White Van Man Eclipsed

datostar

A survey of 3000 drivers by GoCompare has revealed that more than half of them have suffered a 'bad experience' at the hands of BMW drivers, such as tailgating, speeding or abusive gestures.
The poor standard of the drivers of many of these cars is quite remarkable. Most modern cars are perfectly capable of exceeding all of our speed limits, but aren't driven, on the whole, in such an aggressive and dangerous way.
Good job the company doesn't manufacture white vans as well!

vikingaero

BMW drivers have been eclipsed by Audi drivers as the Merchant Bankers of the road.

motorguy

datostar wrote: »

A survey of 3000 drivers by GoCompare has revealed that more than half of them have suffered a 'bad experience' at the hands of BMW drivers, such as tailgating, speeding or abusive gestures.
The poor standard of the drivers of many of these cars is quite remarkable. Most modern cars are perfectly capable of exceeding all of our speed limits, but aren't driven, on the whole, in such an aggressive and dangerous way.
Good job the company doesn't manufacture white vans as well!

Have you a link to that?

A work colleague of mine HATED BMW drivers and swore blind every time she was going home in rush hour traffic it was always a BMW driver caused hold ups, cut her up, was on her back bumper, etc, etc.

When asked to mentally note down the car types of bad drivers on her way home over a few nights as opposed to her perception it turn out that bad drivers drove all types of cars.

motorguy

My wife used to have an electric blue z4 coupe and she was forever getting cut up and lights flashed at her if she overtook anyone. She now drives a faster but more anonymous black subaru turbo hatchback and she hasnt half the issues.

motorguy

vikingaero wrote: »

BMW drivers have been eclipsed by Audi drivers as the Merchant Bankers of the road.

Yes, Jeremy Clarkson says so, so it must be true.

vikingaero

pgilc1 wrote: »

Yes, Jeremy Clarkson says so, so it must be true.

OK we are having a jest and generalising here, but there is more than a grain of truth in the allegations. People who drive BMW's, Audi's, Mercs etc are likely to be successful or want to appear successful and showy. This means that a trait that they will have is being forceful and pushy and this will often reflect in their driving behaviour on the road. You don't get somewhere in your career without treading on a few people to get up the ladder.

Lum

The worst kind of BMW driver isn't the successful sales rep type any more, it's the wannabe gangster types who drive an M reg BMW 316 with rusty wheelarches, badly tinted windows, a huge stereo with some generic drum'n'bass blasting out, drive around with one heavily tattooed arm hanging out the window with a fag in hand and their other arm in the "cripple hook" driving style and somehow think their £500 shed is still a status symbol.

Also the above survey is meaningless. I too have had my fair share of the above experiences from drivers of BMWs, Audis, white vans, Nissans, Peugeots, Renaults, Fords, Vauxhalls, Toyotas, Kias and even some bloke in a Triumph who pulled out from a side street onto a 60mph A road who then proceeded to give me a tirade of abuse at some lights a few miles further down because I'd chosen to overtake rather than drive into his front wing.

mustrum_ridcully

I'd say it's 2nd hand BMW drivers that are the problem (once again massive generalisation).

Driven by someone who wants to appear rich and successful (but have maxed-out on the HP to buy it) and they behave in the way they think rich and successul people do (but actually act like jerks).

I know someone who used to drive a daewoo and thought they were the bees knees when they bought an 6 year old 3-series (with a loan) and they really thought they owned the road now that they owned a Beemer.

A little food for thought, the 3 series outsells the Ford Mondeo, so a 3 series is now more common (in both senses of the word) than a mondeo.

colino

More !!!!!!!! regurgitated about BMW drivers from people taking it as fact from Radio 2. The same people who couldn't tell the difference between a Mondeo and a Laguna but quite happy to chip in with the crowd.

Strider590

mustrum_ridcully wrote: »

I'd say it's 2nd hand BMW drivers that are the problem (once again massive generalisation).

It's not so much the 2nd hand owners as it is fleet/lease drivers who didn't buy the car and don't really care if it gets damaged. So you get "king of the road" syndrome combined with a suicidal "I don't give a hoot" attitude.

C_Mababejive

The popular portrayal of whitevan man is now largely invalid and was probably a media myth anyway.

Truth is that many commercial drivers are probably better drivers than average simply because they do it all the time.

also,most modern fleet vehicles now have on board management and telemetry to monitor driving i.e gps tracked,speed,economy,time,distance etc..

I take great pride in driving within the law and nothing warms my heart more than to see a frustrated driver in my mirrors as i pootle along at 30mph. People really need to learn to take life at a slower pace. thrashing around is stressful and counter productive.