Do you enjoy driving?

[Mummelmann]

I love driving, always did. I used to drive others to parties instead of going to parties myself, and I liked it, despite the passengers often being drunk when they went home. I consider myself a car enthusiast-light, I have knowledge of historical and technical aspects of cars and driving but not much mechanical savvy.

I come from a small place with little traffic and the roads are rarely busy, but the roads are also in really poor condition there. Everyone needs a license since busses and trains aren't really a thing besides the school bus twice a day. Driving in and around cities is mostly a nuisance and I tend to stay out of the city centre where I live now (Stockholm). My communte to work is neither here nor there, it can be annoying if there's congestion, but it's usually not bad since I start work a bit later than most (09:00). Long drives are soothing and entertaining all at once for me, I just love it, blasting music, making stops whenever and wherever I want. I always drive up to my family, it's a fair bit to drive at about 870 kilometers but it's really enjoyable with some of the roads being fun. Especially in later years when I can afford brand new cars with more comfort, better stereo etc. Despite all comfort and safety equipment in modern cars though, I miss really driving, new cars feel a bit too refined and well-behaved and I don't like how they interfere in slippery conditions. The fact that most production cars today are FWD is also a minus; I don't like how they behave compared to a RWD and proper 4WD, esepecially on ice and snow.

One major plus with two last cars has been really low consumption and great overall trim levels. I got my first ever French car about three years ago, a Peugeot 3008 with a decent diesel engine and a manual gearbox, it was really, really good and had insane MPG figures. I decided on a small and fun compact car this time around though, and it fits me really well despite my size (6'4" and about 250 pounds). It has that good old fun factor, and all the gear I can wish for, its automatic gearbox is the best I ever tried and yields fantanstic MPG figures (I got a Peugeot 208 GT-Line in August, petrol version). I even tried the electric version, it drove great and is a lot of fun but still has too many constraints for me, personally.

I'm driving home for christmas this year, on the 22nd after work, and I'm already looking forward to it!