Do you like / love driving a motor vehicle? Vote now please!

[merseymouth]

Hi Cyril, I do enjoy driving a nice car, trouble modern cars are not nice!
To simplify that means to have originally started out employing contact breaker points and condensers.
Sure they can have been switched over to them boxes of electronic bits & pieces, but they still required a grater involvement of the human to make progress, simples!
Any thing that takes away responsibility for controlling the vehicle makes the driver less respectful of the privilege that a driving licence actually means, a privilege not a right!
As an aside it is nice to see that an intoxicated person on an E:Scooter has lost the use of his licence to drive for 20 months, throw in over £400 in fines for D.I.C and smashing up a Police Cell . Bah Humbug MM

[[XAP]Bob]

And when you don't get a seat train travel can be awful.

Not a problem I have any more - I take my own.

An as for driving...

Well it's become something I value more highly since I spent several months unable to drive at all (bizarrely the condition isn't one that it is DVLA reportable, so it was a self imposed ban - with occasional tests in a closed (to the public) industrial park to see whether I could manage any at all.)

I spent the next year or so building up to the max time I could possible drive being 2 hours but that assumed:
- Motorways
- Mostly free flowing traffic
- Daylight and good visibility

I could push to 2 1/2 if I didn't need to do anything that evening or the following day.

Now have a motability vehicle which has various driver aids... most notably adaptive cruise control (which I have set to the max following distance) and lane keeping. The reduction in cognitive load has more than doubled the time I can drive in a day, although I still take regular breaks.

The excess cognitive load isn't in the driving, it's in the keeping my field of vision continuously stable.

[rmurphy195]

My vote - yes, I love it as much as cycling.

It gets me places I couldn't otherwise go, sometimes with the caravan, sometimes with the bike, often with both.

In previous years of course with caravan and children on board we could go on holiday anywhre, deciding at the last minute where to go.

It allows me to do things I couldn't otherwise do, like carting heavy stuff around from place to place.

It was essential for some years when my wife was caring for elderly parents and relaitves, and she could get over to help them, and I could do thier shopping etc.

And often, especially with the roof off, I enjoy the journey itself, using the convertible just for the hell of it if there's nowt bulky or heavy to carry. A nice summer's day, pop a bike into the car and just go away to the Peak district, or Forest of Dean, or over to hereford or Shropshire or somewhere is as good now as it ever was when I was working and needed to unwind.

[simonineaston]

Very occasionally I enjoy a drive. Once in a blue moon, these days. Y'day, having delivered presents, I came back on the Top Road, from Stroud (Slad, to be precise) to the M4, with the roof down, the heated seat on and a medley of Ry Cooder's California Trilogy blaring away on the stereo. Worked for me! Looks like soft tops contribute much to the jollity...

[Bonefishblues]

Yes they do - we bought one earlier this year because we missed having one in the family.

[Syd]

None of the poll answers apply to me.

I can drive, but hate it and don’t have to do it.

[Stradageek]

I can drive, but hate it and don’t have to do it.

I think this is the essence of the issue Syd.

I speculate that you have engineered your life and lifestyle so that a car is unnecessary.

I contend that most of us could do the same if we really wanted to or had too (because of decent forward thinking environmental legislation).

It may involve moving house, changing jobs, giving up holidays etc. but it can be done.

And just think how quiet and peaceful the world would become

[simonineaston]

There was a time when a combination of bike and our rail network ticked a lot of boxes for me, specially with the so-called Apex tickets, but although the bikes have steadily improved, the same cannot be said for the rail network arrangements...

[pwa]

I don't want to give up car use completely. I would like to reduce it, but the car does bring me benefits that I would greatly miss if it were not there at all. This morning I am taking my mother for a precautionary drive-in Covid test. I have no idea how I would do that, at almost no notice, without having a car outside our house. And there are walks that I like to do which require a drive of a few miles to get me to a rural car park. Without our car I would lose those walks, those places I treasure. I don't use a car every day, but when I do it is a benefit to me, a life enhancing thing. And I think I am pretty close to getting the balance right. My miles per year have gone down steadily over the last decade, but without any feeling of sacrifice.

