Giving your passengers a smooth ride

[mclasser]

Whenever I'm driving with a passenger in the car, I try to give them a smooth and composed ride. This is not to say I don't do this when alone but I become extra mindful when with others. I accelerate/brake smoothly, don't jack rabbit from light to light, avoid excessive/last minute lane changes, go around potholes if possible, no unnecessary engine revving, etc. Of course this equates to less wear and tear on my car but that's side thought. My passengers notice and have complimented me on this before. When the roles are reversed and I'm a passenger, there have been plenty of times I wished the person driving was a smoother driver. Perhaps I was a chauffeur in a previous life

Is anyone else like me?

 

[EdwardC]

I do exactly the same thing. I try to brake extra smoothly when I have passengers. I try to make it so that when I get to a complete stop, you can't even notice it.

When I'm alone, I don't even think about it. I do find that driving with passengers, especially people I don't drive with often, does physically exhaust me more than if I'm driving alone.

 

[01rangerxl]

I'm probably less likely to punch the gas with a passenger, but it all depends on the situation.

When I was driving my cousin's '72 C-10 with a ZZ4 350 recently, he told me to have at it, so I did. We both had a lot of fun seeing the hood shake and shimmy and hearing the old truck roar. It had been sitting for a decade and the main part of its rehab was some hard driving and a bunch of new gaskets.

I had many "oh [censored]" moments as a passenger in my friend's slightly built '96 Mustang GT...it had PI heads, underdrive pulleys, offroad x-pipe, aftermarket headers, drivetrain upgrades, and some other things, but was naturally aspirated. It could run out of speedometer easily. A Tuesday night ride might be donuts in an industrial park followed by 155+ MPH down an empty highway.

So it all depends on the situation and who is the passenger. Sometimes it's more about wringing the car out.

 

[Nick1994]

Yeah it depends on the passenger. If it's my grandparents I try to slow down, anybody else is going for the ride!

 

[Bud_One]

Originally Posted By: EdwardC
I do exactly the same thing. I try to brake extra smoothly when I have passengers. I try to make it so that when I get to a complete stop, you can't even notice it.

When I'm alone, I don't even think about it. I do find that driving with passengers, especially people I don't drive with often, does physically exhaust me more than if I'm driving alone.


+1

 

[Inspecktor]

I like to try to brake using steady pressure, releasing it as the car rolls to a stop. If the nose does not rebound, I got it right.

 

[amusing]

mclasser has another vote of confidence
happy Father's Day to all @bitog

 

[CharBaby]

I have been the passenger in vehicles where the driver is fidgeting all the time, causing the passenger to get sea sick!

I try to give my passengers the smooth ride by paying attention to the road ahead and my surroundings, smoothly driving around bumps/ruts, not braking/accelerating too hard and mostly using cruise control etc.

 

[Smoky14]

Smooth is always best, sometimes it's faster. Choppy driving, to me, is a sign of a bad driver. YMMV

Smoky

 

[supton]

I don't think I change my habits if others are in the car or not. I mean, I dodge potholes as a rule, and pick an acceleration rate I want. Slow or fast.

 

[Colt45ws]

I raced a ricer Civic with my Mom in the car.
Oh, it was her car, too.
Tied with him. Wonder if that [censored] him off. Couldn't pull on a silver ex rental Fusion

 

[skyactiv]

You wouldn't like riding with my wife. Any woman that buys a new car with a stick in the U.S. today is an aggressive driver.

 

[supton]

Any? Pshaw. My wife in her Camry is anything but aggressive.

Well, by Northeast standards. Since she drives five over and is not intimidated by MA/CT traffic that might qualify as aggressive elsewhere.

 

[garlicbreadman]

Depends who is sitting in my car. If it is someone who i think will appreciate some automotive engineering, i'll drive spiritedly.

 

[KitaCam]

Yes...I drive the MT camry as if it were an AT...much earlier shift points.

 

[MCompact]

I try drive to drive smoothly all the time; even on the track, smooth is fast. That said, if my son or another gearhead is on board I may try to sucker a fool into attepting to keep up with me on a decreasing radius on-ramp or other similar shenanigans.
Hilarity usually ensues...

 

[CBR.worm]

Yes, I drive much more smoothly and slowly when I have passengers. With a manual transmission, it is hard to accelerate smoothly through the gears without some noticeable acceleration changes between gears.