Mr. Hollow, I wonder how much of that is because the car is small or because it's new. I feel like some folks in beaters know you'll clear out of their way because they have so little to lose.


I hate to admit, but when I was a callow teen in my 9 year old Valiant (32 years ago), I adopted that attitude towards newer cars, if never acted on it.

 

I don't feel fear unless someone nearly hits me. I feel pissed at the extremely stupid, discourteous, and dangerous ways other people drive if it puts me and others at unnecessary risk. Like for tailgating.. unless you have superhuman reflexes, which is an obvious no, if I have to slam on my brakes, you are going to total the back of my car just because you are rude. So I just tap my brakes repeatedly very lightly so I am not actually braking, they think I'm a psycho person, and almost all the time they back off.

 

I don't feel intimidated, but it does really suck when cars go flying by and I can't get up to speed with my 109 HP.

Yesterday though, I may have been doing some intimidating as I was stretching the Fits legs a bit driving 95 MPH for short stretches here and there.

 

Amen, Amy, to getting pissed off at terrible drivers. They should have their licenses cut up into tiny little pieces on the spot.

Interesting that you tap your brakes lightly; I did that once (actually tapped them once, heavily) when I was a teenager, and it only pissed the guy off even more. We were on a two-lane road (one lane in each direction with a double yellow line), and it was relatively late, so there was no other traffic. After I tapped my brakes, he laughed and dropped back, then zoomed up again to my rear bumper just shy of it, then dropped back again and zoomed up again. Each time he came close, I could see him with a twisted smile on his face. That experience kind of cured me of tapping the brakes with tailgaters; you don't know what you're dealing with.

What I would really love would be to have a battering ram in the rear bumper that I could extend and retract with the push of a button on the dashboard. It would keep drivers a minimum of five feet or so behind my vehicle. But that's James Bond-esque stuff that will probably never happen.

 

Nice that you don't feel intimidated, Fitguy07, but 95? Whoa!

 

I do not feel intimidated in the Honda FIT.

I drive defensively and avoid aggressive drivers. Even in a more massive car there will always be someone bigger than you, the key thing is to drive with a lot of awareness in all directions.

I used to ride a motorcycle, talk about feeling intimidated!

 

While I hate the parkways here in Westchester (design speed in the 50s, average speed in the 70s or higher) and sometimes get stressed out driving on them, I don't feel intimidated. I just have to stay alert to traffic flow, entrances and exits, and be prepared for anything. I'll let the middle-aged guys in "finance" in German cars try and do 85 down the Saw Mill because I know I'll catch up to them at the next light.

Regarding tailgaters, I find them annoying, but again, not intimidating... On 2-lane roads, I will slow to the speed limit without using my brakes (I'm usually 5-10 over conditions depending). If they still don't back off and I'm not in some kind of hurry, I'll keep dropping my speed in 5 mph decrements or so. If they don't pass me by about 10-15 under, I'll put my flashers on. If they still don't pass me at this point, I'll pull over onto the shoulder and slow down more. When they still don't pass me at this point (I'd say about 40% sit there cluelessly), I'll just stop and wait with my flashers still on. On occasion, it's taken up to 10 seconds before they realized that I'm not going anywhere and they finally pass.

On multiple lane roads, if I'm in the left, I'll move over as soon as I can (it's not a race). In other lanes if there's no traffic I'll slow down gradually, if I get to about 10 under and there's no one in the other lanes for a good distance, I'll signal, move over and just brake hard and let them fly past.

In general if someone else wants to drive faster than me (and I don't consider myself a slow driver), I'll let them. It's not my insurance that will go up when they get pulled over.

Basically I assume that everyone else on the road is drunk, stoned, blind, and has no understanding of physics and govern myself accordingly.

 

In my test drives of the 2015 Fit, I never felt anxiety about the car's size. It does have that feeling of being a lighter subcompact, but in a good way, like the car is faster or has more power than it actually does (even though spec-wise, it is no slouch with 130hp and sub 9sec 0-60 times).

 

I mostly drive a Pilot and my wife mostly drives the Fit. I have indeed noticed a high incidence of people following too close when I drive the Fit that I do not see when I drive the Pilot. This is likely especially true here in Texas where large pick-up trucks driven by ego-challenged morons are prevalent.

 

IMHO, intimidation comes in two distinct flavors:

• High-speed intimidation, and
• Low-speed intimidation.

Intimidating other drivers while travelling fast... is risky. Accidents and injuries can and do result from that sort of nonsense.

