^^^ All of this ^^^
One of my big buttons is about driving/car stuff. I have a love-hate relationship with car shopping. I love trying new cars. I hate the patronizing tone so many car salesmen have. Nearly 20 years ago while buying my BMW 540i 6-speed, I had the cream of the crop idiot salesman for someone like me. The majority of this model that I could find locally were automatics, so I had to really search for a manual. Finally found one, and called to make sure it was still there and made an appointment to come take it for a test drive. I arrived at the dealership and said what I was looking for, and the guy said "It's a 6-speed. Do you know how to drive a stick?" (Strike 1) He was trying to impress me with stats on the car... too bad they were all wrong. "This car has 275 hp"... no, it's 282. etc. (Strike 2) He obviously wasn't picking up on any of my irritation and he did the piece de resistance error... he showed me the vanity mirror. (Strike 3)
I'm actually kind of giggling at this point because this test drive is going to be extra fun now. Showing me the vanity mirror guaran-damn-tees the salesman is going to use the "oh shit" handle during the test drive. He gives me a lame line about how the salesman has to drive it off the lot. He rides the clutch something fierce, shifts about as smoothly as Ellie using her Pink Persuader, and then forgets to depress the clutch and stalls it when he pulls over to let me drive. *face palm* We switch seats. I ask him to put his seatbelt on. I gently pull out of the parking lot, getting the feel for the car on side streets before I gently maneuver onto the empty highway, and then mash the throttle... banging through all the gears and hitting triple digits. Between 3rd & 4th gear, I hear him say "I guess you DO know how to drive a stick" as he reaches for the door handle. After a few moments, checking my mirrors to make sure no one was around, I get on the binders HARD to make sure the car brakes how I want it to, and I see him looking for something to hold on to with his left hand. I punch it again and take off down the highway. He's giving me directions to take the next exit, a long sweeping cloverleaf... which I take at about 80 mph... and that's when he grabs the handle above his head. Mission accomplished! By this point, I know the car performs how I like and I don't want to make him soil himself on the seats of a car that intend to buy. At the dealership, he remarked about my driving being, ahem, "spirited" and that he had never taken that exit as fast, even in higher performance cars. That's when I told him that was his penance for being so sexist. He just looked at me like (blink-blink) "does not compute" (blink-blink). I asked him if he regularly shows the vanity mirror to men. He said no. I told him that was exactly the point. "We all know there's a mirror above the visor. We're not buying a compact that come in a (insert MSRP) package. Please don't be so patronizing."
Unlike
@LaFemme , I don't experience men acting like they're rescuing me. I've been living on my own for ~5 years in a relatively large lakefront home on a relatively large lot... maintaining my home, mowing my own grass, cutting down my own trees, taking care of my vehicles and boat, etc. I rarely NEED help, but I do have a good network of friends and neighbors who will let me borrow a truck/trailer/strong back because they know I'll help them with whatever they need, too. During the early stages of dating, it inevitably comes up that I don't pay for lawn care because I have to set aside time for it and I'm guessing that's why I don't see the White Knight Syndrome. If anything, I've experienced the opposite... guys who won't do anything at all to help me. Just because I CAN do all this shit by myself doesn't mean I wouldn't love a hand. Oh, and I hate it when a guy won't let me help him, either. Drives me batty. I want a partner. Divide and conquer.
