To be a little surprised how many essential trips

[Hingeandbracket]

Were being made yesterday in cars and on motorcycles with extremely loud exhausts blasting around at full tilt. Perhaps it was the absence of other traffic, but it does seem as if some bellends are using it as an excuse to roar around in their fucking noisy bellend-mobiles

I’m afraid it will
It really won't

Wind your neck in OP
How about you wind yours in?

Owning a car that you ‘have’ to drive in case it seizes up even when you have nowhere to go sounds ridiculous
It does, because it's totally untrue.

I feel like I’m getting a lot of heat for not being content to drive around in a tiny compact electric hatchback.
Not from me you aren't, but you could get a lot of speed from a suitable Tesla. They tick some of your boxes, they are expensive and very fast - but sadly they don't meet the loudness criteria.

@Winterwoollies my next car is going to be big and powerful (possibly hybrid), just because I’ve missed it and the freedom it brings, so I am fine with to taking care of your car. You mentioned a trickle charger, any you recommend?

In a piece on the myths surrounding the 'need' to drive cars fast,

People will tell you this must be done so as to give themselves a reason to drive their vehicle to the extreme of their vehicle's ability. This is one of the two reasons to have bought the vehicle in the first place (the other reason is for the bragging rights). Something you'll find, though, is owners of these higher performance vehicles are not content with "normal driving".

mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/9908/do-fast-cars-need-to-occasionally-be-driven-fast

Even a pandemic doesn't stop the boy racers. I bet they're loving the empty ring road round here.

It’s a very fast car.

@Winterwoollies but you only drive it above 70mph on racetracks, of course.

I have to take it for a drive and am not content to leave it to seize up on the driveway during lockdown

As already said, it's not going to seize up if its parked up on the drive for a few weeks. My husband left a car parked in the same place for over two years. It started first time and ran perfectly until he got rid of it a few years later.

If it's the battery you are worried about, get a small battery maintenance charger.

Slightly different, but there were lots of people making ‘essential’ journeys to the lake near us yesterday. I walked round it, leaving from my house, and there were at least 20 cars parked along the roadside. No other reason to be there than walking

They are allowed to do this if the journey is relatively short and the walk reasonably long (whatever short and long mean!) The College of Police clarified you can do short trips to drive to somewhere to take exercise. You can even sit down to have lunch if you are on a long walk!

OP if you are bored do something to help someone.

I'm doing lots of volunteering but do somewhat object to idiots driving around dangerously through my village. I highly doubt the group of 17 year olds I saw yesterday were first responders.

WinterWoolies
Now, to be clear, I’m not defending dangerous motoring, I was merely saying that I probably fell under the people that bothered you yesterday and to me that was an essential journey.

You do realise that under the law, your journey was non essential. It doesn’t matter what you personal feelings are!

Slightly different, but there were lots of people making ‘essential’ journeys to the lake near us yesterday. I walked round it, leaving from my house, and there were at least 20 cars parked along the roadside. No other reason to be there than walking

To be fair a short drive to get some fresh air and exercise in pleasant surroundings is allowed - as long as it's not absolutely heaving in a way which would prevent social distancing.

We went for a bike ride yesterday which was mostly lovely, but of the few vehicles out, a sizeable minority were being driven by utter pillocks. 45ish in a 20 zone, some boy racer who undertook a child on a bike ahead of us (you know those moments where your heart stops on someone else's behalf), ignoring red lights, the works. I suppose they're always out, but in normal traffic they don't usually have quite such a free run.

Gone are the days when people were considerate of others.
These days people have loud bikes, loud cars, play loud music, park how they want, drive how they want and generally behave in a self centered and thoughtless way.
Their attitudes are basically,
"If you don't like it, fuck off"
They'll justify their shitty behaviour in various ways. Disturbing their neighbours with loud music is just 'Having fun'
Getting a ridiculously loud motorcycle just to tear around a town for an hour on a nice day is 'a hobby'
Barking dogs and unruly kids are just to be accepted and ignored by anyone wanting peace and quiet.

