F***ing Asian drivers

[Moppie]

Originally posted by Seraph

When I was back in Uni and one of my NZ friends kept raving on about Asian drivers, who couldnt drive for shit on the motorways I just as causally noted that he took entire 30 mins to make the trip from Mt Eden To Bucklands Beach, and pointed out every single of his driving mistakes for the rest of the way. On the way back I got my Korean girlfriend to drive him home and she made the trip there AND back in the same 30 mins. Yes, I did tell her to drive as fast as possible and yes, I did teach her to drive. But after that trip I never heard anything from him about Asian drivers again. He must have been embarassed.

I totaly agree with everythin you said man, But I like the last bit!
When I was in school and everyone still had thier restricted license, or just got thier full people would hassel the asians at school who drove.
However one of them (must have had family contacts) drove a VR4 in the 94 and 95 rally of New Zealand and did quite well. Kinda shut most people when they heard about it.

I live about 40-60mins out side of Auckland, and road I live one is a bit dodgy in the wet, Its already killed at least 4 people this year, 3 of them in the last 2months, and all of them were from driver error. None of them were "speeding" they just didnt know how to control a car in a corner!

[primera man]

Originally posted by Seraph
LOL
Its the people who get their licenses in NZ. New Zealand has pathetic level of driver training. I bet 90% of drivers out there wont even have a clue how to take the car out of a skid,

Very true !!!

You have brought up a lot of points that i agree on 100%

[dejoux]

Theres alot of problems with the NZ system. As soon as the government/LTSA/Police/whoever realise that its not just ppl travelling at 10ks over the speed limit that something can be done about it.

Im you enough that Ive went through the new full licence test just as it came it...Yes its reasonably difficult but its not testing relevant material. Yes I can come to a dead stop and tell someone beside me that three blocks away a cat might step out from behind a parked car but that dont mean Im a good driver.

I think theres too much emphasis on how long between each stage or licence and not enough on what you actually learn inbetween each stage. I could have passed my Full Licence on the same day I passsed my restricted if they'd let me.

Ive done every course I could have done..ie defensive driving, pro drive, been through a driving instructor etc and that hasnt really tought me alot. Ive learnt far more about car control from going in Gymkyhanas and autocrosses and learnt about reading road conditions from riding a motorbike... I consider that this is what has contributed to my drving skill today more than all those theory courses ive been through.

When I was too young to get my licence I studied up alot on all the highly skilled techniques that I thought looked good but when I actually went to try them I couldnt pull any of them off. You cant learn to drive in a class room.

Its late and I need to get to bed and this post is already too long so Im not even going to mention the state of New Zealands roads

[primera man]

Originally posted by dejoux

Its late and I need to get to bed and this post is already too long so Im not even going to mention the state of New Zealands roads

Two words sum up the roads here....BLOODLY SHOCKING

[AbsurdParadox]

Man, Jimmy's post sounds like Wichita, KS (USA, o'course!)!! Its funny, these asian women, and old people, drive so defensively, its literally just dangerous! I mean, I feel safer crossin the double yellow line to pass these fools than just drive behind them! I only do that in one place here in town where I ALWAYS get stuck behind old people, and this is just some residential street, no idea why theres a double yellow, but nevertheless, old people should be retested at 65 or somethin.

[redvalkrie]

Man do I have a story for you!

I was at a 3 way stop light, I was in the lane to go straight, the person across from me going the oposite way was going to make a left on to the freeway. (Man across from me in a 00corvette)

Well this asian lady in a brand new 01Mercedes SUV was to my left being at the right of the other guy, she was positioned to make a left on to my lane when she got the green.
Well there were 2 merging lanes that turn left with a third going straight from her side of the 3 way.
When the light turn green for her, I guess she wanted to go straight not realizing she was in the far left turning lane I watched her try to go straight then paniced & drove right on top of the guy accross from me on to the roof of his car.
Luckily he's vette have those tubular bars behinde the seat cause that was the only thing that saved his ass.

I watched, when the cops got there & she tried to blame it on the corvette driver & then the traffic. The cops walked over to me watching trafic & asked if I saw the whole thing I said yes, he asked if he could take a statment. I told him yes as long as nobody try's to sue me for helping out!

I explained everything, I also told him that in the silicon valley you can view this everyday if they took the time to get out to the busy sections & watch traffic.

Court date! Well the gentleman in the vette asked me to assist him in his lawsuite I did. The happy ending the lady tried to pull one of those I don't understand english crap, got her license taken away, can't get her license for 5years for lieing to the court & the officers & went to jail for unintentional-vehicular manslaughter (some thing like that ) I guess she got harsh punishment for lieing under oath.

[ChibiSF]

hahahaha. Bad drivers? New Jersey has the worst drivers.

[tazdev]

I know how you feel there Jimmy. On the way home from work on thursday I was driving through Glenfield when some dopy asian (cos she was) bitch (cos she was) reversed out of her drive right in front of me without looking, so I had to slam on all anchors and apply the poormans ABS to avoid slamming right into the side of her.

(note) to get to where I was she had already backed across 1 lane forcing some guy in his ford fairmont to do exactly what I did. She drove off like nothing had happend. So tomorrow they will be getting a visit from a pissed off motorist.

