Worst Passenger(s) You've Ever Had

  • Rolebama's Avatar
    I have two relatives who I have to collect when they stay with us for a week or so. Both of them have different unexplained reasons for 'needing' to travel in the back seat with the window fully open. At any speed over 40mph. buffeting kicks in. On the motorway at 60/70 mph it is unbearable, both for the noise and whatever effect it has on my ears. It is bad enough on the 90 mile journey collecting them and taking them home, but if we visit any of my other relatives, it means double the journey time avoiding motorways and buffeting. (The usual 2hr journey to bring them to mine then turns into 5hrs on dual carriageways and NSLs, and taking them home can take up to 5hrs, because they need to stop to take a break.) To add to the problem, they tend to talk incessantly, which means I am repeatedly asking them to repeat themselves, as they are both inveterate mumblers.
    I have come to hate those journeys.





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  • 6 Replies

  • Drivingforfun's Avatar
    You've probably tried already but whenever I'm in a car and one window needs to be open, opening a second window seems to cure the buffeting

    Thankfully I've never had to deal with bad passengers myself!!

    My Grandmother is very grumpy and is an awful passenger, but I've never had to drive her. I've been in the front seat with her in the back (of her own car) though. She demanded that we switched the "rear air conditioning" on, which I don't think a Ford Fiesta actually has. She got angry when I pointed out the button she wanted us to press was actually the heated rear windscreen, so in the end I just switched it on and then she mentioned that she felt so much cooler 🤔
  • Mark07's Avatar
    Community Manager
    My grandma never quite worked out the difference between the button to lower the window and the latch to open the door.

    It occasionally made for an exciting drive on a hot summers day.
  • Drivingforfun's Avatar
    I've never tried to open the doors of my current car but I always hear them lock once I go over 11 mph for the first time on a journey. As I've never tried, I don't know if they're locked from the inside as well or just for people trying to get in??
  • Rolebama's Avatar
    Mine lock at 8mph and I believe it can be changed. I sometimes drop my wife off near supermarket doors and the go off to find a parking space. With the engine running you have to pull the latch twice to get out.
    The system was introduced on a lot of cars when car-jacking was more common. It seems to have worked.
  • NMNeil's Avatar
    My grandma never quite worked out the difference between the button to lower the window and the latch to open the door.

    It occasionally made for an exciting drive on a hot summers day.
    Arghhhhhh, the wife and car door locks.
    Me "Let go of the (outside) door handle because it wont unlock all the time your tuggin on it"
    She lets go of the handle so I have to lock the door again before I unlock it and the moment she hears the door lock she's pulling on the handle again so it won't open.
    Rinse and repeat.
  • Mdb51's Avatar
    I have to admit, my dad was the worst passenger in a car I had driven for him, he was on motability and I was his backup driver as he had copd and frequently had to ask me to drive.

    As I am Dyslexic and Dyspraxic aswell as awaiting official tests for Aspergers and ADHD, my dad never knew this at the time, I only found out in September 2019, 2 years after dad passed but he frequently had a go at me purely because I never drove exactly how he did, even my brother often found himself on the receiving end of my dad's often harsh comments.

    In the end I had to say that yes he'd had a great deal more experience than I had, but I had to point out that no matter how long you've been driving, you never stop learning as there is always somehing new to get to grips with.

    Even now, 21 years after I passed my test, I still find myself learning new things, will the changes ever end, who knows.