Does a good car make you over-confident?

VernD said:
Stay on topic.

What the heck does this have to do anything? I invite you take a drive out with my friend, especially when he's been drinking. Then again, judging from your posts, you might just like it.
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You never mentioned he was drunk.
 
VernD said:
Exactly what the title says there.

I had kind of a long-weekend - went to the Pink Loerie Festival in Knysna.

The roadtrip was my friend's idea because he had just recently bought a Golf 7 TDi. On the way there and back though, he constantly did the following, which really grated my carrot but I rather said nothing:
- driving too fast for the road conditions e.g. speeding through a section under construction where the speed limit was reduced from 120 to 60 and from two lanes to one.
- Tailgating at 120 - this was the scariest ****, plus, it started to rain when we got to Robertson, so the road was wet, but this continued.
- Overtaking when it's not safe to do so - literally, taking chances


He's never driven like this before, not even when we drove in convoy. Now, I'm just wondering whether it is that he's over-confident because of the new car, or whether he's testing it's limits, or whether he was just being a douche. Feel free to comment on the merits of his driving or on the car.
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Depends on what is meant by "Good" car, but I feel in general people driving luxuries vehicles with ECS,ABS and and...technologies, tend to forget that not all vehicles are made equal and more importantly they also forget that their fancy vehicles still have limitations.
 
Gulio said:
I even leaned out the window with a ruler to measure.
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Gulio, you are either Trolling, or you are a Cretin.

Personally, I would have told the guy to stop and let me drive sensibly, or I would have told him to drop me off and I would have caught a bus back home.

Really, I have absolutely no intention of having myself wiped out, because some a s s hole thinks he can drive like Sebastian Vettel on a busy or wet, or any road apart from a track. :mad:

A car is only as safe as the idiot behind the wheel, and an over confident idiot is a dangerous idiot....and there are far too many of them on our roads, unfortunately.
 
systemofpurplelimpminion said:
Depends on what is meant by "Good" car, but I feel in general people driving luxuries vehicles with ECS,ABS and and...technologies, tend to forget that not all vehicles are made equal and more importantly they also forget that their fancy vehicles still have limitations.
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It's a Golf 7 TDi; it comes with ECS, ABS, etc as standard. What you said in the second part is closer to the truth though - people not knowing the limitations of their vehicles.

Gulio said:
I even leaned out the window with a ruler to measure.
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And probably read their speedometer too yes
 
Fazda said:
Gulio, you are either Trolling, or you are a Cretin.
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Trolling more like it.

Fazda said:
Personally, I would have told the guy to stop and let me drive sensibly, or I would have told him to drop me off and I would have caught a bus back home.
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Desperate to get home and my car was parked at his house, and I offered to take the other passengers home because it would be on my way home.

Fazda said:
Really, I have absolutely no intention of having myself wiped out, because some a s s hole thinks he can drive like Sebastian Vettel on a busy or wet, or any road apart from a track. :mad:

A car is only as safe as the idiot behind the wheel, and an over confident idiot is a dangerous idiot....and there are far too many of them on our roads, unfortunately.
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That was why I started this thread, to get other people's point of view. In my mind, I kind of already decided that he was being a douche.
 
I actually find driving a good car gives people a false sense of security due to their ignorance.

Things like ABS which most people don't understand how to operate or what it actually does so they think they have "better" braking yet when they find themselves in a situation where they need it they actually stop worse than they ever would have without ABS because they freak out the moment the pedal pushes back.

Or they simply don't steer while using the ABS and then simply smash into whatever they were trying to avoid anyway.

Same goes for ESP systems. Suddenly they think they can break the laws of physics and go around a corner faster than is physically capable for the car because you know ESP will sort it out.

Not to mention airbags and seat belts working together etc.


People have no concept of speed and the resulting braking distances required NOT to smash into something. Thus the crazy following distances.
 
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Gulio said:
Do you honestly keep a 3 sec following gap?
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I cant understand how people see time as a valid measurement for length?

Why not just say 6M or 2 car lengths?


OP, he got a new car, he was showing off. It could have gone pear shaped and you could have gotten killed. Draw the line.
 
Rickster said:
I cant understand how people see time as a valid measurement for length?

Why not just say 6M or 2 car lengths?


OP, he got a new car, he was showing off. It could have gone pear shaped and you could have gotten killed. Draw the line.
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The faster you go, the further your stopping distance is. If you give the following distance in time, the gap increases as the speed increases, which is what you want. Thus 3 seconds at 60km/h is a 50m gap, while 3 seconds at 100km/h is a 83m gap and 3 seconds at 120km/h is a 100m gap. If you wanted to do the measurement in meters, you would need a chart for following distance at all speeds, which could be rather distracting while driving.
 
Rickster said:
I cant understand how people see time as a valid measurement for length?

Why not just say 6M or 2 car lengths?


OP, he got a new car, he was showing off. It could have gone pear shaped and you could have gotten killed. Draw the line.
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I can't understand what exactly it is that you can't understand about it?

Take lead cars' current position, count how long it takes you to reach the same position. Done.


Saying distance doesn't really help much since it's very variable depending on speed. At 60 you are doing 16.67 meters a second, at 120 you are doing 33 a second, thus you obviously can't use the same distance.
 
Rickster said:
I cant understand how people see time as a valid measurement for length?

Why not just say 6M or 2 car lengths?


OP, he got a new car, he was showing off. It could have gone pear shaped and you could have gotten killed. Draw the line.
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Thanks to the other posters all I have to say is:

FACEPALM!
 
Quantum Theory said:
It's not just here. The lack of comprehension has astounded me in other threads before.
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Yeah, I think the license test should have stuff like this too. Drivers licenses are a privilege and not a right.

"But I like to go fast charna, especially after I klap the gym"

Well, you can go fast as soon as you have a clue about basic physics.
 
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