He is furious.
His face is beet red as he stands before me. Beads of sweat are already forming on his red forehead. I feel I'd better tread carefully with my response, or there might end up being casualties.
I'm stepping back.
One and a half metres.
How I dare to let him have such a dangerous car!
He'd driven in quite a few cars in his life, but never in such a dangerous and ridiculous contraption as this Ford Focus!
Idiot that there are car rental companies that rent out such dangerous cars!
I'm gently asking what's wrong with this car.
Everything!
Especially if you're just driving on a straight motorway, and you want to change lanes. The car then starts making a hell of a racket, and it keeps steering you back to the lane you were in!
Life-threatening!
I admit: it's quite a rotten feeling when a car doesn't do what you want.
But this car does exactly what it's supposed to do: keep you in the correct lane.
If you do change lanes (without indicating), you are gently called to order: the car will hum and try to steer you back.
With a daft English term, this is called Lane Keeping Assist. You could also just say 'rijbaan assistent'.
That was still on for this car.
That system ensures you are alerted if you are about to fall asleep.
Or you're drunk and ‘accidentally' driving to one side of a lane.
We should have told this gentleman that beforehand.
A lot of energy would have been saved him then.
Still a nice option though, that lane assist.
Trucks have that too. Then you hear a shrill sound: Stay awake, driver!
Incidentally, also in coaches. In coaches, you don't hear any noise, but the driver's seat starts to vibrate. If there was a shrill noise, passengers might become concerned: is our driver still awake?
Would you like to try a Ford Focus with lane assist yourself?
Tomorrow there is one more available in Maastricht. Bas and Anouk are still on the phone until 5:00 PM to take your reservation.
