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In my own experience, there's a spectrum, and both ends are good places to be. In the middle, not so much. I drive a Mercedes E550 as my daily driver, it's a nice car, but in terms of "respect" given by other drivers to me, it's no better than the average Toyota or Ford sedan.
My fun car though, is a Porsche 911 turbo. I do notice that most people are more careful around me, if they are behind me, they don't follow too close, and if they are ahead of me and I'm moving up beside them, they wait until after I've passed if they want to move into my lane, etc. Whether they respect the car or just don't want to get involved in an expensive accident with me, I don't know, but the behavior of other drivers towards me is much better than in the Mercedes.
My wife's SUV is probably even better, it's a midsize SUV, Mercedes ML63 AMG, and if the size doesn't give driver's reason to respect it, then the AMG badge does. Most people know that the higher numbers mean a more expensive model, so I usually have no one tailgating or acting like an idiot around me if they take note of the car.
So basically, you either need to stand out because of the size of your vehicle, or the cost of your vehicle, or both.
Interesting observation.
I actually am alot more alert around and inclined to avoid people driving beaters...much greater chance a car that has no lien is uninsured/ underinsured, and much greater chance the driver doesn't have much concern about its condition.
Maybe it's just because higher end cars are common here.
I drive 4 different vehicles and notice that drivers behave differently based on which one I'm driving, my driving style also changes.
In my moderately modified 2001 VW Golf TDI I would say is my baseline with drivers behaving normally. I tend to take turns fast because a FWD with a Torsen differential and summer tires is just a lot of fun. I tend to drive 10% over the speed limit on local roads, 60-75 on the fwys, and 75-85 on the open highway. I stay out of people's way and always leave myself and other cars a buffer area.
In my 2006 Chevy 2500HD Duramax, I notice cars cut in front of me all the time on the freeway. The brakes on the massive truck are not nimble, so I tend to keep to the 3 right lanes and drive slightly below the low of traffic because I don't want to get cut-off and rear-end someone (or severely injure them).
In my 2013 Fiat 500e, I drive pretty fast on the surface streets...fuel economy doesn't matter in an EV. I tend to accelerate quickly and weave my way around slower cars.
In my 2007 Lexus Rx400h, I notice folks do not leave a buffer zone and I have to really plan ahead when I want to change lanes. The second I activate my turn signal, the car in the next lanes speeds up to close the gap. This does not happen in my TDI.
My Corvette is my daily driver, and what I notice is people(especially young guys) are a lot more aggressive.
They usually like to tailgate me, and if they happen to pull next to me at a traffic light, down goes their foot on the pedal to rev the engine, hoping, I guess, that I would be interested in racing them
Doesn't matter that they are driving some old ricer with a fart can.
Same reason they treat you differently according to whether you wear your ball cap backwards, or how many visible tattoos you have, or whether you are overweight or not, or how loud the bass speakers are in your trunk.
I also drive a car, a Ford Fusion. When I'm on the interstate many times I've seen very aggressive drivers in giant lifted turbo diesel pickups such as Ford F-250s or Dodge Rams hogging the left lane and tailgating.
I always move over and let those guys fly by. The funny thing is that these are just commuter vehicles. They are never hauling anything. I guess driving a lifted giant truck must give some people an exhilarating feeling.
In the just completed Detroit Auto Show, Chevrolet showed off their newest Silverado Pickup. The newest option is a factory lift kit!
There are a lot of aftermarket companies that offer lifted suspensions. We saw that and decided we should lift our truck right from the factory and warranty it. Because we wanted it to be fully capable, dependable and durable. Our engineers delivered but it took developing some unique components. Half-shaft angles are very important -- you don’t want those to wear out prematurely. And they wear more at aggressive angles (from a lift). So, we baked that into the program right at the very beginning. In fact, we designed it (the stock suspension) so that if you (didn’t buy a Trailboss) got home and wanted the lift, you could go back to the dealership and bolt the pieces on. We’re working on making that 2-inch lift available right from the dealership.
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