DriveTribeHenry Fletcher | DriveTribe
The other day I read a post that made me suddenly sit up in my chair and write a comment. The topic was the 3 worst motorway etiquette car brands and of course they where all German, BMW, Audi and Mercs to be exact. This topic got me thinking about what I've been seeing more and more recently becoming the unspoken menace of our roads, most notably our ring roads, the M25 being my most experienced.
My parents live in Southampton and I live in Surrey so I take the M3 then the M25 to get home. On the M3 you simply dodge the standard maniacs. The BMW that wants you to do 120mph in the fast lane when you're doing 80 passing two overtaking trucks. The Audi that has two perfectly good lanes to pass you but feels the need to slip stream you to the point they are so close you can see the stitching of their interior. The Mercedes that think they are Lewis Hamilton slaloming through the back field to win the championship, (and of course like F1 cars there's no indicators used).
This is just a warm up however, preparing you for what I like to call the unpredictable, "lost city drivers". The city ring roads especially the M25 are a dangerous place 3 lanes become 4 and everyone seemingly forgets how to drive, but there is a type of car in this madness that is an unseen threat, this car comes from the city and its occupants have no idea how to drive any other way but as if it was still on the gridlocked streets. They will start diving across lanes for no real reason, sitting in ones they don't need to be in for another 6 miles, not reading nor thinking of others on the road but instead feeling more entitled to their lane than anyone else, which means they will run you into the back of a truck despite another empty lane next to them and you indicating with time. This is the city mentality where the nice guy finishes last, is late for work, gets fired and dies sad and poor. This cut throat mentality normally happens in short burst between traffic lights, reaching no more than 30mph, but now it's on the motorway... at a prolonged 70-80mph these punchy little 1.4l city cars that have big turbos to push them from 0-30 with a decent amount of torque suddenly are out of their depth. Not that the owners notice. They still see a space and floor it expecting the same result, a burst of acceleration to where they are pointing the car, instead it's a slow accelerating, aggressively swerving smart car (or other) causing those behind to jump on the break as there's nowhere else to go.
My question at the end of all this is what would you rate as the top unexpected worst etiquette "city" car you've come across on the motorways?
To qualify they must be small cars with no more than a 1.6l engine. Stories of experiences are welcome and I look forward to reading it all in the comments below.
If you got this far thank you for reading what is my first ever post.
(Picture website references: https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/police-warning-after-car-spotted-262081
And Google maps.)