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-   -   Driving Guide : Rules, Tips, Etiquette & Common Mistakes To Avoid (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/73270-driving-guide-rules-tips-etiquette-common-mistakes-avoid-18.html)

There’s an interesting supplement to this month’s ACI - “The Driver’s Bible”.

It’s a 32-page booklet that contains simple yet very effective tips on driving.
It tells you for instance:

➢ how to become aware that you could be a potential tailgating target and what you need to do in such a scenario,

➢ a simple method of calculating the safe distance to be from the car in front of you when you're on the move

➢ how to tackle rocks and boulders, water, loose dirt, etc when one is off-roading.

A lot of other similar tips that could greatly increase the safety of your drive are included - highway driving, city driving, off road driving, driving abroad, safety issues, emergency checklists, car health list, 10 must drive roads, etc.

What the book doesn’t do, however, is teach you how to become a drift king or the heel and toe for which you would have to look elsewhere.

Most drivers think of themselves as experts.

This book helps bring them closer to reality.

Reading is good for all drivers. But it essentially tells you about swimming with out water, on the book. It is always advisable to get some experience before one hits the waters.

Anyways, thank you for the info. I can certainly refer it to my friend.

Regards
KL01BE

There is quite a lot of that kind of info and more here on Team-BHP. Everything boils down to each one's basic understanding of themselves, their vehicles and the mind set that they are in when situations happen.

How helpful will be reversing mirrors attached to the rear windshield like we see on some SUVs? Will it be useful on a hatchback?

Here I would like to add that having ABS is fine but you made a basic mistake. Not only was your 7 year old on a child seat but he was not even buckled in. Quite careless I must say.

Guys made a mistake in my post. Forgot the most important word which I have now shown in BOLD letters.

This is used to get the view of the space just close to the rear bumper area. While reversing this will help a lot in gauging how close the vehicle rear is from an obstacle.
In hatch also it can be useful, but not as much required because;
The difficulty in gauging the distance outside the vehicle increases with the length of the vehicle. In hatches, the rear side is quite close from where the driver sits, and can estimate the distance also easily, compared to a lengthy MUV like Innova.

I did a school boy error today while reversing in my office parking.
Blame it on valet parking, which keeps shifting car all over the place.

I reversed looking back, turned steering sharp left as exit is on the right side on my back. Screeesh... I stop. Damn, Duster's front plastic bumper is getting intimate with a ill places pillar in parking. Someone got out of shock and pulled myself.

I am so cursing myself. Lesson : If your car has a little big bonet, watch your front right and left too while reversing. Off course I knew this but sometimes work occupies your mind so much that :(

The art of taking speed breakers thread has helped many members on the forum to drive their cars with low ground clearance without scraping their underbellies. So I thought of starting a new thread which will dedicate on the art of driving a car with poor low end torque.
All of us don't not drive a 4*4.But most of us seldom drive on bad roads and manage not to scrape the under-belly. All of us don't have sports cars yet do some silly speeds on our hatches or sedans. No car is the master of all arts. Some are jack of many.But most of us like to keep our cars stock. Many modern cars suffer from poor low end torque:Frustrati(for e.g. the K10 series engines of Maruti Suzuki) but they quite sell in decent numbers. Too many downshifts strain our hands and left foot(depressing the clutch several times). I am starting this thread so as to seek expert reviews from dear members and moderators of this forum,on what is the best way to drive a car with poor low end torque (e.g.-A-Star) without opting for any engine,exhaust or intake modifications.

Unfortunately getting into the correct gear is the best way to drive a car with poor low end torque. That by necessity means a lot of work for your left foot and hand.

I have an alto, esteem and omni. All three have poor lowend torque and I do occasionally slip the clutch in second and rev the engine but that is really bad in the long run for your vehicle (engine and clutch). The best way is to get into first gear and try to plan your drive. For example if you are approaching a steep climb get into a lower gear before climbing and you can then stay in the gear all the way up. The moment you need to downshift half way up because your speed is too low, you will have a problem.

Rev the engine!

Seriously, that's the best thing to do. There is a big misconception that revving the engine is bad and will lead to early wear and tear. This is not true.

In fact being in a high gear and burying your foot on the throttle and just waiting it out as your poor engine struggles to built revs is much harder on the engine.

Jeroen

I completely agree! If the engine does not generate sufficient torque at low revs, keep it in the rev band where it does! The only way you can do that, is to stay in the right gear for the right speed.
If frequent downshifts strain your hand and foot, one of the solutions is to get an automatic. Or stay in the lower gear and take the revs up to 70-80% of the rev band to keep up with other traffic. Unless you are redlining an engine all day (quite an impossibility in city driving), nothing bad happens to any engine in the short or long term. In fact, well-revved engines run cleaner and smoother.

The best way to drive ANY car is to keep the revvs in the power band, by working through the gears, and NOT slipping the clutch.

So, IMO, for engines with a weak low end, drive a gear lower.

Contrary to popular driving rules, I almost always use my hazard lights while reversing. I have two theories behind this.

First - You sometimes tend to brake while reversing, and the reverse lamp, white in color, is not always visible (more so the single ones like on the newer Hyundai models) among the big bright brake red. Hazard light solves this problem. It's blinking and it's orange and it's at both the ends of the car, also on the sides and on the front. Very visible.

Second - Hazard light means a warning, caution of some sort. People drive forward. Reverse is only occasional. When you are reversing, you need other drivers and pedestrians around you to know you're doing something that is different from customary. Blinking orange lights usually catch more attention than stock non-blinking white ones. The hazard light gives out a cautionary signal to people around you to be careful, to slow down and focus on what's happening in front of them.

I have noticed actual difference in both - using hazard lights when reversing against not using them.

Whilst the hazard lights were off, mostly two-wheelers used to whizz past by, even accelerate to drive by you before you reverse your car, just so that they can save that precious second of their commute time. Pedestrians on the side of your car won't immediately realize if you're reversing real slow and they might be confused as to whether stop, slow down, cross from the front after you've reversed or hurry up before you reverse and cross from behind the car before you have finished reversing.

With the hazard lights on, I have noticed 90% of the traffic slowing down for you, be it pedestrians, two-wheelers or cars, because they can see you clearly and they're cautious enough to wait until you perform your reverse. The blinking hazard light is telling them to slow down and be more aware.

My suggestion : Use those hazard lights while reversing. It'll only make your life much easier!

That is precisely what you are supposed to do when you see a car with its hazard lights flashing.

and this is exactly why you are advised to using a hazard light only for its intended purpose i.e. to indicate a hazard/breakdown (and not for reversing or going straight at an intersection) however easier your life becomes.

I do put on the hazard lights when I have to brake hard.

This is just a desperate attempt to let know the people following my car that I am stopping unexpectedly in the line of drive itself.
Scneraios include;
1. Sudden spotting of unmarked humps/potholes/dips
2. Someone suddenly crossing the road.
3. Relatively less visible line of vehicles already stopped in front of me possibly invisible due to being on a curve etc