Well went up to a friends last night, had a few drinks as my missus volunteered to drive back. Now why is it when the missus drives your car, even if you have had a few drinks, you become instantly more alert, and dare I say it, nervous!
First of all she has to adjust everything, yes I know its the correct thing to do but seat moved forward and back tilted further and even the lumbar adjustment got turned. All 3 mirrors adjusted as well. (Mental note - give myself an extra 5 mins before next journey to put everything back)
The wipers were on auto, as they have been since we got the car, but she insisted on manually switching them on and off for the whole journey home.
The climate control which is always on auto, just adjust the temp, no she had to press every button trying to change where the airflow was going. (This was after I shouted at her when she tried to use the back of her hand to demist the windscreen and side windows!)
Gears, where I would use 5th, she stayed in 4th and only eventually moved up to 5th about 55mph where I would be going into 6th. 6th never got a look in (even though she normally drives the Skoda which has 6 gears)
Three different occasions she nearly missed a pothole........
And then parked up in the driveway, that lovely melodic sound of the handrake coming up through every ratchet....
Maybe it would have been better if I had finished the bottle of Port off......
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Three different occasions she nearly missed a pothole........
That sounds like my other half :o) Only last time I let her drive I woke up to the sound of 6 bangs - budung budung, bumph bumph, budung budung. I asked what we hit, "Just a pothole" just one? "Yeah, just one", so why 6 bangs not just 2 then? "Well I had to mount the kerb to get to it"
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Chortle chortle....
A lot of these annoyances were rattled off in an old thread of mine "Would you stop doing that, would ye?" some time ago, more aimed at annoying passengers than annoying drivers.
Knees in the back from rear passengers and miscellaneous scraps of litter rammed into the corner of the ashtray at 3.8G were two particular favourites.
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>Now why is it when the missus drives your car..
>This was after I shouted at her..
I think you just answered your own question and to be honest you got off lightly. My wife would have done far worse and then refused to ever act as chauffeur again.
Kevin...
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When we were newly married (1974) SWMBO drank more than I did, as she's never had a car. But over the years she's drunk less and less and is now pretty well TT (her choice). I know the problem - so if we go to a party we go in the Mini.
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I've given up commenting about using anything above fourth.
What really gets her goat is, comments like:
Did your ???? bounce like that when we were younger?
Sorry mods.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 06/01/2008 at 23:45
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A bit of advice for some of you chaps to bear in mind. My husband has not been able to drive since his late forties, so is totally reliant on SWMBO ;~) for transportation.
Isn't it lucky he never complained about my driving when he could drive? He makes the odd hurrumph now when he thinks I am in the wrong gear, usually when I am in 6th and he thinks I should be in 5th, but as he has never driven my car he has more sense (or sense of self preservation) than to actually voice his opinion. He has, however, (clever fellow) been overheard saying that his wife is a good driver, if a bit nippy.
Edited by deepwith on 07/01/2008 at 00:01
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I always split the driving 50:50. I drive there, she drives back (when I'm too drunk to bother about her dragging the clutch for 200 yards, leaving the handbrake on, upping the temperature to 30 degrees)
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I would be very happy if my wife would drive - regardless of the changes she makes to controls / seats; she'd make the same changes if she were driving my car by herself anyway.
I wouldn't make any comment about her driving - while she may drive differently to me, I can't be bothered to make petty judgements about someone else's driving.
Sometimes, if we go as a family, one of my 'kids' will drive - and I'll happily sit in the back.
However, SWMBO really doesn't like driving at night, and typically will have just one glass of wine.
So I have to drive, and that means I can't drink either.
Think yourself fortunate :-)
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My wife doesn't drive but she's desperate to. The road connecting our little summer shack to the highway is about a mile long and she likes to drive that bit.
She'll probably learn this year and I'll probably offer advice in certain situations but I'd never moan or get annoyed, she's a superstar, my wife.
It rarely happens with me but it's nice to be a passenger in your own car. I used to particularly enjoy being in the rear of the 605 and thinking wow what I lot of space there is in the back.
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>>However, SWMBO really doesn't like driving at night, and typically will have just one glass of wine.
>>So I have to drive, and that means I can't drink either.
