THE FIVE MOST ANNOYING PASSENGER TYPES
Type 1: The sleeper
He is still the most harmless of the annoying passenger types. He dozes off five minutes after setting off and only wakes up again when he reaches his destination. Sleeping co-drivers are not annoying, but they are also no help when it comes to taking care of children in the back seat or navigating unfamiliar routes. We award the “sleeper” 3 out of 10 annoying points on our passenger scale.
Remedies: Loud music; sharper braking maneuvers (if safely possible); open windows so that there is a roar in the car. By the way: The driver should NOT fall asleep.
Type 2: The chatterbox
“(…) and then I said to him that (…)”
You may have started the journey as rested and balanced as you are: There are co-drivers, who pull the last nerve with anecdotes, relationship stories and other, useless babble – without point and comma or pauses for breath. Results in yakking-annoying 5 points on our already somewhat tense co-driver scale.
Remedy: earplugs. Loud music.
Type 3: The scaredy-cat
Your co-driver clutches the door handle, alerts you to dangers five kilometres in advance and makes a panicked noise when you’re told to “Breeeemsen!!!”? Congratulations: You have a co-driver in the “scaredy-cat” category and, with a score of 7 out of 10, plenty to be scared of.
Remedies (for the passenger): oxygen mask, medication.
Type 4: The smart ass
No matter when and how you change gear, steer, signal or brake: your co-pilot will be happy to tell you how you could have done it better. And to top it all off, your teacher doesn’t even have a driver’s license. Smart-ass drivers are just an incredibly annoying species (and not just as passengers) and scratch the top of our scale: We award – still gracious 9 – out of 10 points.
Remedies: see type 1 + type 2
Type 5: The encroacher
The encroaching passenger: A conglomerate of Type 2, who can never keep his mouth shut and, like Type 3, merges with Type 4 out of pure fear and thus always knows everything better. While types 1-4 were relatively harmless on their own, type 5 combines all the negative characteristics that a co-driver can have and adds one more thing: He is not afraid to actively intervene in the driving process, i.e. he “corrects” your steering wheel while driving and also likes to yank the handbrake if necessary.
Remedy: Get a rally driver’s licenseand enjoy it
The perfect co-driver
It’s probably as rare as an Aston MartinVirageShooting BrakeZagato: the perfect passenger. He unobtrusively offers a drink at the right moment, makes sure the other passengers are entertained and the children are quiet, assists with navigation when necessary, and comes across as positive, relaxed, and polite, like a not-too-submissive butler. Sounds utopian. And it is.
Every fifth passenger surveyed, by the way, bothered the driver … nothing. They’re definitely our favorite from the driver’s seat. Continue here with Safely on the road in a convertible
