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Pre-covid, I drove a low slung coupe. My roof was roughly equal in height to most people’s windowsill. I was fine with it. Post covid, I drive a midsize suv, a
by vGPU 3y ago
Pre-covid, I drove a low slung coupe. My roof was roughly equal in height to most people’s windowsill. I was fine with it.
Post covid, I drive a midsize suv, and am no longer comfortable riding my motorcycle.
What has changed? Simple - the other drivers. I now often witness an accident almost daily. I had a car wipe out in front of me last week. I constantly have drivers blindly merging into my lane.
I don’t know what the long term effects of covid are, but I’m pretty sure they include the removal of awareness that other drivers exist on the road, as well as basic human decency.
I used to joke that when I was driving on the west coast, I’d have to remove my turn signal as I’d have the car behind immediately speed up to cut me off.
Sadly, this has now become the reality here on the east coast also.
- flagrant_taco 3y agoDo you think those are side effects of covid itself or more related to our pandemic response (lock downs, closing schools, WFH, vaccines, or something else)? This was pre-pandemic response, but for a few years I drove a Toyota MR2 and had a couple motorcycles. I feel pretty damn lucky to never have seen what would have happened to me wrecking any of those vehicles.
- vGPU 3y agoWho knows? There have definitely been plenty of studies showing that we're seeing more inflammation and I have definitely felt like people in general are getting "dumber". Likely a mix of several factors.
- ethbr0 3y agoHow'd the MR2 drive? I've had one of those on my quirk to-buy list for awhile.
- flagrant_taco 3y agoI loved that car, it was a second gen turbo with t-tops. It's effectively a street legal go-cart, actually very si.ilar to an early Lotus Elise if you've ever driven one. I never had issues with it spinning around on my, though I was always very aware of how centered the weight balance was so it was clear when I was getting close to the edge. I'd take a car like that over a true high performance vehicle any day. Taking a fast turn on public street at legal speeds was more engaging than doing 110 in a Corvette on a track in my opinion.
- ethbr0 3y agoI had a Miata second gen 6-speed for a few years, and 110% agree on the fun level of street legal go-carts, over heavier but more powerful. Thanks for the impression. I'll make sure to test drive one if the opportunity comes up. RIP Miata/del Sol/Elise/MR2/S2000/CRX era
- flagrant_taco 3y agoA person after my own heart! I ended up with an MR2 but very seriously considered every single car on that list
- mlsu 3y agoHad the same car. Crashed it once, bought the exact same model cash the following week. Oh those were the days. Miatas too cheap to meter.
- vGPU 3y agoI've always wanted to drive one of those. Sadly, it will probably never happen now. My personal favorite was a beat-up manual C5 vette. Clutch drops at 6k all day long. Seat sliders were broken so it would wobble around rather alarmingly. Mufflers stolen by some hoodlums. Incredibly fun.
- flagrant_taco 3y agoWhen I was 15 my mom's boyfriend wanted to impress me. We went for a ride in his candy cane C5 one evening, hit 118mph on the interstate on ramp. Really gave me an appreciation for that powertrain...my mom was less appreciative. Come to think of it, that's probably part of why I loved the thrill of an MR2 when technically driving at legal speeds
- vGPU 3y agoI agree, small, low slung manual cars let you have fun without breaking too many laws. You can’t do that with modern cars anymore. I took a c7z for a test drive. Took it sideways going ~75mph, but the car was completely numb and unfeeling. I knew that it wasn’t the car for me, because I’d kill myself or someone else trying to eke a thrill out of it.