So the other day I was tooling home in my old caprice, and I found myself going down the country road under the speed limit. I was so busy enjoying the drive i wanted it to last a bit longer, I was admiring the cars fine ride, smooth engine and economical operation.
All 8 cylinders were firing at will, the hum of the drive line was music to my ears. She sings a sweet tune.
Life was good. I tried to prolong the ride. I was motoring.
Then I got to thinking about the hurried, impatient driver. Now some are in a hurry because of poor time management, some because of an impossible schedule that just doesn’t work. Many are in a hurry to go buy drugs or wet their whistle.
But what about the rest?
I find many pickup drivers roar their engines and seem angry all the time and always in a hurry, and honestly If I drove a pickup truck I would try to get home as soon as possible too. Pickup trucks bring a connotation in the civilized parts of the country of work. Work trucks. One simply does not enjoy driving a truck, they do it because the are working.
Now it is the fashionable, macho and hip thing to do in many circles is drive a pickup truck. But subconsciously the driver is so aggravated by their vehicle they cannot stand it and try to minimize their time in it.
Is this the reason?
The BMW driver. (which around here they drive reasonably but they have a stigma that they drive like jerks)
Maybe their angry because their car payments are high. Maybe they are just in a hurry because their car is such a finely tuned driving machine they feel inferior when they are behind the wheel. I just don’t know.
I think many are in a hurry because they just hate driving, but maybe if they had the right vehicle they would be happy. They would not just be driving, they would be motoring!
Quite the opposite. They modern pickup trucks are a fine place to while away the driving hours. powerful, smooth riding, and loaded with all the entertainment options. They rival any cars produced today.
I bought my first truck-based SUV about 1996, a 1989 2WD Suburban. I didn’t like it much but I needed it to tow. My '89 Suburban was wonderful place to be. 3/4 ton big-block, 4WD, leather, heated seats and 44 gallon fuel tank. It would tow a house, rode pretty good and was a comfy as a sofa. Later came 2 4WD Avalanches. One I still have 14 years later. Rides very nice, very comfortable on long drives. High up, it reduces the sensation of speed, maybe. Most trucks I see speeding in my state are driving marked shop trucks.
Never owned a BMW. Worked on them, know many owners, a member of the BMW Club of America for 35 years. BMW owners seem to be tools in traffic, here too. They aren’t club members so I don’t know why they drive like the containers of feminine hygiene products.
It’s rare to find a pickup truck without an automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, AC and a sound system. What’s to dislike about driving one?
I only get grief from Dodge pickup drivers for some reason. Ford, Chevy, GMC pickups seldom a problem. Other than that pickups just take up a lot of road and parking lot space, which can be annoying, but nothing serious. For cars, Hyundai drivers for some reason seem to be the least considerate drivers around here, passing on the right, honking, pulling out from a driveway in front of you, etc. It’s weird that this inconsiderate driving behavior is very apparent w/ Hyundai owners, but not at all in Kia. They’re both Korean econobox cars after all. I have no theory for why. BMW drivers seldom cause me any grief, nor do Tesla drivers. Excellent drivers there. Considerate and skillful. Mercedes drivers seem to be overly worried and anxious for some reason . They seem get upset for little to no reason. Maybe the OP is right, they hate their vehicles. I don’t know why, Mercedes seem to be nice and attractive (except the tacked -on look of the hood ornament on some of the least expensive of them). But they generally don’t cause me any grief, other than having to watch them being worried and upset. Mustangs are often too loud, but other than that cause no trouble.
The fact that they have automatic transmissions, power steering, power brakes, AC and sound systems mostly.
I loved pickup trucks back in the day when pickup trucks were spartan no-nonsense utility vehicles. Vinyl covered bench seats, rubber floor mats, clutch, manual transmission, and a stove bolt six cylinder engine that was started with a pedal next to the accelerator. Vacuum windshield wipers and a heater and that’s about it. No power steering, no power brakes, no AC, no radio. Just the sweet hum of a inline six going through the gears.
Pickups by necessity had to have heavy duty springs so they didn’t wallow and sway through corners like the cars of that era did.
You seem to be eager to start a fight . . . as so often seems to be the case with you
What’s your beef this time?
