We Love Cars, but These 6 Things Really Grind Our Gears
There are a lot of things to get angry about in the car world, like gas prices and out-of-production parts and careless owners and stuck bolts. We try not to focus on those too much, but each of us still have those little things that just … ugh. They just get on our nerves. This week, we decided to get nit-picky. In the spirit of good humor, we’re sharing our automotive pet peeves: the various features, behaviors, and perspectives that get under our skin way more than perhaps they should. No—on second thought, we are exactly as irritated as we should be because double parkers are the actual worst.
Pet Peeve #1: Switch Blanks
This is petty, I know, but for me, it’s switch blanks. Those are the little rectangular inserts, usually black plastic, that cover up where a switch for a control—whatever, be it a turn-off for automatic start/stop; fog lights; traction control—was supposed to go, but this particular vehicle doesn’t have that feature.
A switch blank bothers me for two reasons: One, it messes up the symmetry of the dashboard or console to save the manufacturer the small expense of covering it up by design, instead of a plug, and two, it advertises the fact that no matter what you spent on the car, there was some feature or features you couldn’t afford. Your car is loaded? No, it isn’t, because you have an eyesore switch blank. And it isn’t just cheap vehicles—I tested a $223,000 car a few weeks ago that had a switch blank. OK, end of rant. — Steven Cole Smith
Pet Peeve #2: Stereotyping a Person Based on Their Car
Saying X car is for Y kind of people. Based on the stereotypes that run with my car history, I’ve been a hairdresser, a redneck, someone who doesn’t know how to use turn signals, a retiree, an NPR listener, and who knows what else. (Bonus points to anyone who can accurately guess the cars I’ve owned based on the above.) What someone thinks about others based on their car often says more about the observer than the observed. — Eddy Eckart
Pet Peeve #3: Doing a Burnout Leaving a Car Show
Not exactly a controversial opinion but … doing a burnout when leaving a car show. You don’t look cool. You’re not cool. Nobody above the age of 15 thinks you’re cool. You’re making the rest of us look bad. You’re making the venue nervous. You’re annoying the police and the neighbors.
These kinds of burnouts are dangerous, and not the sexy, glamorous kind of danger but the pointless, sad kind. Oh, and all those people lining the road recording your obnoxious exit? They’re there to get a clip of you crashing and looking like an idiot. — Andrew Newton
Pet Peeve #4: Unpredictable Drivers
I get annoyed by car owners who don’t want their car to be touched. It’s just a car, but since you keep calling it “your baby,” let’s face it, you were—happily—going to wash and wax it for a third time this week anyway, so calm down.
Pound for pound, however, it’s the people who don’t understand right of way that win top prize: Four-way stops are all too often an exercise in frustration, and heaven forbid the power goes out and the traffic lights start to blink.
Drivers who stop to let pedestrians cross mid-block, making wild assumptions that everyone else will stop, too. Be predictable, not polite.
Oh, and there’s a special place in hell for drivers who come to a stop on freeway on-ramps. — Stefan Lombard
Pet Peeve #5: Multi-Spot Parking Job
I considered a handful of answers for this question as I drove to the grocery store to run a quick errand, but the RIGHT answer smacked me in the face as I pulled into the parking lot.
Hands down, my biggest pet peeve is folks who intentionally park their cars to take up multiple parking spots. Oftentimes the perpetrators here are just regular pickups, SUVs, or cars; there’s not anything inherently priceless about them. You just couldn’t be bothered to be considerate of anyone but your immediate self.
I bet you don’t return your shopping carts either. — Nate Petroelje
Pet Peeve #6: Maniac Merging
Some onramps around metro Detroit are criminally short, or curved, or both, and construction is omnipresent, but merging should not be this chaotic. Whether we’re merging left to right to avoid construction, or right to left following an onramp, Michigan seems to completely misunderstand merging. You’ve got the aggressively proactive law abiders, who move over the minute they see any sign, even the ones reading “lane ends in one mile,” and you’ve got the normal people who wait until the lane is actually about to merge—when they can actually lay eyes on the light-up arrow signs, or because they counted down on their GPS or odometer from that “one mile” sign, and are planning to nudge over, at speed, with a comfortable 0.2 miles to go.
These opposite behaviors produce the strangest dynamics: People slamming on their brakes to merge as soon as they know a merge is coming, no matter if it’s a mile or half a mile away, and get behind each other in the most courteous yet most dangerously chaotic way, and the others shotgunning past those obsessively orderly cars, who of course honk at anyone who “cuts” the line. Anywhere else, that cutting would just be regular merging! — Grace Houghton
1 mile stretch of passing lane on a 2 lane highway. The speed limit will be 55 and I’m stuck behind a car doing 50. We get to the passing lane and the 50 mph car bumps it up to 60+ mph. So to pass I need to go 65-70 which is inviting a ticket. A co-worker had a lady tailgate him for miles one time. He said he got to a passing lane and moved to the right. The lady stayed behind him thru the passing lane. Then a mile or two down the road passed him Go figure. Also annoying is a car on the highway going 5 mph slower then 5 mph faster than speed limit. Make up your mind or put your damn cruise control on. And might I add people not using turn signals. To cheap to buy blinker fluid There. I vented
the Merg /Zipper thing drives me crazy—People racing up the lane that’s closing so they can cut in front of safe courteous drivers—to me it’s the same as someone cutting in line at the grocery store-
I think you have this one wrong. That other lane should not be empty. The right and left lanes should fill to about the same point. It works so much better than everyone lined up in a single lane.
