Every time I sit in the driver's seat of my car, and if my sister, mother or father have been driving it before, I can feel a difference.
It is not the driving performance or behaviour of the car itself that has changed after another person has driven it, but it's that something else - the changed settings perhaps, the seat which may not be exactly as I'd like it to be and now I have to adjust it again, the mirrors that I have to adjust... I just don't like that, I feel it destroys the 'continuity' and 'uniformity of ownership' for the car.
Yes, all settings can be restored, but why should I have to go through that each and every time?
Sure, Audio and another few thousand people in the UK may have a nice car with auto/memory settings and as soon as they sit into the driver's seat press a tiny little button - magic, all settings back to "memory position no. x".
But I also believe that the way one drives the car is also affecting the way the car drives in the long run. A car that has had only one careful owner during its life, an owner that drives in a specific way (because each and every one of us does so), will behave differently and exhibit a different performance, again in the long run.
Your stomach, they say, behaves the way you teach it to behave. If you eat large portions every day, it will keep asking for more and will not have a balanced life.
The car is the same, in my opinion. When each and every day two different people, with two different driving behaviour patterns, drive it then the whole thing gets messy.
The consumption is not regular and consistent over time, the way the engine is revved up or down is uneven, the brakes are once being taken good care of and twice been used violently perhaps (depending on who drives the car, and no prejudice from my part on male/female driving) and so forth. No consistency overall.
If you have a small city car, ok, may be - but for driving pleasure machines like the one Audio was referring to, I'm sorry, no way.
Moving on now to speed limits. Voltaire said once "I detest what you say but I'd give my life for you to be able to say it." So people can talk about 'clamping' or whatever else, sure, no problem. I've had the same response here when I first came a year ago. The same and even worse. And this is one of the many reasons I do not to work here any more. I refuse to become a robot and a brainless driver who only uses his car in order to go from A to B.
The issue however remains. Yes, if you drive with 55mph on a B-road and you lose control, get off track and hit some poor old family who may be walking (or parked) nearby, sure, that's bad. This is very dangerous, and it is something that should never happen. Because human life is precious, very very precious indeed. And for that reason we have to ensure it happens as less as possible. And using speed cameras and very strict enforcement of speed limits can be one way of achieving this.
But don't let all these 'arguments' fool you. The major reason why we have been overflown with speed cameras and speed limits is revenue generating purposes. And in all honesty, I just cannot accept that. Nearly all speed limits are simply ridiculous, to the point of stupidity, and they've always been like that. Can you really drive like this? Do you want me to take you seriously and believe it is sensible to drive my car like a complete idiot with 30mph on an casually empty road when I can easily do double that? Why should I drive like that? Why should I have to be forced to drive like a mentally handicapped adult when the margins of safety are still there?
Surely, if I do 55 on a road that has speed limit of 30 and something goes wrong, then the damage / destruction / possible loss of human life can potentially be much worse. Of course, I understand that. But there is always an element of risk, everywhere. If the bad moment is to come, it will. Accidents are caused by carelessness, by people not being mindful and instead being 'brave' / 'silly', not by speed. Speed does not kill - what kills is our silliness on driving exceedingly fast in a road or highway at which the overall conditions do not offer us a good safety margin. What also kills is our belief that we can 'control' the car if something goes wrong. No, we cannot, very few people can and these are called rally, F1/2/3, etc. professional drivers.
In addition - why does Audio want to get that Merc? Why?
Why is Merc offering so many different high speed models? Why is BMW doing the same? Why is Porsche producing even more sporty and high performing cars?
Since we have "rules" and "limits" and "clamping down" mechanisms, why are we even considering getting a 525i or a 535i? We'll never be able to go above 55mph anyway, anywhere!
Why is all this offered to us? Why?
If someone comes today and tells you: "If you get completely drunk on Friday night, you'll be fined 300 quid and get 5 points in your license."
How will that make you feel?
Who gives that idiot the right to come and instruct you on how much, when, where and under what circumstances you can getting drunk? Nobody.
But that idiot takes the right to come and enforce you this, simply because 'drinking' can kill or damage your well being. Just like speed can do, or almost just.
Same with smoking, with sex having not used a condom, etc.
It is true that we all live together and our rights and freedoms stop where the other person's rights and freedoms begin. Yes, that's true. But nobody can come and tell me that at 6am I cannot do double the speed limit on my way to the airport, for example, just because the x10 'safety-factor-incorporated' speed limit sign says so.
I'm sorry - I'll just pass this way of living. I am not a robot and will never be like one.