What are you rubbish at?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Fri 30 Aug 2013 15:04
What are you rubbish at? - jamie745

What driving related activity are you simply just not good at? What item made you celebrate when it wasn't included on your test?

I'll go first and freely admit I am pretty useless at parallel parking. I can do it. Eventually.

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Fri 30 Aug 2013 15:15
What are you rubbish at? - RT

My parallel parking isn't up to my usual standard - I've not known where to put the pencil marks in all my own cars, my tuition car had them nicely marked.

I'm also not very good at keeping up with all the speed limit changes - yes I know they put big round signs up !

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Fri 30 Aug 2013 22:26
What are you rubbish at? - daveyjp
The only thing I am wary of is black ice. We've had it the last two winters and without doubt its the most terrifying surface to encounter.

Having a car with auto parallel parking may be a bonus for some, but I'm parked before the system is ready to use.
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Fri 30 Aug 2013 23:09
What are you rubbish at? - craig-pd130

Avoiding short posts in car parks when reversing: twice in the last month I've bumped into low metal posts that were below the car's window line when coming out of parking spaces, which I either failed to notice before getting into the car or forgot about. No damage done but it's embarrassing.

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Fri 30 Aug 2013 23:14
What are you rubbish at? - RT

Backroomers driving standards must be very high - just 4 of us admitting to being less than perfect !

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Fri 30 Aug 2013 23:34
What are you rubbish at? - Ed V

Definitely go with not seeing low posts in car parks; also falsely anticipating the driver ahead has joined the roundabout, but is still stationary....oops; dual carriageway - overtaking without using my mirror, three times in 30 years seems OK but each time I was lucky to avoid a collision; Failing to dip lights when mind was in neutral, probablt a dozen times.

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Fri 30 Aug 2013 23:37
What are you rubbish at? - Avant

As I get older I find I'm more inclined to use the mirrors for reversing, rather than (as my instructor told me to do all those years ago) shift my whole body sideways in order to see out of the back. I can still reverse safely, but quite a lot more slowly.

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 00:03
What are you rubbish at? - John Boy

I've always been good at reversing and parking. I once got a round of applause from a minibus full of students, when I did a zig-zag reversing manoeuvre into the only space left in the middle of a very tight car park. Now that I own a really small car, however, I find it extremely difficult to park it parallel to a kerb.

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 00:05
What are you rubbish at? - bathtub tom

Tolerance!

Especially CLOGgers and self-opinionated boors here!

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 00:44
What are you rubbish at? - Smileyman

I'm bad at being behind slow drivers .... the ones who in good weather either day or night drive below the speed limit for no apparent reason. I'm not great behind tractors either, but at least they have good reason for driving so slowly.

Funnily enough I'm also intolerant of drivers who drive too fast for the conditions at times of inclement weather - be it fog, snow, or heavy rain etc. This includes the person behind on my tail ... who wants me to drive faster - maybe because I understand the danger of the conditions and how important those 4 little bits of rubber are at that time (I try not to think of the state of their tyres, and prey they are not of ditchfinder quality)

I don't like to overtake on single carriageway roads, but I force myself when I have to, IMO this is the most dangerous action to take on the road.

Parking - no problem, but I always back in and drive out forwards (after a child ran behind the car when backing out of a parking bay soon after I learnt to drive)

Edited by Smileyman on 31/08/2013 at 00:46

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 09:20
What are you rubbish at? - barney100
Besides all my own faults I am a terrible passenger. Swmbo really has a go at me when I'm ghost breaking and looking aghast, I reckon though she is a better driver than me.
, certainly faster at getting places.

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 12:29
What are you rubbish at? - Bobbin Threadbare

I'm with Bathtub and Smileyman on this one. I have very low levels of tolerance for the 'too slow' brigade (you might want to labour your engine or have stupidly ratioed gears but I need to actually hit 30mph to jump into 4th thank you!), traffic light creepers (why let 10 cars through when you could remain half asleep and have only 5 follow you?!), people who tailgate (even at a stop; tyres and tarmac visible people!), those who refuse to use a handbrake on a hill (no I don't want you to roll back into my MX5; I love it and it doesn't deserve denting), people who drive inappropriately for the conditions (fog lights are called fog lights; they're not called 'rain lights' and you don't suddenly need to do 55mph or 110mph in the drizzle) and people that drive in the cycle lane.

So my most rubbish thing would be the quality of my language when I drive.

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Sat 31 Aug 2013 22:43
What are you rubbish at? - Happy Blue!

Parallel parking is one of my good points. I learnt to drive as a young teenager on a private industrial estateand by 15 was driving HGVs around it.

However, as I get older, my reactions are slower, observational skills worse (unless its an 18 yo female in a short skirt!) and tolerance is weakening.

My father, who is 78, gave a lift to the airport to the daughter of some friends. They were on the same flight. On asked by her parents, how was my father's driving, the reply was "... just like grandpa's!..." I think she spent the whole trip pressing on an imaginary brake pedal.

It will come to us all.


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Sun 1 Sep 2013 18:49
What are you rubbish at? - hillman

Definately parallel parking. I was taught by rote during my driving lessons but I've never really mastered it.

And, I really hate drivers who tailgate me, especially where they keep drifting out to look by. I pull over and let them by, but then I sometimes have a problem getting back in the traffic stream. It is amusing when I see them start to tailgate the car, or worse, the articulated lorry in front.

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Sun 1 Sep 2013 19:51
What are you rubbish at? - madf

Being modest about my incomporable drivings skills.

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Tue 3 Sep 2013 11:28
What are you rubbish at? - MrJohnQCitizen

I'm a terrible motorway junction planner. Have been caught out a few times and had to make a dash from the outside lane onto the slip road (yes that's me) safely of course.

Featureless motorways have occasionally meant I've travelled miles in the wrong direction.

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Wed 4 Sep 2013 17:44
What are you rubbish at? - Ed V

Finding the M-way from service stations.

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Wed 4 Sep 2013 18:08
What are you rubbish at? - markweatherill

Reading the minds of other motorists.

If I could do that I wouldn't have to give way at roundabouts to people turning left, for example.

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Wed 4 Sep 2013 21:52
What are you rubbish at? - Trilogy

Putting the all year tyres on in summer. The winter tyres have performed very well all summer!

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