I've noticed the tailgate effect as well with the Mini and I think it's a combination of the car being a hatchback and the fact that SUVs are a lot larger than the Mini.

For example, ever notice when following a motorcycle, it's a lot harder to keep a 3 second distance since you can easily see beyond him. Your focus changes and you slowly creep up on his rear wheel. I think the same thing holds true with SUVs and Minis.

My solution is to turn on the rear fog for a second or two and then off. Usually people mistake it for a brake light, and back off while I keep at my normal rate of speed

 

That works if you have your headlights on. Of course just turning your headlights on during the day when someone is following too closely is enough to fool them for a second that they are the brakes most of the time.

I would have gotten shoved into oncoming traffic the other day if I had just gone ahead and given the guy in the old truck the whole road. It was a merge lane with me having the RoW. He didn't care. He just decided he would get in front no matter what. I set down on the horn but all he did was mouth off.

One advantage I have is that if someone wants to get out of THEIR vehicle because they think the driver of a MC must be small....well, I'm 6'4"!!

 

Some MC drivers ARE small.

6'4 is hot, though.

 

Small ones can be hot too!!!

 

I think it has to do with the location of the license plate. Most people pull up close enough so you can still read the license plate. Look where the license plate is on the Mini...

 

There are those who follow MINIs a bit too closely, in the case of them being SUVs, some of that is most likely the 'intimidation factor'. In my personal experience, the intimidation factor quickly evaporates and becomes their own 'asspucker factor' at the first sharp turn. Bonus points were awarded when the tailgater smashed their front wheels/suspension against the curb or simply ended up in the grass or spun out in the turn. When I school 'em, I school 'em hard.

 

love taking them to school

 

--True dat. If it's an open road in front of me and a curve is coming up I love to punch it and whip through the corners. I'll slow down afterwards to see if they've flipped over or not, but usually they just slow down BIG TIME and leave me alone afterwards.

It's a shame that humility cannot be shown out of respect. Instead we have to humble them first before we get their respect.

--pyratio

 

LOL, this wasn't in Texas by chance was it? I was in a Wendy's drive-thru in my van I drive for work, it's a 15 passenger Ford Econoline, and I had a lady in front of me in a Chevy Blazer (with Texas plates, this was in Florida) freak out on me about being too close. I was sorta checking her out in her driver's side-view mirror (she was sorta perty), and I think she noticed me looking at her, and thought I was trying to inch up on her bumper (I was at least 4-5 feet from her bumper, and besides this was a drive-thru), so she assumed I was looking at her, to try to intimidate her.

So she finally gets out, and says "What is your problem!" and at first I thought she was like freaking out because I was looking at her, I had no clue she was freaking out about the distance I was from her bumper. She's like "Can you see my tires!!??", "Can youuuuu see my tires!!?", attempting to educate me that apparently, even in a drive-thru, that I need to see her tires from my high seating position in my van, or I was putting her in grave danger (imagine the impact at drive-thru speeds! ). I tried the reasonably calm, rational approach, but she persisted so I ended up telling her how nuts I thought she was, complete with twirling pointed-finger motions near my ears. I never got vulgar with her though. Overall it was actually a fun experience hehe.

 

People need more Prozac.

 

But, did you get her phone #?

 

I love tailgaters, I douse their cars with windshield washing fluid till my tank gets dry or untill they turn their wipers on and hang up their cell phone.

 

If at a stoplight, it's sort of an illusion. I felt the same way initially, but a combination of how short the MINI is, and the hatchback makes grills seem a lot closer than they really are. Usually people leave at least three to four feet from me even when it looks like they're riding your bumper. I've had to turn around and look out the back window (and not through the rear-view mirror) to check.

The most annoying thing is the fact SUV headlights are shining directly at your mirrors.

 

i always stop to where i can see the bottom of people's tires. I know i'm leaving a TON of room, because i'm really short, and if i can see the bottom of their tires, any normal sized person (haha) could see ALOT more.

i HAVE run under someone's bumper before. I've learned to stay back really far, but i also like to make it difficult for others to cut me off :P

 

Objects in mirror appear to be larger (and closer) than they really are.

 

Depends on how high your vehicle is off the ground too. If you're in a vehicle that is relatively low to the ground, like the MINI, the angle down to someone's rear tires, from your eyes, isn't that steep, so you can still be pretty close and see them. But the higher up you sit in the vehicle, the farther away you have to be to be able to see their tires. Also depends on length of your hood/bonnet as well. So all in all, I don't think it's really a universal unit of measure, since the variables are so variable =)

 

I always stop far enough back so I can drive around them without backing up in case they stall.

The Mini has aimable washer nozzles. Um, food coloring can be fun... just some unrelated random facts.

 

I make up for it. Sometimes I drive relatively close to the person in front of me when merging. I know I know... it's bad. But it's oh so fun to be able to change lanes when there's nobody for miles and zip past them.

But yeah, it does seem that people inch up on my butt a lot. BUGS THE CRAP OUTTA ME on steep hills. Ahh the smell of a clutch early in the morning when I haven't quite woken up yet. Ugggggh.

Janell

 

It is amazing how close people get on our bumpers. It is also totally amuzing to see their faces when this little car runs off and leave them, especially if you slow down and let them catch up!!!

 

I also think that because your MINI is still very new, you are much more aware of other cars behind you and around you, and not many other cars are smaller than our MINI's so it just makes the other vehicles seem that much larger and closer. Just my .02 worth.

 

I got a chuckle out of reading this thread! My first several hundred miles I had the same impression - that everyone was following so close. But now, 6K miles later, I can't say that I even notice it (or care).

Like Zarrik, the one suggestion I got to get those bad drivers off your back was to flash a couple of times the rear fogs. It works.

I find it easier to just speed away