How do you deal with your GF's poor driving..

maccapacca said:
My wife is god awful

Start car up - before the starter has even come to a stop race out driveway
She negotiates the kerb line by using her front wheel and tyre, the speed of impact varies
She tailgates other cars for no reason
She'll still be accelerating towards red lights and cars that are stationary
She opens the painted door handles with her keys in the same hand
She drops her keys on the roof
She ignores every single light on the dash apart from the fuel light
She drives too fast in the wrong conditions
She sits in lorry blind spots on motorways
She will sit on a hill slipping the clutch rather than using the handbrake
In order of priority driving is about 3rd / 4th in what she is doing at that time

Since I met her she has ruined every car she's had, firstly it starts with the front left wheel, which usually ends up looking like a cheese grater has been rubbed all over it then general dinks and scratches appear then it'll be making a 'funny' noise which when I ask will have been going on for weeks then she'll be stranded somewhere from her complete lack of mechanical sympathy.

Solution was to rent her a Juke of which she is now panicking because she has to give it back soon and pay the damage bill and ultimate solution is that she is getting a company car which will lump every single problem on someone else and she'll have to be accountable to someone other than her 'moaning' husband.
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Wow. W. O. W.

I'd run whilst you still can :D
 
Overall she is a good driver, in her own car, an Aygo. In my Rapid its a bit scary as she forgets she's driving a bigger car and attempts to scuff my alloys!

Only other things of annoyance is her sitting at junctions with clutch down no matter how long you sit there. She also 'semi coasts' she brakes with her foot halfway down the clutch pedal. These two things combined are why I think she did a clutch in 28k and I reckon she's due another one, 32k later!
 
swinnie said:
Overall she is a good driver, in her own car, an Aygo. In my Rapid its a bit scary as she forgets she's driving a bigger car and attempts to scuff my alloys!

Only other things of annoyance is her sitting at junctions with clutch down no matter how long you sit there. She also 'semi coasts' she brakes with her foot halfway down the clutch pedal. These two things combined are why I think she did a clutch in 28k and I reckon she's due another one, 32k later!
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Does she keep the clutch down along with the foot break? If she's using the handbrake I guess it's not the worst but if she's only sat there with the clutch down and footbrake she's going to go flying if she gets rear ended.
 
Fuzz said:
Thinking I should get her an experience day or something to get her confidence up...

Anyone had any errrr "experience" of driving courses or development days?
Preferably something I could get some benefit from as well on the same day...
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The only one I know of that's a good £ : benefit is carlimits where you take your own car there and they teach you about car control. It is more aimed for RWD cars and you'd probably get more out of it using one, but they do it for FWD too and seem to give lots of good advice and instruction.

I'm sure there must be others but that's just the only one I really know of.
 
Hyburnate said:
Does she keep the clutch down along with the foot break? If she's using the handbrake I guess it's not the worst but if she's only sat there with the clutch down and footbrake she's going to go flying if she gets rear ended.
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You got it, left foot down on clutch. Right foot down on foot brake.

Clutch makes a horrible noise when engaged, goes away when disengaged. Research tells me that it's the throw out/release bearing - can be caused by keeping your foot down on the clutch for extended periods and also her tendency to semi coast!
 
swinnie said:
You got it, left foot down on clutch. Right foot down on foot brake.

Clutch makes a horrible noise when engaged, goes away when disengaged. Research tells me that it's the throw out/release bearing - can be caused by keeping your foot down on the clutch for extended periods and also her tendency to semi coast!
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Well she should have been taught to put the handbrake on after a few seconds although ofc that's pointless if you're expecting to go any minute.
 
There's a couple of things that annoy me about the way my GF drives:

  • She "hill starts"... all. the. time. Any time she comes to a stop, hand brake goes on, then when setting off (even when pointing downhill), the clutch comes up to biting point before releasing the hand brake
  • Doesn't upshift - she'll usually sit in 3rd when I'd be in 4th, or 4th when I'd be in 50th

Other than that, she's not too bad, a little heavy on the steering sometimes, but overall I feel safe sitting beside her, and she's confident enough to go somewhere on her own.

I will still often automatically get in the driving seat when we both go out in her car - she doesn't like driving mine at the moment because it's automatic (she engine brakes a lot and doesn't understand that it still works with an auto) and it's larger - but she's gradually coming round to driving it more to get used to it.
 
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