02-10-2021, 04:31 PM
There seems to be two themes emerging. One is safety features, and the other is driving style.
In general safety features are in my view a good idea, and if they are working correctly, and current generation, should not be intrusive. Opinions clearly differ though.
Driving style is certainly more aggressive that I remember. Part of that is that there are a lot more more cars on the roads. And part of it is that a modern car is so quiet, and capable of such high speeds, you get little sense of how fast your are travelling. If you leave the recommended two second gap, all that happens is that someone squeezes into it. Or undertakes at 100 and then pulls in front. They lose track of the fact that they are in a tin box, and an event at 100mph is not survivable.
Mind you, I still have mental scars of pulling off the M1 onto the M18 in the mid '80s, and the old boy and his wife stopped dead in the fast lane to read the map right in front of me. I swerved into the slow lane, and the guy in the slow lane had the presence of mind to take the hard shoulder. As we pulled away, white knuckled, we looked at each other in astonishment at what we had just seen happen.
But the car I was driving back then was an Escort, bought new. Even though it had a 1.6 litre engine (with a conventional carb), the most I could I could get with foot flat to the boards was 90mph. I really have no idea how fast my Ford Kuga goes, and really don't want to do the test. But fast for sure.
In general safety features are in my view a good idea, and if they are working correctly, and current generation, should not be intrusive. Opinions clearly differ though.
Driving style is certainly more aggressive that I remember. Part of that is that there are a lot more more cars on the roads. And part of it is that a modern car is so quiet, and capable of such high speeds, you get little sense of how fast your are travelling. If you leave the recommended two second gap, all that happens is that someone squeezes into it. Or undertakes at 100 and then pulls in front. They lose track of the fact that they are in a tin box, and an event at 100mph is not survivable.
Mind you, I still have mental scars of pulling off the M1 onto the M18 in the mid '80s, and the old boy and his wife stopped dead in the fast lane to read the map right in front of me. I swerved into the slow lane, and the guy in the slow lane had the presence of mind to take the hard shoulder. As we pulled away, white knuckled, we looked at each other in astonishment at what we had just seen happen.
But the car I was driving back then was an Escort, bought new. Even though it had a 1.6 litre engine (with a conventional carb), the most I could I could get with foot flat to the boards was 90mph. I really have no idea how fast my Ford Kuga goes, and really don't want to do the test. But fast for sure.
