The R/T has to be one of the most practical “fun cars” I’ve ever driven.
A four door family car that rides like a luxury car and corners like a real contender and does 0-60 in 5.5 seconds (when you consider the car weighs 3700 lbs, that’s friggin awesome)…yeah, I like this one…
I wish I was in a position to buy the one I’ve rented outright (the rental place has a program where you can buyout the lease on the vehicle and lease-to-own it).
The cool part about this car (and all LX platform cars, to be exact; Magnum/300c/Charger) is that it’s directly patterned after the old LS platform (Intrepid, 300M, Imperial, etc) except they’re about four inches shorter (in fact, this Charger fits into my garage better than the Intrepid did, and it has more interior room than the Intrepid did), so if you enjoyed one of those older LS cars from the mid to late 90s and early 2000s, you’ll like the LXs for sure.
I wish they would have done more of what they’re planning on doing with the new Challenger, i.e., retro style the interior a bit more; the Charger looks pretty much just like a 300C inside when you have the upscale package with the leather, etc.
The multiple displacement system doesn’t seem to interfere with normal driving or even aggresive driving ( yeah, I put it through the ringer a couple of times), but it sure does get you great gas mileage! Between highway travel and surface street travel, I’ve averaged about 24mpg (but I;vebeen hotrodding quite a bit too).
The autostick function is fun, allowing you to switch between ratios without a clutch. Not nearly as responsive as a manual, but with my bum knee it makes for a much more fun ride than just a straight auto.
the one I rented is in “Arrest Me Red” like this one…
The Challenger is what I’m super excited for…based off of the LX platform, only shortened another four inches and lightened up considerably. The production model is only supposed to weigh in at 3000 lbs. The interio is patterned after the classic Challenger (and being the owner of a 1974 Challenger, I’m excited as hell over that!).
Yesterday coming home from work I was beside a woman who had the cell phone up to her ear held up with her shoulder while she ate a burger while driving.
I’ve come across many people talking on a cell phone and smoking at the same time – one in each hand. I detest when people are on their cell phones and driving. I’ve had many incidents where they’ve come close to hitting me because they did something stupid. Only my being alert and not distracted have saved me from those accidents.
And in regards to the whole “handless” cell phone things – you’re still distracted. I think there has been research that proved you’re almost as likely to get in an accident while talking on one of those. Let’s face it. Talking on the phone while driving is very distracting.
I HAVE eaten in the car, but usually it’s something like cereal where I can snag a couple toss them in my mouth and eat like that (when getting fast food I often opt for KFC’s popcorn chicken).
There are certain conventions in driving that are important to learn and to put into practice. For example, at an intersection with four-way stop signs, the car that arrives first at the intersection, after stopping, is supposed to go first. It becomes problematic when drivers do not assert themselves when they have the right to proceed. Then nobody knows whose turn it is, and several cars start to move at the same time.
I have also noticed that some drivers like to drive in the left-hand lane of a divided four-lane highway (with or without controlled access) regardless of traffic conditions. The convention is to drive in the right lane unless you want to pass a slower vehicle. The left lane is a passing lane. I rountinely drive on a four-lane highway where some drivers feel that they own the left lane. They make cars that are approaching at a greater speed from behind pass them on the right side. I think that this type of driving behavior can create more dangerous driving situations.
Lastly, there are drivers who do not have the skill or confidence to pass on a two-lane highway. It is obvious that they wish to drive faster than I am going, but they tail-gait my car for mile after mile, when clearly there have been many opportunities to pass. My conclusion is that they don’t know how or are not confident to pass in such situations. I am never quite sure how to remedy this situation. Should I slow down and force them to pass me, or would it be better to pull off the road and let them around? I don’t want to let them tail-gate me for mile after mile.
My solution, if it’s not presenting a hazard to others to do so, is to slow down. The tailgater usually takes the initiative, then.
Nevertheless, some tailgaters are just plain ornery and have chosen YOU. One time I was driving over the speed limit, which was posted at 55mph, in the rightmost of two lanes of a divided four-lane highway and with no one else on the road. It was, as the trucker’s parlance has it, the land o’ beauty. A driver caught up with me from the distance and rather than pass me, for the passing was easy as you could ask, opted to tailgate me. Soon fed up, I slowed down. No change. I slowed a bit more. Still being tailgated. I eventually slowed down to 25mph - I kid you not - and the driver finally passed me and gave me the finger.
