Intended for healthcare professionals

Soundings

Hire car syndrome

BMJ 1995; 310 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.310.6990.1337a (Published 20 May 1995) Cite this as: BMJ 1995;310:1337
  1. Bernard Dixon

    Getting accustomed to an unfamiliar hire car takes a little time. Some of the controls are in the wrong place. The clutch bites too early or too late as you raise your foot. The accelerator is either more or less sensitive than the one in your own vehicle. And so on.

    You really have to concentrate hard on what you are doing. Taking off from the garage, you are likely to change gear less smoothly than usual, grope for the radio switch, and inadvertently switch on the wipers. Yet a few hours later, the car feels perfectly normal. You are back on automatic pilot.

    Two weeks afterwards, you slip back into your own …

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