Experiencing "Road Rage" in our beloved, petite Mirages

[dspace9]

Hi all, I'm just wondering if any other Forum Member has experienced any road rage directed at them, primarily by very large vehicles. I had a huge Chevy truck come into my lane yesterday.. I'm not saying I saw my life flash before my eyes, but still, it's really as if Mirages, and other small cars too I suspect, are occasional targets of hate by those who seem to hate smaller cars.

What is with that? Is it just me and my nerdy look?! Maybe I'm paranoid! But I thought I'd start this thread to address this issue surrounding small cars surrounded by gigantism vehicles.

I thought about 007'ing my Mirage with all the tools to counter-strike the belligerent jerks. Now that the car is paid off I figure it's the safest way to customize my car. No just kidding but still, I felt like I had a near-death experience yesterday due to road bullying.

Since when do people think bigger is better? Sure isn't in a lot of ways!

[timw4mail]

I don't think it's car-specific as much as many drivers think you go too slow if you aren't 10MPH over the speed limit.

It certainly seems like driver aggression skyrocketed with the pandemic.

[inuvik]

I think they get angry when they've just spent more than $100 USD filling up their guzzler and are ticked off to see someone not as foolish as they are

[Fummins]

This again

[Marrero]

100% I drive a massive "UPS/FEDEx/Bread Truck" like ford E350 Boxtruck for work. I drive it much slower than I drive our mirage but experience far less people (possibly none) doing one of those "Revenge overtakes" where they overtake and cut in front of you (inches or a foot or two). I don't think it is directed toward the Mirage but towards any small car, I'm assuming people have more self preservation instincts when dealing with larger vehicles than with smaller vehicles that wont really injure them.

It could also be a financial or Odd man out thing, people are blown away when they find out I drive a Mirage and Fiat 500 (at the office we all have six figure salaries). So just like homeless people get treated worse than someone who has a lucrative career a mirage owner might get treated as someone who has made so many bad/dumb decisions that they can "only afford a clown car".

just my 2 cents.

[Mark]

I don't think it's car-specific as much as many drivers think you go too slow if you aren't 10MPH over the speed limit.

I certainly agree with this! I'm amazed how much I see this when driving with youth in my driver's education vehicle. The car is full size Chevy Impala with student driver signs plastered all over it, & that doesn't seem to phase some in the least. Lack of patience and understanding towards others is mind boggling to me? Heaven forbid a driver's ed. car may get ahead of them in a round about intersection or something. The rudeness of some is sad. Then again, many people are the opposite, too. I just tend to take note of the crazy ones!

Being around crazy drivers in a Mirage is more scary than being in my Forester. I will grant you that!

Personally, I don't think emergency brake assist, lane assist, adaptive cruise, etc... is the answer. It's really hard to address stupid, but I don't fault car companies for trying I guess!

Want to make cars safer? Remove screens on dashes would be a good place start in my opinion. I already miss simple vehicles with more attentive drivers.

[AtomicPunk]

I drive the G4 super defensively, like I'm on a motorcycle. I've learned to let all the rude and incompetent drivers do their thing. I'm in the far right lane going 60 mph 90% of the time. Not saying I wont wind it out every now and then, but mostly I try to practice avoidance of the A holes and any other potential dangerous situations. One of my favorite tactics is to get behind a semi, keep assured clear distance, and utilize their size to keep the idiots away.

[dspace9]

100% I drive a massive "UPS/FEDEx/Bread Truck" like ford E350 Boxtruck for work. I drive it much slower than I drive our mirage but experience far less people (possibly none) doing one of those "Revenge overtakes" where they overtake and cut in front of you (inches or a foot or two). I don't think it is directed toward the Mirage but towards any small car, I'm assuming people have more self preservation instincts when dealing with larger vehicles than with smaller vehicles that wont really injure them.

It could also be a financial or Odd man out thing, people are blown away when they find out I drive a Mirage and Fiat 500 (at the office we all have six figure salaries). So just like homeless people get treated worse than someone who has a lucrative career a mirage owner might get treated as someone who has made so many bad/dumb decisions that they can "only afford a clown car".

just my 2 cents.

Yea eh I drive a bunch of different trucks at work myself. In the truck and heavy equipment world, it has been a natural gas, or electric drivetrain world for a long time now. Bigger issue is you can't have gasoline fumes pumping everywhere indoors in a manufacturing facility in winter in Canada.

So that's why propane and electric drivetrain was invented, for safe air.

It's the weight of big work trucks etc, and rigs, what makes them dangerous. That is what has already been said. Sorry I am bad for names on the internet.

On my new truck at work I have a screen actually, but it's a 360 direction thing involving the tires I won't get into. I like old tow trucks far more than new.

Driving one of those things every day for 11 years makes you think different about driving for sure

Edit sorry is it true Canadian edition Mirages since 2014 are slower than the speedometer? I have noticed this with the unmanned police radar speed thingys they put around randomly to tell you how fast you're going. My car is off I know this. However, I was specifically referring to the jerk from the oncoming traffic. Maybe people really do think their lives are somehow more valuable. You don't need to eat your cake to have your cake, the not a zero-sum kind of win or lose. We can all win if we are polite and follow the rules for the sake of everyone. If one person loses and the rest win, no one really wins in that game.

[7milesout]

Once I was pulling away from a traffic light. I was up near the front. I left my usual very moderate acceleration. The black girl behind me in some kind of SUV was all up on my bumper. Regardless of her, I still had to shift to 2nd. I guess she'd never heard of a manual transmission before. She had to slam on her brakes for my shift, she was that close.

I did NOTHING out of normal. Just drove normally. She slammed over a lane, flew past me, jumped in front of me, and brake checked hard. I did hit my brakes a little just to be safe, but nothing major because I wasn't accelerating hard anyway, nor was I trying to stop her from passing me. Just astonishing. Down here in Atlanta metro, the hip thing to do is to get yourself in as big a vehicle as one can afford, and then practice one's drag racing launch at every opportunity. I've considered going to just an average traffic light in town, about 120' down, and just recording the way drivers pull away from traffic lights.

This sort of bumper riding is not exclusive to black girls. The whole spectrum does it down here (had a retirement age balding white dude in a minivan do all the same things, except the brake checking just a day or 2 ago). She just happen to be the only one so far who must of thought I was brake checking her (without using the brakes / no brake lights), and got mad and slammed on their brakes in front of me.

I drive this same way in my big ole Ram. But have yet to get anyone try to do anything in retaliation. So yes, it seems size related.

[Dirk Diggler]

Atlanta drivers are 90% ass&oles if your not doing 15 over in the far right lane.