Pet peeve: Those who present themselves as experts on all, or a particular make of car and pontificate at the first opportunity about the flaws of a car as if any gathering was Amelia Island or Pebble Beach. “No, your Lordship, my 1967 car does not have its’ original oil. Furthermore, this is a fundraiser show-and-shine being held in a church parking lot. And those accessory headrests you cannot place and think are rare, they came from J.C. Whitney.”
As I got older I came to realize stereotypes and conspiracy theories are more often true than not. I feel very confident in guessing the political persuasion of anyone who drives an ev, hybrid, subaru, volvo , vw, or saab.
Enjoyed the article and agree. The part that got my attention was “Maniac Merging”. My huge peeve is directed at those drivers in the slow, right lane, that join the ramp merging onto the highway – just to get a few cars ahead. Why would I let them in? Not happening…
Enjoyed the comment on shopping carts. People are so lazy. Unbelievable.
People that hang out in the fast lane ware they should never be in in the first place. People smoking weed while driving. They dive way too slow, swerve all over the place, and don’t communicate with other drivers!:(
So, you’re advocating that people pull over and stop to smoke their weed before proceeding, right? 😉
I find the old question still to be true. “What’s the difference between a BMW and a cactus”?
I’m surprised no one else mentioned this (that I saw). How about people who insist on driving with their dog on their lap, sometimes while they stand and have their noses out the window? Nothing again the dog — its the people that are stupid! Not only is this dangerous (driver control issues), but if ANYTHING goes wrong (accident or panic stop) the dog dies…
Maybe I missed it in all the comments: obviously anyone that cherishes driving as a privilege or as a sport or as a necessity is a driver. And obviously, many of the drivers shouldn’t be driving.
So whereas, heretofore, I proclaim that the gear grinder in my life is my shotgun, sidekick, backseat, navigator driver….
The un safeness of designing cars today that require the driver to make adjustments via studying a flat screen computer to find a hundred different choices (while driving) and then needing to watch your own hand find that choice on the screen (can’t be down by touch) to be sure that you are touching the correct spot. I’m 80 yrs old driving a 2023 Dodge Charger with zero computer training. In my first car ( a 1952 Plymouth) there was a single knob for windshield wipers located on top of the dash centered near the windshield where it could be seen and found without taking my eyes off the road. It also could be found by feel without searching for it. There was no radio to distract me from driving. The heater controls were knobs of different shapes so I knew what I was grabbing as soon as I touched one of the 3 knobs. A round knob was the 3 speed fan. Then there were 2 other knobs that slid sideways. One was the amount of air allowed to enter the cabin. The other sent the heat either to the floor or the other extreme was up to the windshield. The headlight switch was to the left of the steering wheel all by itself. The windows were controlled by crank so I did not need to look at any other controls on the door. The locks for the door were the up/down spikes located at the rear/bottom of the glass. One could drive and actually change the few options without having to search the way too many distractions of today’s cars. My other gripes are no spare tire or jack or lug wrench. Not even a place to carry a spare tire should I choose to buy one. I like to have the 4 wheel drive should the need arise being caught in an unsuspected snow storm, but take away the computer controlled switch and allow me to put it into 4 wheel drive. Having the computer control the switch, means that it might go into 4 wheel drive if I were to place a mini spare on and that different size tire would then ruin the 4 wheel drive. Their solution is to make me throw away 3 tires and buy all 4 if I need to buy one replacement tire. When my car was new, I suggested to my sales person that I buy a new wheel and tire and rotate all 5 tires at every oil change. He gave me a quote of over $500 by the time I mounted and balanced the new tire and asked me where I was going to carry it as the trunk floor was a thin false floor over a compartmented area. Can’t win for loosing at every turn. I do love getting 30 mpg of gas with a 300 hp 3.6 liter v6 and because it is blue, many people think that I am an undercover police man, When they pass me, I see panic in their face and see them slow down.
I don’t know how everyone seems to have missed it, but the NUMBER ONE pet peeve for me, as it should be I think for everyone else, are the antisocial morons that text on their phones while driving, watch videos, or anything else other than looking at the road in front of them.
Why?????
Why???? I shouldn’t be required to go the speed limit just because you think you’re the speed police!
#5: The problem is, unless you actually witnessed the vehicle being parked you cannot know whether or not it was a result of the LAST person’s bad parking job. Insufficient data = give them a break.
#6: What is it about merging that instantly turns people into George Carlin’s proverbial “idiots and morons”? I only know of one place where drivers routinely practice the zipper merge. Everywhere else, they turn into either madmen rushing forward or self-appointed traffic cops.
This may only be a MI problem – but I hate seeing a car in my mirror coming up on me at passing speed, getting to my blind spot, and then slowing down to pace me. Why?