[moondog]

I agree with pretty much all the points raised in this thread, and just want to reinforce one in particular. Most groups of NZ drivers suck - they just suck in different ways. You can usually tell which bunch a particular driver fits into, byt observing their driving. For some reason "Asians" have a particularly bad name. Taking them for an example, you need to distinguich between immigrant Asians, and NZ Asians (learnt in NZ) - those who learn to drive in NZ are generally crap drivers - in the same way that the rest of NZ is - whereas immigrant Asians drive in a different manner, which often doesn't really work too well on NZ roads, and irritates other NZ drivers.

I've said it before, and I'm damn sure I'll say it again: we don't teach people to drive properly, then we wonder why they have big crashes. :huh: oh gee, I wonder... :huh:

And the roads! Don't get me started on the roads...

[sarujin]

Hmm, some Asain drivers are bloodly horrible, but some arn't too bad. As other people have said all the drivers in NZ suck, you have to put up with the mothers, who are too busy doing something else. The business guys talking on their cellphones, and the teenagers who are either to scared to drive, or scare everyone else with their driving.

The NZ licence system really needs to be fixed, they though increasing the restricted period would save lives??? it just means more people broke their restricted.

In the Full test, they are still checking if I can do a hillstart, and turn right at a intersection?? What the Hell is with that, if you can't do that kind of stuff, why are you even trying the test. You should be beaten for been stupid.

They need to have a test where you have to get your car in dangerous situations and get it out of them. Pro-drive should be compulsary, it teaches you alot of things about cars losing control.

sarujin

Since I come the Pacific Northwest I can understand what my fellow AFers are saying in this thread. The whole west coast here in the States is Asian - or at least some days if feels that way. But lets not get it twisted. I think you have to understand the big picture here. There are bad drivers where ever you go. BUT there is always that one incident that sticks out. And it will stick out simply because of the cars involved, what happens or WHO was driving. And lets face it, when an Asian woman is driving in front of you, you remember her ass. Maybe its her stature behind the wheel - like the car looks too big for her or something. Or maybe she doesn't speak English well, so if you get an an accident you cannot communicate effectively. Or maybe its just a cultural difference where the way she is driving is the way Asian women are SUPPOSED to drive. So when she makes a mistake you remember and that memory comes back into your mind everytime you see another Asian woman driving whether its negative or positive. The same can be said for eldery drivers.

So, in closing, I can understand your thoughts and comments, but we can't stoop tp making blanket comments about a whole segment of the population when it may just be a few bad apples in the bunch.

[carnut]

I myself am asian, born in Hawaii, and I consider myself an safe but aggresive driver. When I was shipped to the Far East during the Vietnam War, I couldn't believe the driving that goes on there, especially in Thailand. The sidewalks become an auxillary lane when the main street became congested. Cars were zipping in and out with no lane markers. The base briefings told us that if we were in a cab and it got into an accident, just drop your cab fare on the seat and haul ass out of there as their law would throw the passenger into jail for the accident. They believe that if the passenger wasn't in the cab, the cab wouldn't be there in the first place. As more and more people are immigrating from the far east to the USA, they are bringing their driving style with them. One new immigrant asked me what a good business was here in California. I told him a tow truck business.

[enginerd]

I just sold my car (Toyota) and all the people who came to look at it were asian. They can not comprehend the yellow and white lines painted in the center of the road have a purpose. Wildly swinging through traffic I would sometimes jerk the wheel away from them, yell at them, and I even punched a guy in the face (he didn't buy my car). One turned the wheel to full lock and gunned the gas, I punched him in the leg so he would have difficulty pushing the gas. I do not come to your house and destroy your property, do I? They were very inconsiderate and incompetent behind the wheel. I love Eastern cultures and people, just avoid them on the road.

[carnut]

I live in a small suburb of Los Angeles, CA and moved here in 1977. Being one of the few Asians living here at the time was a little uncomfortable but the people here were very friendly and made a lot of new friends, mostly caucasions. Anyway, there are a lot of new Far East immigrants here now and this quiet little suburb is now like a big city, too congested, streets and freeways are bumper to bumper everyday of the week!

Being that this is a small suburb, there are no lane markers on the side streets except for the really wide and fast ones, guess what it is like to drive a classic Stang and see a BMW or Mercedes coming straight at you in the wrong lane ?

It won't get any better as the farther out lying suburbs are just as bad. Sooner or later So.Cal. will run out of space or water, then what? I guess I just have to win the lottery and buy my own island somewhere!

[Nico]

In Vancouver there is about a 70% asian population here. So that includes all the ricers and rich moms who drive ML55 AMG's and don't know what AMG is. Everywhere in Vancouver there are asian drivers, about 1/100 are actually good drivers, but they are mostly young ricers, even tho their car sucks they are still ok at driving. At my school there are all these rich asians with brand new s classes and e classes and big ass suvs and porsches, and they never go above 60 on the car...WTF? I dont care if they have a good car and know how to drive it and appreciate it, but they dont. Its a waste of German technology and a waste of a beautiful car. I think the reason they can't drive is that in Hong Kong they either have drivers themselves, so they never drive, or because it is so gridlocked there that you never go above 40 anyways! Either way, if you move here you should learn how to drive here, and they should make the driving tests harder. Just my 0.02 no flames intended.