And to answer the question in the OP, I like to drive well, in a controlled, smooth and safe way. But mostly I regard the act of driving as a chore.

[Pebble]

Love driving, always have done from cars to artics. It can often be spoilt these days by busy roads, but on quiet roads I just love being behind the wheel, or at least I just like travelling through the countryside. Very similar to why I love cycling, I certainly don't cycle for the exercise, it is just a lovely peaceful way to explore and enjoy where I live.

[Cyril Haearn]

Plusminus?
The exerciseize does you a lot of good, I think

[Syd]

I speculate that you have engineered your life and lifestyle so that a car is unnecessary.

I would more say my life has evolved to where a car is unnecessary. It certainly wasn’t any conscious decision or plan for that to occur.

[peetee]

Having been without a car for nearly ten years I now see ownership a burden. Not least because most of my milage is being chauffeur to my son who has yet to obtain his license and works remotely and difficult hours. To make the expense more bearable and reduce the tedium I occupy myself by driving in a way that reduces the wear and tear and fuel consumption to the absolute minimum. Fortunately the route and lack of traffic here helps as I can do this for the most part without proving to be an obstruction to other drivers. If I do a longer journey up country I will set out in the early hours and bimble along with The HGV’s. The extended journey time is not a problem and more than makes up for the time I would need to wind-down from the stress and additional concentration required of a faster journey.
I had a fuelling issue on my car last week. Garages were unable to look at the car but this turned out to be a blessing. After researching online I found the problem could have been one of many things and I could see how the car could have been out of action for days while the mechanic traced the issue by replacing parts here, there and everywhere. Having tackled maintenance with previous cars for many years I was somewhat reticent about applying my archaic knowledge to a relatively modern vehicle with electronic this-and-that but, with my analytical approach to the issue and how it made the car drive i plumped for one particular named problem and spent a day under the bonnet. I seem to have fixed it, all for the cost of a stiff lower back and few scuffs and bruises to my hands. The part I cleaned up would have been £120 to replace plus the labour cost. I’d rather have been out on the bike that day but then again I’m rather more happy that money is still in the pot.

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

Love driving, always have done from cars to artics. It can often be spoilt these days by busy roads, but on quiet roads I just love being behind the wheel, or at least I just like travelling through the countryside. Very similar to why I love cycling, I certainly don't cycle for the exercise, it is just a lovely peaceful way to explore and enjoy where I live.

+1.
I love it.
I have to disagree with MM.I much prefer new cars.I have friends with old 70s/80s cars,Motorcycles and scooters and having owned them in their heyday I have no wish to return to them.I recently bought a new car,well 18-plate,and I love it.It does have some annoying features but I just switch off what I don't like or need.Some of it,although designed to 'help' the driver,is nothing more than a distraction IMO so I disable it!

Driving can be and should be fun

[rmurphy195]

+1.
I love it.
I have to disagree with MM.I much prefer new cars.I have friends with old 70s/80s cars,Motorcycles and scooters and having owned them in their heyday I have no wish to return to them.I recently bought a new car,well 18-plate,and I love it.It does have some annoying features but I just switch off what I don't like or need.Some of it,although designed to 'help' the driver,is nothing more than a distraction IMO so I disable it!

Driving can be and should be fun

I did have a go a few years back, with a Triumph Spitfire.

Took 18 months to give up, 'cos new parts were rubbish. Replaced Radiator hoses with brand new ones, which perished within 12 months. Tidied up the fron anti roll bar, fitted (or went to fit) new drop links and bolts - bushes were reamed out too big, so put old ones on and sent back to supplier who confirmed they were badly made. Speedo cables wound the wrong way round so it unwound as soon as it was used. Had the speedo refurbed, lasted 3 months, sent it back under warranty, lasted 3 months (specialist Smiths instrument repairer). Came to service the ignition, found the market had beem flooded with faulty rotor arms that fell apart in use! Gave up and sold it on, having spent more time under it than driving it. All parts were sourced from the specialist suppliers that the TV car restorers use. The rebuilt, re-bushed Diff and re-built propshaft (both done by specialist repairers) worked superbly, it was just the small replacement parts that fell to bits.