Sometimes this happens when the highway is configured so that you enter or merge from a ramp on the left. Then, if you’re the sort of person who resists traveling 10 mph over speed limit, a tailgater appears in the rear, but you’re blocked on the right by continuous oncoming traffic. The last thing I want to do is speed up to 75 with a jerk on my back. You get over when you can.
Tyler, glad you and the missus are okay. I got a new car that way once too.
#13 Check your tire pressure and visually inspect your tires at least once a month. Blown tires at highway speeds kill many people each year - damaged/worn tires, and/or severly under inflated tires are the main causes for this. You can not tell if your tires are underinflated simply by looking at them, you must use a tire pressure gauge, so keep one in your glove compartment and use it to check your tires regularly.
Also, visually inspect the tires for excessive wear - do you know what the wear bars on your tires look like and where to find them? Keep an eye out for threads showing through, or cut’s and nicks in the side wall of the tire. If you have any question about the safety of a tire that looks damaged, replace it immediately!
Oh yeah, and don’t drive under the influence, duh.
I had a tire (front passenger side) blow out on me on the free way, going about 75 mph. Cleared my sinuses and several other orifices. The bits of wire in the shredded remains of the tire smashed up the wheel-well and took the paint off a large part of that side. Turns out that, in spite of the fact there were no outward signs of significant wear, rubber weakens over time. On mine it was the sidewalls that let go. If your tires are over six or seven years old, just replace them all. Don’t wait to test the old wives’ tale about seeing your life flash before your eyes.
I just had to take the written driver’s test here in Iowa and the manual said that if someone is tailgating you to slow down to encourage him to pass. If he doesn’t pass you, pull off the road if you can and let him go by. It also said that you should have your car doors locked and not get out of your car which left me feeling a bit alarmed. I guess if you pull over and he pulls over too then drive like hell and get off the freeway when you get to a town? I guess if he is intending to harm you then you might as well make a run for it even though it would be unsafe. I don’t know what to think.
Let me rephrase: Don’t drive like you’re in a gawdawful hurry. Or, Drive like you’ve got something extremely valuable and delicate in the car (that would be you).
I’m glad we’re all in the spirit of Motherly Driving Tips.
Somebody needs to do a study of why some drivers’ brains become detatched in the presence of fire-trucks. Sirens? Big red truck that could squash you like a bug? Time to drive badly!
I’m all for not being in a hurry, but speed limits are often too low for modern cars which have much better handling, stability and braking than of old. So stay in the inside lane if you wish to dawdle, along with all the lorries, tractors, caravans (which should be banned) and horse-boxes. If you are in the middle lane and won’t pull over because you’re feeling holier-than-thou about the fact that you’re doing exactly the speed limit, look in your mirror just for once. That would make a change, wouldn’t it! That’s me tailgating you. You’re being dangerous because you’re in the wrong lane and you’re frustrating motorists like me who have a flexible attitude to speed limits. Move over!
On a two-lane I’ll maintain speed then when the dashed lines come up will slow down and move as far right as the shoulder will allow. Once several years ago in heavy (50 mph) traffic a guy in a delivery van was I swear 3 feet behind me or less. I tapped the breaks to show him I didn’t like that and he went absolutely nonlinear. I switched lanes as soon as possible, as there was a light in half a mile. He got stuck with cars between me and him but saw still hurling obscenities at me when the light turned. It just wasn’t worth it to me; the guy could have had a gun as happens all too often around here.
A year or two ago I was driving late at night (rare for me) on the Washington Beltway, which is about four lanes in each direction there. The traffic was moderate – flowing at about 70, neither difficult nor easy to change lanes. It struck me that at any given time, probably about 10-20% of the cars had their brake lights on. Ever since I’ve watched people – a lot of cars will accelerate till they are within 10 feet of the car in front of them, brake hard, accelerate, brake hard, and so on. At highway speeds, this is just so dumb on so many different levels. It’s dangerous. It impedes smooth traffic flow. It wastes gas (it’s like stop-and-go traffic). It wears out tires and brakes. It causes wear and tear on your engine and suspension, possibly even your transmission. And it’s obnoxious.
