MOARspeed wrote:I think there is a type of driver, who's poor driving is "enabled" by a certain type/brand of car (German or JLR), and such people actively seek out ownership of such vehicles.
In the same way that some great employee's make terrible managers. Once given that perception of having a raised position over other people, they turn into monsters.
I agree wholeheartedly that some types of driver are enabled in their aggressive and dangerous driving by the technology of the car. However, this is not confined to the technology of "German or JLR" vehicles. I would contend that virtually all cars are designed and configured to not just enable but encourage aggression and risk-taking.
They all accelerate too readily, to speeds that are far too high. They all have distractions, from satnavs, to radios to phone connections to far too many instruments displaying data to show "performance". They are all advertised as shiny merkins for impressing the opposite gender via vrooming about. None of them have a steel spike in the middle of the steering wheel.
And, as you mention, the award of huge power that a car gives, along with the notion that "I am a good driver if I press hard on all these pedals" not to mention the assumption that "everyone must get out of my way" creates an instant monster from a large proportion of those humans who use a car.
Now, I will just mention that the recent acquisition of an electrical car has underlined the fact that the nature of the technology can significantly influence the person using it. The electric car requires one to be conservative with the pedals, in order to save juice and also to re-create it from regenerative braking when going down hill. This requires slower speeds and also a much better anticipation of what one must be doing next in the driving process. Well, unless one has a-one of them 0-60 in two seconds Tesla spaceship things. But many e-cars will induce a more careful (or at least less careless) driver of the human using them.
But all cars (including e-Teslas) should still have a low rate of acceleration and a much lower top speed. Why is every driver under the delusion that s/he's on an important mission to get from A to B as fast as possible?
Cugel