By the way, I fundamentally disgree with you about pickup trucks
A lot of them are so pricey and optioned out, they cost as much as import luxury cars . . . so your argument doesn’t hold water. If people really hated them and tried to minimize their time in the truck, they wouldn’t get the most expensive model, and then click every option box on top of it. They’re doing that because they really enjoy the truck and like driving it
Expensive pickup trucks are quite the fashion statement among a great many of those “civilized parts of the country” . . . to quote YOU
Why are you always assuming the worst of other people . . . ?
You must be as old as me @B.L.E. I learned to drive in a GMC with the starter switch next to the accelerator back in the GOOD OLE DAYS also. And maybe part of life seeming to be a littler better all those years ago was that it wasn’t quite as rushed. And even today driving a stick shift is second nature to me and not having power steering or brakes never was a problem.
@B.L.E and @Rod_Knox You both brought back memories in your description of the 1950s Chevrolet/GMC pickups with the stove bolt 6 engines, vacuum wipers, floor pedal starter, etc. These trucks had real interval wipers–the wipers only wiped the windshield when you released the accelerator. I remember when Ford and GMC started offering automatic transmissions in pickup trucks back in 1953. However, it was rare to see a pickup with an automatic through the 1950s and into the mid 1960s. Now pickup trucks come with automatic transmissions as standard equipment. A friend of mine has a 1996 Dodge pickup with a big V-8 and a 4 speed manual transmission. I really like riding in that truck. I am 76 and he is 82. We toss our mowers in the bed and go mow yards for our friends who aren’t able to do the mowing for themselves. There is nothing like having good health and riding in the last of the real pickup trucks.
I’ll toss a comment in about Rick’s Chevy Caprice… The last of the flexy floaty fliers.
When the “Orca” version of the Caprice came out in 1991, the market studies said people liked the ride but they’d take their Honda Accords travelling the back roads because the Caprice’s handling scared them.
Maybe they’re angry because they’re trying to get somewhere and some inconsiderate idiot in front of them is going below the speed limit with total disregard for the normal flow of traffic.
I have never been late to work or had to call ahead to postpone an appointment because someone ahead of me was going a little under the speed limit.
On the other hand, I have lost count of how many times I’ve been late because the highway was closed thanks to some lead foot crashing his car.
So you have no problem with someone lazily lolling along plugging up the road?
Or someone creating a rolling roadblock that caused a crash. Traffic engineers use the word “turbulence” to describe the condition created by someone flowing below the normal speed range of a roadway. And it causes accidents. It’s the reason that many secondary roads have “passing lanes” built into lengthy inclines with signs up that say “slower traffic keep right”.
www.ashe.pro (American Society of Highway Engineers), or www.ite.org (Institute of Traffic Engineers). or www.asce.org (American Society of Civil Engineers)
might be a good place to begin researching this if you doubt me.
Do the math. If you are traveling along at 70 mph, and then you are stuck behind someone going 60 mph for 20 miles, how much time did you lose?
70 mph = 51.4286 seconds per mile.
60 mph = 60 seconds per mile. In other words you lose 8.5714 seconds per mile you are stuck behind the 60 mph driver.
That’s a total of 2 minutes and 51 seconds you are behind schedule, OH THE HUMANITY!
That’s why I don’t pass up people going 55 mph when my exit is only a mile or two ahead, the time you save is so small that it’s just not worth the pass.
By the way, stopping to go to the restroom on a highway trip will roll your ETA back by at least 5 minutes, so if you really need to make time on a highway trip, wearing Depends so you don’t have to stop will do you more good than cruising at 5 mph over the limit.
Answer the question. Do you or do you not have a problem with someone lolling along holding up traffic?
Now try to convince me that you’ve never become irritated by it.
Now try to convince me that you’ve never tried to pass them at the earliest possible opportunity.
Yes, I’m quite sure that kid who had a one car accident on a rural country road where he rolled multiple times and landed inverted in a field next to the road and was dead on arrival only happened because of traffic turbulence.
I was several HOURS, NOT MINUTES late for work because of him.
He alone has cost me more time than all the slow drivers that ever slowed me down combined.
One sample does not make a statistically significant database.
I’ve seen accidents caused by speed too.
I’ve also seen accidents caused by people trying to get around an unrealistically slow driver on a secondary road.
So, tell me, what’s YOUR understanding of the reason for those “passing lanes” I described, with their signs saying “slow traffic keep right”? According to traffic engineers, they’re there for safety, to allow safe passing of slow vehicles.
Do you have another explanation?