Maintaining car safety depends on what you do with your vehicle. There are several things you need to ensure so that your car is safe at all times. Otherwise, you may end up putting your loved ones and yourself at risk of accidents. Besides failing to maintain a car routinely, here are five worst things people do to their vehicles, based on the advice of automotive Redditors. 

1. Driving at night with daytime running lights or no lights 

In a Reddit post by user Gorgenapper about “the worst thing people do to their cars,” Redditor stu00042, commented that driving at night with the daytime running lights or DRLs is something drivers should stop doing. In another response, user ZGT161 added that most drivers need to switch off their vehicle’s DRLs since they are always brighter instrument clusters that most drivers don’t notice while driving at night. Another Redditor from Taiwan highlighted his concern over how drivers switch off DRLs’ automatic settings and end up driving with these lights on.

2. Pulling forward too much at a red light 

Redditors responding in this thread also highlighted pulling too forward at a red light as one of the worst things drivers do on their cars. User DoctorDetrimental commented that he gets irritated by people who stop way ahead of the line at the light. He notes that this can be extremely annoying and usually blocks his view of the incoming traffic.

Another Redditor, btx69, also expressed concern about people who creep at a light before it turns green. He expects drivers to sit still and wait for the green light to turn. 

Some Redditors also commented about drivers who leave too much space between their cars and stop lights. According to user bstyledevi, drivers who leave up to three cars length between them and the line at the traffic lights are annoying.

3. Slamming their car into park before fully stopping 

Gorgenapper opens the thread by talking about this behavior they noticed at a coffee shop parking lot. They would often see drivers slam their cars into park and get out immediately, leaving their vehicles rocking back and forth on the parking pawl. They further discuss a particular driver who let off the parking brakes of the car, transferring its weight on the parking pawl, causing it to travel a full inch. 

Another Redditor, W00stersauce, writes about a video of a driver engaging in road rage with a biker. From the video, this driver hops out of his truck to rage at the biker, but the truck starts rolling away. The truck driver manages to get into the vehicle, but instead of hitting the brakes, they jam the truck into parking gear. 

4. Driving too slowly on a freeway on-ramp 

Although this is not necessarily a bad thing to do to your car, a few Redditors consider it one of the bad things people can do to their vehicles. User Hundredjonno writes about people who drive slowly on the freeway and continue driving at the same speed while merging. From their reaction, the Redditor explains that this is dangerous behavior that may cause an accident. 

Another Redditor indicated how dangerous it is when drivers slow down and squeeze their cars into the blind spot of trail trucks on the rightmost lane. They suggest the best way to maneuver this situation is by speeding up some distance ahead of the truck and merging from the front rather than squeezing your car into the truck’s blind spot.

5. Not cleaning their car 

Several Redditors expressed this as a bad thing people do to their cars. One of the Redditors highlighted that it’s normal to keep your vehicle a bit dusty, but it should not have food and drink stains, lots of trash, and a nasty stale smell.