General Men in Fiat 500s

[blitz7287]

I had some chav's pull up to me a shout thats a well **** girly car, i merely replied back to them at least my car isn't an old corsa with a crappy bodykit and pizza sized exhaust. and he just speeded off with all his mates laughing at him. At least if your going to make fun of someone have the upper hand, brand new at the time 500 against and old N reg corsa.

 

[306maxi]

HOWEVER – Last weekend a total knob-end middle aged (old) man in a big old man's car full of middle aged people was behind me flashing his lights and getting all upset, regardless of the fact that there was a full solid queue of traffic in front of me all going the same (fast) speed. I was NOT going to transfer to the middle lane because it quite obviously would have meant I'd have to harshly break and sit in the middle lane for no reason.

Normally if someone in a hurry tailgates me I do move out of the way if I can and if it's safe – it's not my funeral – but this particular one behind me had no concept of te complete futileness of his mission and was a clear idiot so I stayed put.

That's what gets me about these people. They seem to have an air of self importance about them to and think that everyone in the queue should just get out of their way which is just stupid. I don't mind if someone comes up behind me and settings in at a distance, I'll happily pull into the next decent gap and let them through, it's the whole idea that you should just get out of their way and have to brake or whatever :nutter: I know people think they're doing the right thing by getting out of the way straight away, but I think if people simply sent the message that you can't intimidate them, then people would stop driving in this manner.

Driving on the continent I never once got tailgated or flashed. People were far more courteous and laidback

 

[cjc156]

Interesting topic...

When I drive the 500, I do notice that certain cars stick on my boot, often if overtaking on the dual carriage in a line of traffic, but they get a bit of a shock when I zip off when the car in front pulls in. But this isnt peculiar to the 500. I got that in the Mini too., the difference was the Mini was mush faster than most of the cars up my boot, and I took great delight leaving them behind. Dont want to generalise but it was mostly Audis and they tend to be the underpowered ones too. I suspect someone in an Audi S4 wouldn't bother you, but a 1.9 TDI would be a different matter.

I rarely get similar in the Merc. However when i was a lad I had a new(ish) Alfa GTV. Where I live (Edinburgh) it was never a problem. However in my home town (which shall remain nameless), it was sometimes like I was the devil himself, and people would jump red lights in order to cut me off....

So I think the region has something to do with it also.

 

[dutchess]

If anything, the non-threatening 500 makes other male drivers less confrontational in my experience (my other car being a BMW...).

I reckon is just how you drive. If I'm annoyed then I give no quarter on the roads, and the 500 can be as threatening as any other car (especially when you use it like a bumper-car in heavy traffic). But usually I potter in the slow lane of motorways...

Talking of which, last week on the M25's morning rush hour I was in the slow lane doing 40mph, sandwiched between 2 lorries. Some complete nob-head in a Jag XF overtook in the middle lane, slowed down, wound down the passenger window and drove beside me beeping his horn. Thinking something might be wrong I wound my window down and the bugger only shouted at me "Oi mate - you need a bigger car!". Then just drove off. What a sh*t head. I laughed at the time, then 30 seconds later realised he was a donkey but by that time it was too late to get annoyed.

...10 miles later he got stuck in the fast lane and I sailed past in the slow lane returning the compliment with a flipped bird and a nice smile. That really wound him up and made me really happy. It's the little things in life that are the best. Just like the 500 (could not resist that. Sorry)

 

[RobW]

Some of you lot should sign up to http://www.roadrage.co.uk/
You can rant to your hearts content with like minded victor meldrews

 

[Juwlz]

Sorry I can't figure out how to quote someone on this new format (it's been along week) but yes 306Maxi I agree, it helps if you don't just give in to intimidation by awful drivers, they must learn –and godammit they WILL learn in time!

I have only limited experience of driving on the continent but I definitely agree I didn't encounter any 'aggressiveness' at all.

I think that 'good' driving means being alert to fact that all drivers will occasionally make mistakes, myself included, and that a certain politeness on the roads goes a long way.

Going back to the subject of this thread I must reluctantly admit my early years on the road I found other female drivers a lot more confrontational and less forgiving than male drivers. I don't know why, it may have been a coincidence, or maybe I was prejudiced to expect fellow 'ladies' to be kinder!.