Basically, people are scum. They're happy to negatively impact everyone elses existence, but don't you dare try to impact on theirs.

fucking noisy bellend-mobiles

The correct term is twatmobile.
HTH

MonkeyToesOfDoom

Basically, people are scum. They're happy to negatively impact everyone elses existence, but don't you dare try to impact on theirs.

Actually this lockdown has shown me that most people aren't scum. I've been impressed - and I admit surprised - at the polite consideration shown by the overwhelming majority in my scummy neck of the woods.

The non-scum majority just need to come up with a better way of stopping the scum. Disappointingly, loud tutting doesn't seem to do it...

There has been a very high increase in cat deaths reported in several local FB Groups. Near empty roads and too fast traffic means that even cats with road sense are being killed in high numbers. I'll refrain from further comment.

South Park, season 13, episode 12 "The F Word" will tell you all you need to know about the idiots with overly loud exhausts.

@Winterwoollies DH will be doing the same soon. We've decided to make sure one car is running without any problems and decided it's better being his as it's the bigger engine and is more fun to drive. I would ask you what you've got but I'm sure it would get a lot posters frothing at the mouth!

@AmIAStone I use a Schumacher Speedcharge, which is very good. The Battery Tender Plus is also good and better priced.

@Hingeandbracket well, you couldn’t understand why I liked a car that made a noise. Big engines make noise, even at low or no speed. It’s exciting. It is noisy accelerating from stationary to 30mph. It sounds fast, even when it’s not being driven fast.... also, I am not a Tesla fan. The Roadster looked exciting but Musk has not delivered. The acceleration, which is admittedly impressive, makes a lot of people nauseous. They’re extremely expensive. And charging points are not common in my neck of the woods. So not for me.

I don’t criticise people because I don’t understand their hobbies and passions. I don’t particularly understand people who like decking themselves out in Lycra and cycling 100 miles of a weekend, or those who like keeping Koi carp but I wouldn’t criticise them for it. Even if I found the cyclists grouped in an annoying peloton on the roads...

@PhoneLock Um, did you read my post? It’s on a trickle charger. And while not driving it for weeks wouldn’t cause it to dissolve into a seized up, worthless, rust pile, it would do it no good, no good at all. So it needed to be driven. This is a powerful bit of machinery and it has to be maintained. Turning it over and moving it is part of that.

@ArgumentativeAardvaark that’s actually correct. It’s not my daily driver. I live in the country and would not rag it around the lanes due to poor visibility, tractors, walkers, cyclists and especially livestock and horses.

But as I said, I’m pregnant, very, very rarely leave the house and the car needed to be driven. So I drove it.

I've not noticed and I live in the most car obsessed place in the UK.

Someone near my mums was blue lighted away yesterday after attempting a trick on a residential road on his dirt bike after going about 70mph up and down for hours.

Managed to damage two parked cars to a pretty severe level too.

A local lady said ‘maybe he will think twice about driving like a maniac next time!’ On Facebook and got absolutely annihilated for not being ‘compassionate’. Madness. Like the NHS don’t have anything better to do.

Big engines make noise, even at low or no speed. It’s exciting. It is noisy accelerating from stationary to 30mph. It sounds fast, even when it’s not being driven fast

And never mind that it may be bloody annoying for everyone in earshot? I don't know how far the sound of your car carries but for the groups of bikers it's a long way - even in the countryside hundreds or thousands of people in range.

Maybe the solution for people who like loud noises is the same as for drum kits - fake noise through headphones? (Not serious... everyone on the road who isn't hearing impaired ought to be able to hear other sounds eg sirens)

• Gone are the days when people were considerate of others. These days people have loud bikes, loud cars, play loud music, park how they want, drive how they want and generally behave in a self centered and thoughtless way. *

I'd be fairly confident that the proportions of considerate v inconsiderate people hasn't varied much over time. Only now we have ways of artificially making more unnecessary noise.

Big engines make noise, even at low or no speed. It’s exciting. It is noisy accelerating from stationary to 30mph. It sounds fast, even when it’s not being driven fast

So basically,
"Fuck everyone else, I like loud engines so screw em"