Most important: remember that driving is a collective effort.
I’ve been researching psychological factors in motor vehicle accidents for several years. There’s a bunch of them, needless to say. But, the granddaddy of them all–and I apologize in advance for the cliche–is denial.
I think the truth is that none of us would ever drive a car if we really allowed ourselves to completely confront the kind of damage we could do to other people if we made a mistake. While we are at it, we have to do some avoidance of thinking about how, as you go about your driving day, you will have very close encounters with all kinds of interesting people driving other cars that can end your life by simply moving their hand slightly to the left. So, in order to be able to drive, we don’t allow ourselves to think about that much.
But then we take this denial, some of which is necessary if one is going to drive, and we take it to all kinds of weird extremes of psychological blindness. We do all kinds of things that our best judgment tells us we KNOW to be reckless. We change the CD and we eat our lunches and drive with our knees and otherwise screw around and put ourselves and countless others at risk. Nobody can really bear to imagine what our life would be like if we did some dumbass reckless thing and took the life of a six-year-old on a bicycle. So, off we drive, eating, putting on makeup, picking our noses, chatting it up on the cell, and picking out tunes on the MP3 player. It’s a kind of mass nuttiness.
Particularly in rural areas the major factors involved in fatal crashes are:
Driving under the influence of alcohol.
Driving at higher than the speed limit.
Driving without a seat belt, particularly, but not exclusively, when this leads to being ejected from the vehicle during a crash.
Now, that said, it may turn out to be true that raising the speed limit doesn’t always increase accidents. But, it’s likely that the reason is that changing speed limits doesn’t always have that much effect on how fast people drive. But, when people drive faster, they are more prone to accidents.
Slow driving is a real problem around here. The highways curve and have sharp rises and descents; if traffic moves at 75 and there’s somebody just around the corner going 30 MPH under the speed limit, they are not only gonig to kill themselves, they just might take several families with them.
Again I restate: slower is NOT safer in highway driving. If you are not keeping up with the flow of traffic, then you are a danger to yourself and to every other motorist around you.
If you can’t accept this, then please help save lives by staying off the highways.
I’m with peeplj. Traffic should flow like water. If you make an obstacle of yourself, water will find a way to flow around you, or prefarbly, through you. Go with the flow or pull off the road until traffic thins out (usually after midnight).
I don’t know what brought it on, but I was sitting at a red light one night, waiting to make a left turn. When the light changed, I had an advanced green so made my turn. As I straightened out from the turn, the road was full off life-sized cut-outs of people; like the kind you’d see on a target practise range. I had already gone through several of these before I realized what it was I was seeing and what was going on. I knew the cut-outs weren’t really there, but I saw myself drive through quite a few more before my sight cleared and there were no more of them. I didn’t feel happy or sad at having hit these, but was more curious about what would bring this on. Weird, eh?
Aren’t you afraid the slow guy will stop suddenly? I shouldn’t think showing the dude you’re frustrated by following too closely would be worth the risk of getting killed in a wreck. I’m more scared when I’m in the car that’s tailgating than when I’m in the car in front. At least I know the tailgater is there and I can plan to swerve off the road if I have to. If you’re the tailgater it seems like you could be caught by surprise and end up pretty darn dead, not to mention the others you might well take with you.
100kph in a 50kph zone, car leaves road, ends up pinned under broken utility pole. 1 partial ejection, 2 ‘walking wounded’, 1 pinned so badly it took 2 hours to cut him out. Four helicopter evacuations. 2 dead in hospital. It was a war zone.
I don’t advocate dawdling, but stupid speed is deadly. Unless you’re a qualified rally racer, you may not know where 10/10ths is, or how close you come to exceeding it in ‘normal’ driving. As long as we put some thought into what is ‘safe enough’, without denial or paranoia, we’ll be fine.
Oh, and Steve: for tailgaters, I’ve been known to pull over and phone the plates in to the cops.
yeah, I put it through the ringer a couple of times), but it sure does get you great gas mileage! Between highway travel and surface street travel, I’ve averaged about 24mpg (but I;vebeen hotrodding quite a bit too).