I must now confess that for a long while I did start to think maybe women are intrinsically worse drivers. I don't think that now, but that's another story…

Now I am a more experienced driver and I do get the impression that the quality of drivers on the roads is much higher than when I first started driving – I have no idea whether this is an illusion or that I have become a better driver myself? Who knows…

 

[Nathan126]

Try it in a cento :devil:
Wow! that was bad.. 126, you had to drive on the ball 200%

I don't know how bad it is in the 500, but i don't find it as bad in the panda (Although the problem is still there!)

It's just the good old small car syndrome, maybe you 500 guys (and girls) get it worse because it's prettier! I think some people lay off panda's a little as they expect older people driving them

I once had some german barge cut me up, he annoyed me by going 35-40 in an open speed limit so i over took then he preceded to stick to my rear bumper for close to a mile

 

[Maisie]

The Hamster is clearly not driving fast enough! My other half and I pretty much share driving duties in Luigi evenly and neither of us really find a problem with being tailgated. Maybe it's because Luigi is black with shiny bits and gets a bit more respect than the standard white ones. The only class of driver I seem to have a problem with is blondes/spiky-haired lads in MINIs (probably can't handle being out-driven and out-cuted ) - one of them had to rev the nuts off her MINI to get past me in a two-into-one merge after a junction.

I totally agree with previous posts - if there's something coming up way faster than me, I might still pull out if there's enough time to indicate and I'm closing on something a lot slower, but I know that the 1.3 engine has enough poke to get the manouvre done and get out of the way before I cause too much inconvenience. I do hate it when there's a lot of traffic in the inside lanes and I'm keeping pace with the 3rd lane traffic, and someone comes steaming up expecting me to somehow dematerialise and get out of the way. Sorry, mate, but I have as much right as your Audi/BMW/Merc (delete as appropriate) to be in this lane, and I ain't moving!

 

[wigit]

i like to see the look on the 'bargers' faces when mrs w boots it in her GTI and unleashes the 300 ponies

 

[Juwlz]

Sorry, in my previous post I seem to have come over all polite. What I meant to say was:


GET OUT OF THE ****ING WAY OF MY 500!!!!!!!! Wan***ers!!!!:slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer::slayer:

 

[Lloyd71]

Thinking something might be wrong I wound my window down and the bugger only shouted at me "Oi mate - you need a bigger car!"

I'd have just shouted back "You need a bigger dick!"

A guy I know used to get a lot of abuse driving his old Metro complete with pea shooter exhaust! Little did they know it had a 1.8VVC lump and the exhaust was a custom made stainless steel one designed to look like standard. They soon stopped laughing when they couldn't keep up.

 

[oncepastthepost]

I'd have just shouted back "You need a bigger dick!"

LMFAO... (I can't get the More smilies to work looking for the one rolling around on the floor )

 

[Lloyd71]

LMFAO... (I can't get the More smilies to work looking for the one rolling around on the floor )

You just type r o f l but without the gaps.

 

[oncepastthepost]

(as originally intended...)

I'd have just shouted back "You need a bigger dick!"

(thanks Lloyds71 )

 

[Bhindi]

Another lady here..... I have never experienced the road hassles most of you a referring to, I don't tailgate, and hog lanes, I drive with confidence and assertivness that allows me to comand equal respect on the road. Maybe being in a laddish looking red sport that helps my cause but even when driving my morris minor (s) I still drove with purpose and didn't dilly dally, and never felt harrassed and bullied. My only memorable scary moment in the morris on the motorway was due to my car being battleship grey, and a coach thought I was tarmac and tried to move into my lane. A very scary moment, and one that had me repaint the car.

 

[Neil Surrey Labs]

Interesting thread.

I think we have all experienced examples of uneccessarily aggressive even dangerous driving usually at the hands of the fatish baldish sweatyish grey boring German car driver, however I have noticed a similar trend in women, not in FIAT 500s (who are always babes, or at least women of character) but in dark coloured VW Polos. 19 yr old got a "serious" career to nurture have an aspiring Boffriend who works out at the gym 3 times a week phone glued to the side of their face and driving every bit as agressively as the aformentioned sweatymen.