But low-speed intimidation is a different story. I kind of get a kick out of observing the sort of intimidation that goes on at the end of narrow city blocks---where cars are lined up at a stop light. Maybe there are a couple lanes of traffic waiting to go... but it's clear to everyone that on the other side of the intersection, only one lane is open---and only one of you is going to get into that slot first. It's wonderfully entertaining to watch all the various games that are played by drivers in order to gain the advantage in that scenario.

It's just a beautiful thing to watch when a cab driver uses some sort of audible device (it could be just a few revs of the engine) to get the other drivers to look his way... and then he throws a very determined looking hand signal... that makes you pause JUST long enough... to give him the time he needs to get the jump in intimidating his way across the intersection ahead of everyone else.



Of course, everyone probably meets up again at the next light, but he's got a few other tricks up his sleeve---and he'll beat you again and again!

----------------------

It's been years since I had so much fun... and now I live in a fairly rural area where such games are never played. But I haven't forgotten that using a hand signal at just the right moment is far more impowering than the sharpest looking LED turn signals --- on the back end of ANY car.

 

Glad to hear it, dpmason! Though, as I responded earlier to George, I've seen motorcyclists do some crazy stuff in my area--weaving in and out of highway-speed traffic at much faster than the cars and SUVs.

 

Good assumptions, mikeyg! Interesting that you have slowed down to the point of stopping--and even then tailgaters stop along with you! What?!!

Glad you don't feel intimidated. I've long thought that if New York State would just regularly park a trooper or five along the lower Sprain Brook Parkway (or the Saw Mill, as you noted), the state could make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in tickets and maybe reduce our taxes as a result!

 

Thanks, gunm. Good to know the '15 Fit feels nimble despite its size!

 

Interesting, jmayes777. Though I drive a CR-V, almost as big as a Pilot, and still get tailgated quite a bit. Ego-challenged morons are a problem in New York, too, alas.

 

Haven't seen much of the use of hand signals, morgantruce, except maybe in bottlenecks around tollbooths when people realize they are in the wrong lane for their needs. Though that is pretty rare nowadays after the advent of E-Z Pass, an invention for which I sincerely and frequently thank whatever deity may exist.

 

You ought to give 'em a try! When you're at an intersection and there's a bit of wondering as to who's going to go first, a bold hand signal leaves no doubt in the other guy's mind that you intend going for it!

Of course you wouldn't want to claim the right of way when you aren't entitled to it. What is truly depressing is that so many people are clueless about which car actually has the right of way.

 

I've never been intimidated driving... I will say that driving the Fit is much more difficult than driving a smaller sport coupe. Visibility is great, but it doesn't do squat if you can't accelerate to get out of the way. The amount of power could be better, but power delivery in the CVT results in a disturbing lag time between pedal push and actually moving. From 65MPH, trying to accelerate to 75 quickly by mashing the pedal, the car feels like it stalls out for a second or so as it tries to find the right gear/ratio/rpm. I guess if you expect the lag then you would get used to it. It's possible the manual Fits wont feel this way because they cruise at a higher RPM, and are much closer to the powerband for passing power. At 65MPH the CVT hovers around 2100 RPM, well out of the powerband. Even if the transmission makes perfect choices it takes time for the engine to get back into the powerband, resulting in that stalling feeling (coupled with the transmission dropping "gears"). All other cars I've owned until now had enough power on tap at cruising speed to make sudden speed maneuvers.

 

When people are really on-your-ass tailgating they are thinking to themselves "Can this jerk go ANY SLOWER???". Slow down a little .... if they persist tailgating it means they are still wondering how slow you can go, so show them! Slow down till they burst a blood vessel.

Tailgaters suck ... whether I'm in my truck OR the FIT. Sometimes slowing down works and they just pass you. Sometimes I'll turn off or pull over rather than participate in a game of fuk-fuk.

Am used to driving 4x4 trucks and the FIT is the smallest vehicle I've ever driven. I have no confidence issues nor do I feel intimidated driving the FIT. It's a very sound. stable, responsive little car that actually feels much more substantial than it looks.

As others have stated it's important to drive defensively ... and don't do unto others what you don't want them to do unto you (or something like that)

 

I only experience this sometimes in ECO mode. Once I figured out the right amount to push the pedal, somewhere in between light and hard, it works great with no lag. In regular mode, I've never had any lag at all. Just a small pedal push in regular mode and the thing just takes off.

 

Dont u have paddles? Tap left to downshift for those maneuvers