>>Think yourself fortunate :-)
>>
SWMBO has a licence and reminds me she passed first time but has hardly driven since and not at all for many years so I too can't drink except when my offspring drive me.
At least I rarely get any comments about my driving efforts except " can you slow down a little" :-)
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I find it difficult to relax when Mrs H is at the controls. As for adjusting everything, if we are in the C3, she has the seat fully raised, I have the seat fully down. One adjustment of the seat brings mirrors into line. I would prefer it if Mrs H drove at a constant speed on the motorway, signalled earlier and braked sooner for hazards, but I keep telling myself she must be OK; she's never had an accident in 30 years of driving.
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"she's never had an accident in 30 years of driving"
But she's seen plenty in her mirror................ !!!!!
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I hope she doesn't visit this site too often...
Don't you adjust anything when you drive the Skoda?
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Memory seats and mirrors (and even hi-fi station and sounds) item 225.....sigh.
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Only done it once -- made her drive back from MIL's birthday party - I don't like being driven by her and she doesn't like me in car when she drives - got to within 5 miles of home and I shouted watch that - "what" -- you just ran over a street road sign the angelic young kids by us had kicked into road -- 4 miles later I said can you hear that bumpty bumpty bumpty - No! - pull over - pitch black no torch but could tell front nearside tyre was flat - have you ever changed a wheel in pitch black not knowing where jack or brace was with no boot light (Yaris) --
Needless to say I drive and never been to MIL's since.
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It's interesting that on exactly the same types of trips I get 5-10mpg more out of my car than my wife. I also get there quicker!
It's a diesel and I think she's still trying to drive it like a petrol, over-revving and changing up late.
Edited by Ravenger on 07/01/2008 at 13:17
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Reminds me of the punchline of a fairly poor joke now nearing retirement age....
My grandfather died peacefully in his sleep.....
... with 55 passengers screaming their heads off
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When cruising along A59, in her Jazz at about 50-55 in 4th, I had the temerity to ask why not use 5th. "I was told only to use 5th when at a steady speed" was the reply. We'd been going for several miles in 4th, and were likely to continue all the way to Skipton. Eventually she changed up, reluctantly. At the back of it I think she's a little worried the car might run away with her. Tried to get her to agree to the CVT version, as her gear choice is a bit odd, and it would reduce the stress around town - for me anyway:)
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SWMBO probably covers more mileage a tear than I do in her Yaris and is a very safe and competent driver when she gets used to a car.
She has driven my Accord Tourer twice since I bought it lasy May , both times taking around ten minutes or so of fiddling with electric seats and electric mirrors etc which irritates me as I then have to reset them. She is particularly worried about the size of the Accord which is 50% longer than the Yaris and I am sure that she would be all over the place trying to reverse it into a parking space.
She would however have trouble getting the wrong gear in an automatic and I'm sure if she had more use of the Honda she would be fine.
I try never to criticise ( well maybe once in a while a muffled scream will escape.... ) if I want to have a drink and be driven home .
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A female colleague of mine never uses 5th gear as she believes during 5th to 4th, she might accidentally go to reverse.
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Memory seats and mirrors (and even hi-fi station and sounds) item 225.....sigh.
For heavens sake man, buy another! :-)
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For heavens sake man buy another! :-)
PG and I have been telling him the same thing over in the moderators mess room.
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Are you sure it was your wife that drove you home?, sounds incredibly similar to any journey I make with mine, I only ever let 'er indoors chauffeur me after I have had a drink, would be too darn scary if I was sober. Bless her polyester socks.
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dxb55. Great excuse not to visit the MinL. Regards Peter
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Having read the above posts, I'm glad its not just me then!
Mrs S6's two more cringeworthy habits are hanging on to gears /changing down unnecessarily and leaving too much room on the nearside - I've been sat in the passenger seat and been over the central white lines - when I drive down the same road, its me that's over the white lines.
If Mrs S6 were reading this, then her input would be ''he drives too fast, and he changes gear without using the clutch'' (this is when driving her car)
S6 1SW
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Mrs RR and I both spent around twenty years as driving instructors. When we go out in the car we have a battle about who is going to drive - neither of us want to while the other is in the car. You should listen to the moaning from the passenger seat, though I'd swear I am nowhere near as critical as she is, despite what she would claim.
