranny with him. It was not until I turned 15 and received my learner's permit that I started driving sedans, etc., on public roads.
But, as far as confidence, it gave me far more. I remember feeling timid when driving the pickup the first couple times, then the first time parallel parking! Now though, I can parallel park my Subaru with less than 12 inches on each end and I don't think twice about it. Confidence is learned young. I still cannot convince my wife that she knows how to drive our '69 Chevy C20 (manual tranny), even though I taught her how to drive it 6 years ago and she has more than 4000 miles behind the wheel.
It's a mindset and an opportunity that requires the parent to be both competent and confident, and to love/respect the child enough to be confident in the child's ability even when the child is not. But..... I'm still 11-12 years off teaching my son to drive, so who knows, maybe I will have given up on my van and truck by then and surrender him to the ignorant bliss.
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I agree with you about the Jeep (or any vehicle) comment.... I have seen no teenagers who respect their vehicles or their own limitations when they are given a car (regardless of what it is). I had a my van "given" to me at 18, but had already spent 5 years rebuilding the thing from the ground up before that day, so it meant more to me than even having gone out and purchased one with my own hard-earned money. Without the investment/responsibility, it just seems to be too much "independence" too soon, regardless of the make/model of the automobile.
2-lane? I wasn't aware that our rural roads had lanes... :P
Seriously, though. Everything in life involves risks, and I certainly would not allow my children to drive it unless I felt it was mechanically sound and the area was appropriate to allow them to practice driving without significant risk to themselves or other drivers.
Recent model pickups are not clunky. The last time I was behind the wheel of one ('97 F350 crew long bed), I wondered why people were looking at me with horror when I was backing it into a parking spot in a crammed parking lot... apparently they felt it was "clunky." But, one try, centered, and 6" off the bumper of the vehicle behind me (right where I wanted to be), I could only shake my head at those poor fools that have a heard time parking their compact p/us. Again, it all depends on your point of reference.
I imagine the newest models are even more car-like than those of 8 years ago.
Be WARE.
As sad as it sounds, that just won't happen. While it is unsafe to use cruise control in the rain, that is not why. See, the cruise control's job is to keep you going at the same speed. If you hit a patch of water and hydroplane, your tires are getting no traction and spinning very fast. In a situation like this, the cruise control is going to think you have suddenly took off and cut the throttle, not nail it. Then, when you regain contact with the pavement, it will look like you suddenly returned to the speed you were going, so the cruise control will moderately increase the throttle to hold your speed.
It is a shame that parallel parking is not required for driver exams. A failed parallel parking attempt with 24" off each end of the vehicle should be an automatic failure for the test as it demonstrates that the driver does not have a solid understanding of the vehicle.
Yesroh now has another bit of ammo.... :mad:
PF, how do you manage to come across so many near-death situations? :surprise:
I see disabled vehicles abandoned in lanes quite often and it always puzzles me.... why would anyone leave a vehicle there?!!! The liability alone would prompt me to push it to a curb.
I was cringing the other day. This guy was backing out of his spot, stopped a good 8 feet from the cars behind him. Pulled forward towards me, stopping just inches from my bumper, backed up a little bit and went by just barely clearing my bumper.
In an incident like that, the person on the cellphone should be guilty of reckless driving! :mad:
Or...maybe not.
Honestly... I think I have a poltergeist! I TRY to mind my own business, but these things DO seem to seek me out. Could also be that I have 221,000 on the car and that's a lot of "exposure" :surprise:
My date and I were surprised by a policeman last night. I played it cool and we came out okay. I guess it's not good to make out in a public school parking lot.
After all there are red light cameras out there that need monitoring as they raise millions in funds for the companies that peddle them to cities as a fund raiser and safety enchancer. The companies are probably run by excops.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The same baloney that speeding is a victimless crime is wrong.
The vehicle very seldom "criminalizes" vehicle infractions. This includes stuff that you would think is actually criminal.
For example, parking lot dings could easily meet the grand theft $ criteria. Imagine opening a car door and leaving a ding and walking away coming back to felony hit and run and grand theft.
Time to let the dead horse lie there instead of beating on it.
We've been driving strictly manual transmission vehicles since 1979, but this summer we had the need for a larger vehicle for vacation and rented one. Automatic transmission, so my left foot was kinda lost
The biggest difference I noticed was how cruise control functions in an auto vs stick. In our cars, you set the cruise in 5th gear, and the car stays at that speed as the cruise adjusts the gas. If we come to a slight grade, more gas is applied. If the grade gets too steep, the cruise eventually kicks off.
With the auto, the cruise would downshift to a lower gear to maintain speed on a grade, and this always seemed to bring on a temporary increase in speed. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it. It seemed like the grade would start to slow the car down, then the downshift would give us a burst of acceleration. It was VERY annoying, and several times another vehicle was in the process of passing us as our speed dropped, and the cruise would downshift, making it appear that I was trying to not be passed.
So in the case of signalling and being passed, that is indeed one choice and from the person's point of view that whose lane you are trying to move into; a safer one. Dropping back to allow a lane change is another. The one I do not like is the one who will move up along side of you and go forever!!!!!
To make matters worse at the end of this stretch there is a light and this clown in the scooter drives between the stopped traffic and ties up all the traffic that got around him again. Geez where is a cop when you need one.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
>Geez where is a cop when you need
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
It's like trying to pass someone and cut in front of them while accelerating from a stoplight and getting upset that they don't stop accelerating so you can get in front of them.
When people accelerate when I pass, I just accelerate more (I can beat about 99% of vehicles), get a good distance ahead, and then resume my planned spead. Most jokers back off once they've been slaughtered by another car, as they know they'll be dusted again.
Once on I5 in the fintail, I had some inbred in a beat old Caravan accelerate as I went around him (why do some have to defend their manhood against ancient cars? they forget these old cars are usually driven by maniacs like myself...)...I soundly beat him, then got in front of him and drove a little on the shoulder, as the shoulder was wet and the road was dry. My rooster tail made him back off...he was over the horizon behind me in no time.
I once had some impotent in a Suburban play the same trick as I was driving in the fintail. He kept up a little more...but a fintail at 100 must be better than his whale, as he too gave up.
it's courteous to honor flash / pass when conditions are safe to do so. obviously, you wouldn't want to be an enabler for the pass if it was clearly dangerous up ahead (although - if someone is stupid to pull out - you can help make sure everyone involved gets another chance to say i love you to someone special, by pulling to the right and slowing), nor would you want to make the pass problematic just to teach someone a lesson. ...that may backfire and cause many people to die. dumb dumb dumb.
if you are in a chase with someone (in atlanta - i see people goated into doing this !@#$%^&* all the time), it's gone way way too far. you're now risking everyone's life on the road at that point. plainly stupid in my book. ive seen some chases and thought for sure beyond the turn or up over the hill, i was going to see flipped cars. thankfully - not yet.