I've been driving my new TT around Vancouver for almost a week now. I used to drive a Toyota RAV4, an entirely inconspicuous vehicle that blends perfectly into traffic. My wife now happily motors around in this fine but entirely bland automobile.
However since I got the TT I have noticed a distinct difference in the attitudes of other drivers. It is usually the Civics and Preludes with "hello kitty" stickers on their gas caps and hub caps the color of baby puke that pay me extra and entirely unwanted attention.
Last night I was at first in line at a traffic light, minding my own business while humming along with some pleasant music and still admiring the interior of my new pride and joy. A prelude with a spoiler the size of a small construction girder pulls up beside me. I can feel a stare and he is obviously revving his little engine. I increase the volume of my stereo and politely ignore the display of teenage bravado next to me. The light changes and he floors his accelerator and pulls away like mad, entirely failing to notice the small Suzuki Sidekick that is still attempting to turn right from the other side of the intersection. To my amusement and also sadness I notice a big green sticker with an "N" on it in his rear window. In BC, new drivers have to display such a sticker to notify the rest of the world that they still suck at driving. Well our friend in the mutilated Prelude certainly sucked. Miraculously, a collision was avoided but they were now stuck in the middle of the intersection. While he was busy making obscene gestures to the befuddled driver of the Sidekick I quietly drove past the scene and went on my way. He still wasn't satisfied however and I observed him in my rear view mirror, weaving in and out of traffic, trying to catch up with me. He finally gets behind me and starts trying to pass me on a narrow residential street. No way am I speeding there with kids and pedestrians everywhere. So I let him pass and he barrels away like the moron he obviously is. I am getting pissed off now but I switch CDs and am soon serenely gliding along, at peace with the world. At the end of the street my smile broadens considerably when I pass the prelude that is stuck behind a garbage truck in a left turn lane. Somehow that image was entirely fitting.

10 minutes later some dork in a BMW X5 seems to have a problem with me passing him. This time we are on a much bigger road so I leave him behind me to stew in his own juices 1 minute later when he is stuck behind me waiting to turn left into my street.

Ah never a dull day.

I love my car.

 

...and I try my best to always give them as wide a berth as possible as I am more afraid of their driving than mine. Glad to hear you are OK and unscathed. Keep driving, keep smiling!

 

Great Attitude!

 

Awesome story =)