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Mine is very good. She concentrates, is intelligent, and no longer mimses to a serious extent after much ear-bending and bad-taste comment from me. Indeed I have even known her to look down her nose at very poor and hesitant drivers.
However she would never do what many men, even I, have done in the past and might still do now when provoked: hustle rudely past the mimser and vanish into the distance with much tyre squeal. I do believe women may be more psychologically attuned to safe driving than men, making them better drivers under most circumstances off the race track.
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Well put Lud - I suspect there are a few of us chaps here who think we are really much better drivers than our wives, not withstanding that they have the better accident record. Unwise to cast the first stone sometimes. Due largely to a less aggressive attitude, in the wider sense, I think.
I would not presume to comment on my wife's driving (not any more, anyway).
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Mrs gb is the exception to the aggressive rule, she can be terrifying for any victim that takes more than 1 thou of a second to make their mind up.
Should mention in the past she's been a motorcycle courier, driven her own removals truck, and chauffered inebriated bosses and their chums all over old smokie at death defying speeds, with applause and encouragment.
If a quick journey is reqd is has to be her.
To be honest she's very competent, and just shows you can't tell be looks alone.
Sometimes though it would be nice to relieve the lack of blood in my knuckles.
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Sounds very proper gb.
Respect.
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"....chauffeured inebriated bosses and their chums all over old smokie at death defying speeds, with applause and encouragement"
I'm sure there's a rule somewhere saying that you can't do that sort of thing to a moderator.
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>Mrs gb is the exception to the aggressive rule,..
My wife is a very good driver but I would describe her as 'confident' rather than aggressive.
She learned to drive on the dirt roads in Namibia and got her Texas license with a score of 99%. I always used to think that americans didn't understand sarcasm but she was deducted one point for making a RH turn 'too slowly'.
She reads the body language of other vehicles very well and due to a nasty stalking incident is probably more observant than I am.
My only criticism is that for her, the accelerator pedal is an on-off switch which can be very entertaining in the Chevy.
Of course I wouldn't dare voice that criticism while she's behind the wheel. She'd kick me out of the car, remind me that I only got 96% on the Texas test, and then laugh all the way home.
Great sense of humour too! Don't know what I'd do without her.
Kevin...
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Well, not too surprising. The thread morphs from patronising sexism, through various shades & degrees, to SWMBO as macho hero. Could have been written by a hack screenwriter, cue stock characters from central casting. Have we had butch partner yet who drives like nun or 6 stone 6-sizer who drives like an 007 stuntman... Any women kown who just drive normally?
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>>What's normal? :-)
That which doesn't require special comment, i.e. this thread.
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>>What's normal? :-) That which doesn't require special comment i.e. this thread.
But I know very few drivers who don't do something that would warrant a mention on a thread like this, to me, the things that are getting said on this thread all seem relatively "normal"!
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That which doesn't require special comment i.e. this thread.
Then why would you expect to see it mentioned on this thread?
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SWMBO gets to drive when she complains about my driving. 3 or 4 times in the past year she has been on at me for going to fast on the m'way, so I've gone off at the next junction, stopped and got in the back so she can show me how it should be done.
Once she's behind the wheel I have to shut my eyes (and mouth) or it would end in divorce...
Edited by smokie on 08/01/2008 at 00:27
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Well, the present Mrs Citroënian is a better driver than me. Certainly when we did the skid pan training last year she had the car in a controlled 4 wheel drift, at a point in the training where I'd forgotten I was in a police car and thought I was playing Gran Turismo, power oversteering.
I tend to drive everywhere as I do love driving and historically when we had one car, it was my company car so she couldn't really drive it. Me driving became the habit. It's rare indeed that I'm sat on the left seat in the car and am sober.
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>Well, not too surprising...
Bad hair day woodbines? Or just upset because not everyone conforms to your definition of 'normal'?
Kevin...
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Then why would you expect to see it mentioned on this thread?
I wouldn't, well, I mean I would. Does that answer the question? ;)
Bad hair day woodbines??
Bad hair days would be good!
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