Blogs > Driving Fitz Me

I can drive for miles and miles. Trust me.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Drive a car known to police

They always talk about red cars attracting the attention of police. I don't know about that. But I can recommend that you don't drive a car that police have never seen before. I used to test drive cars for an automobile trade magazine. Actually I rarely wrote about the cars, but I did need to be familiar with the cars because I was editing stories about them. Anyway, I quickly learned that the one thing police do more than anything else is look at cars. That's their primary weapon against crime. They stop someone for a burned-out tail-light then discover that the driver is wanted for murder. If everyone rode bicycles half the crimes in the world would never be solved. So police have to watch cars as part of their job. They sit in their boring (at least on the exterior) cruiser and watch the world drive by. This is coupled with the fact that most police officers are guys and guys, in general, love cars. So when I was test-driving an Alfa Romeo (soon to return to the U.S. market) I could be sure that I would catch the cops' eyes. And to think I was hoping to catch women's eyes. What a fool I was.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Wash me!

It's the age-old question: In the winter, when do you wash your car? Around here it's just going to get dirty again -- and fast. There is still plenty of salt residue on the road -- and more snow to come. But do you want your car so dirty that some kid can write a message on it? You can only hope that the message is civil. And do you go to a drive-thru car wash or a do-it-yourself car wash. At the do-it-yourselfer if it's too cold the water freezes. When you wash it yourself in the summer, you immediately proceed to the freeway to speed up for a quick wind-dry. That doesn't help in the winter. Faster speeds just lower the wind chill factor and the next thing you know -- your windows are frozen shut.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Oakland vs Macomb

Oakland County vs Macomb County. Is there really any difference in the typical driver from these two counties? I could make some sweeping generalizations. Oakland may have a few more wealthy drivers and we all know their habits. They drive like they own the road. Macomb drivers drive like they rent the road. Both counties have young female drivers who never were able to enjoy driving, and found it just a necessary evil for getting from Point A (home) to Point B (the mall). That was before the cell phone. Now young girls (and women) have something to do while they drive, since simply paying attention is way too boring. You try to stop a young girl from texting while driving. Go ahead and try, it's impossible. If your teenage girl loves to text then she will be doing it while she drives. Until her very first close call. Then she'll stop for two weeks and then start up again. The biggest difference between the two counties is that Macomb probably has older drivers. They drive kind of slow so they don't get into many accidents. They may cause some accidents but they putt-putt away, blissfully unaware of their trail of carnage. OK, so I exaggerate. The geography of the counties presents some problems. Macomb drivers only need to navigate along the shores of one lake. No problem. In north Oakland drivers continuously encounter lakes. It's been kind of cold. Do drivers in Oakland ever drive their cars out onto smaller lakes? Of course, they do. It's fun.