How many of you would suddenly hand me the keys to your car or other vehicle without me even really asking for them?
Yesterday I asked my landlord’s husband if it might be posssible to borrow his truck at some point to pick up a washer and dryer I’m buying. I had thought maybe he would be willing to drive and I could do the grunt work, since it would be about a 45 minute errand, tops.
He suddenly takes out his keychain, pulls off the key to his truck and tells me to take it whenever I need to, and that its parked out back.
Damn.
I’m not going to steal it, but I think some people are just a tad too trusting…
I never let anyone borrow my car, including my wife or family, unless they can demonstrate that they really have to have it.
This comes in handy sometimes. I got accussed of blowing up a construction site when I was 17. I easily showed that I was at work at the time it happened. The police said “Well, we know it was your truck, you must have lent it to your brother (who looks like me)”. Everyone around started laughing. I never even let my brother ride in the cab of my truck. He had to ride in the back on the way to school. The matter was dropped pretty quickly.
I don’t have a car right now. My wife and i are going to buy one (a cheap used car) in a month or so.
But i’ve owned a few cars in my life, and i’ve never had a problem lending them to anyone that i knew. A car, to me, is just another tool, and if i’m not using it then i have no trouble with someone else borrowing it. I’ve never quite understood the “no-one but me drives my car” mentality.
So, CynicalGabe, if you were my tenant, and you seemed like a reasonably trustworthy person (and you wouldn’t be my tenant if i didn’t think i could trust you), then sure i’d let you borrow my car. Just have it back by the time i need to go grocery shopping.
If my brother needed my car, no problem. He’s done the same for me. If one of my close friends needed to use it I wouldn’t worry either but that’s about as far as it goes. I have no qualms about giving neighbors a ride, but I don’t think I’d toss my keys their way.
I do that all the time. I lent a truck to my coworker just the other day, and my landlord and I will throw keys at each other no questions asked. Sometimes it’s to roll up the windows because it started raining, sometimes not.
No big deal. I’ve never been bitten by it either. I probably would do it to someone I hardly know, but friends, neighbors, coworkers, whatever are fine.
Well he presumably knows where you live, has done a credit check on you and criminal history check. If his insurance company allows him to go this whilst still covered I’d see no problem or risk for him.
Depends on the car and how well I know you. You can have my '91 Sundance any time you like. You can’t have the '99 Tercel, unless you’re family. (I know, a 99 Tercel isn’t much, either, but it’s the best we’ve got.)
I allow no one other than mechanics to drive my car. Even then, somewhat reluctantly.
I don’t trust people to know how to drive a manual transmission. I’ve been a passenger with too many people who downshift by just changing gear and lifting off the clutch.
If you see nothing wrong with that sentence, you’re one of THEM. :dubious:
I worked with two guys who (almost) always rode their bikes to work. If they needed to go out and get lunch (because they didnt bring it with them) I’d loan them my car. If they had to use their bikes, they’d spend most of their break pedaling back and forth and barely have time to eat. Of course I’d have them pick me something up, so I’d get a longer break too.
There is one experience I had with car key loaning that shocked me. About 4 years ago my company sent me down to our Dallas office to redesign their warehouse. Two of the company VPs had a contest between themselves where they would each try to find the cheapest hotel possible (for themselves) to stay at when traveling to our various offices, so they knew every cheap dive near each of our offices. One of them told me to stay at a certain hotel and ask for Phil. “Tell Phil you work for me and to give you my rate.”
So I fly to Dallas, a cab drops me off at the hotel, I ask for Phil at the desk. Turns out Phil is the guy manning the desk. I tell him who I work for. He checks me in for 30% less than the regular rate and directs me to my room. I drop my bags off, go back to the desk, and ask if there is a restaurant anywhere in walking distance…
He tosses me the keys to his car and says to have it back before midnight as that is when his shift ends!?!
I am dumbfounded. He’s only just met me, and only has my word that I even work for my company. But he insists.
An hour later I’m back after having a great steak dinner, toss him his keys back with a simple thank you and go to bed. (and let him discover on his own the full tank of gas I left him as added thanks.)
I’m pretty cavalier about loaning out my cars. Since I have two, I never have to worry about being without wheels (even if something terrible were to happen), so I just don’t sweat it that much. Most of my friends at work live close enough to walk in, so on any given day, few of us will have brought cars. If something comes up and someone needs to borrow one, people are pretty laid back about it (even the guy with the brand new BMW 330. wooo!).
Nope. Been burned a couple times. I now drive a pickup truck, and I learned that some folks who don’t drive a truck aren’t used to the bigger size. They clip things with the big ol’ bumper and back into stuff with the open tailgate.
Now, I’ll lend a friend the use of my truck, but only if I drive.
Are you talking double declutching? Unless you have some very old collectable car I thought it was completely unnecessary with modern manual vehicles. Or are you talking about “heal and toe” which is really only for racer wannabe’s.
I’m talking about rev-matching, meaning blipping the throttle so that the engine is at the right speed for the gear you’re shifting into. As compared to letting the clutch speed the engine up, which puts unnecessary stress on the drivetrain and wear on the clutch. Not to mention makes the car jerk rather unpleasantly.
Heel-and-toeing is not just for racer wannabes. It’s the only way to downshift properly while braking.
She decided to give me a break from driving on our way home from our last vacation, and the was a lot of traffic. There was much speeding up and slowing down.
After about ten minutes of bangbangbang I had to make her stop and let me take over.
I would let my father drive my car anytime because he is super-conscientious but the only other time others would drive is if I am in the car with them (my friends’ kids who were driving on permits, and only around the neighborhood, a friend if I have been drinking, or a friend who knows the area -the city- better than me).
I would not lend my car out even to a good friend because if something happened there would be uncomfortableness or worse ever after.
But there is also a safety factor in downshifting as you slow down, rather than just jumping on the brake and the clutch. Downshifting allows you to keep the car in a gear appropriate to the speed, so that if you need to accelerate out of trouble, you can.
That said, it is possible to do this without all the heel-and-toe nonsense that Absolute seems to feel is necessary, and without slowing down in a jerky fashion or putting to much pressure on the drivetrain.
I habitually leave my keys in the ignition . . . with the doors unlocked. I drive a Jeep Wrangler soft top. No use locking the doors, since anyone who wants in can just undo some velcro or slice the top to get in. And why should I lug my keys around? It’s my car.
I lend my Jeep at the drop of a hat. Of course, if I need a similar favor one day I expect to be treated similarly.