Having worked for Volvo in Sweden for 7 years I have one thing to say.
You are not immortal in your sad german boxes, crash and you will die like anybody else. So put the phone down and drive like a responsible person.

 

[Melanabb]

I generally didn't have problems driving 500, but having moved from 'cutthroat' driving in London to sleepy Hampshire town I'm afraid that it was me who might have been a tad over aggressive Sorry Hampshire divers! Now, I've calmed since and started driving quite sedately, except when the need arrises to overtake some idiot in Big German Car... Their faces are a picture, overtaken by Punto! (for that is what they see)

 

[arorat]

The Hamster is clearly not driving fast enough!

Exactly what i thought, obviously he was taking it easy with 2 kids in the back.

Guys I am doing my bit to protect 500 drivers from the Evil Sweaty Fat Middle-Aged German Car Drivers when I get the blackbird on the road. Now imagine those evil sweaty guys talking; “Scumbag biker he is probably middle aged, sporty and quite handsome, I must pull over for him and let him past, but I will now release my rage on a little car with a sporty & handsome male driver, no thats a lady - she is cute !! oh. oh. here he comes in a 500...”.

Boring to most of you, the speeds are typical of most superbikes, here is a clip of blackbird (not mine) watch from 1:40s, prob the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off or driving a Fiat 500.

 

[chicaneuk]

Interesting post. I've gone from my Corrado VR6 (which is quite a grunty motor) to driving a 1.2 Pop and I would say that on the whole I've not noticed a major change in attitude on the road.

I think the problem is that motorists at large are impatient, selfish, and largely full of their own self importance. You only have to watch people who get stuck behind a cyclist - they're infuriated and aggressively overtake after being held up for 10 seconds. It's shocking.

And I think part of that problem applies to small cars and small car drivers. I think people who ignorantly barge around in automatic Audi Q7's have no real ideal how slowly 1.2 engined cars accelerate.. and the fact that it's clearly such an enormous imposition to be held up for 5 seconds longer than they would normally have had to wait to get up to 60MPH fills them with rage.

I actually had someone steam past me yesterday (in a Q7 actually) as I started to get up to speed on a 40MPH road. I was only too keen to give him the ****** gesture out of the window, to which (of course) he did the same - before turning onto a street no more than 500 yards further up the road. Moron.

 

[306maxi]

Exactly what i thought, obviously he was taking it easy with 2 kids in the back.

Guys I am doing my bit to protect 500 drivers from the Evil Sweaty Fat Middle-Aged German Car Drivers when I get the blackbird on the road. Now imagine those evil sweaty guys talking; “Scumbag biker he is probably middle aged, sporty and quite handsome, I must pull over for him and let him past, but I will now release my rage on a little car with a sporty & handsome male driver, no thats a lady - she is cute !! oh. oh. here he comes in a 500...”.

Boring to most of you, the speeds are typical of most superbikes, here is a clip of blackbird (not mine) watch from 1:40s, prob the most fun you can have without taking your clothes off or driving a Fiat 500. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41J6yCVAEaQ

Truth be told there are loads more things that more are fun to drive than the 500.

Yeah sure, it's a nice place to be in I'll grant the 500 that, but the steering is lifeless, the suspension is crap, bordering on dangerous on the early cars and still isn't outstanding on the newer cars although it's passable. Whilst I'm sure the twinair is better with it's turbo, neither the 1.2 or 1.4 I drove was particularly quick. The only thing about the 500 that I would say is good about the driving experience is the position of the gearstick. It is fantastic. If you want something that's fun to drive, try a Panda 100hp and you'll see how it just makes the 500 feel very flat footed and boring to drive. Whilst the 500 does feel like a go kart due to the size, the 100hp actually drives like a go kart.

I was always amazed that with the Panda 100HP being so well received, that they didn't inject more of its DNA into the 500.

http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/evocarreviews/205659/fiat_panda_100hp.html

But basically my point is that other than the gearshift and some nice touches on the interior, there is nothing particularly fantastic about driving a 500. If I was driving for fun I'd much rather take our Subaru, it handles better, is far faster and sounds much nicer.