I am always nice and agreeable and apologize etc, yes sir no sir respectful. Been pulled over in my R8, RS7 and RS5 mostly on road trips and each time while really within or close to 15 over I was just told to slow down. I think they also realize in my case anyway as a bit older (just in my 40s) and with a nice car I probably do take care with my driving though heavy on the right foot. The events do tend to have a discussion about the cars for a bit. That I do enjoy.

When I bought my RS7 I drove it from Chicago to Florida for its break in miles to get it home and in the mountains of Tenn going down hill a cop pulled myself and a MB E300 over for going 80 something down hill...I was actually manually down shifting to hold the car in a lower gear to slow the car down as it really wanted to run and I certainly didn't want to ride the brakes. Anyway the officer had talked to the other gentleman and then came back to me but he first asked if we were racing...I just smiled and tried not to laugh... had we been racing I would have been in the next state by then at 140+ down the mountain. Took a lot for me not to say that if we were racing I would have been long gone. So just smiled and again he just told me to slow down and take care on the rest of my trip. Thank you officer. He did ask me what the car had in it as he could hear the exhaust. 560 and 516 of torque made him smile too.

 

This seems to be a common thread in a lot of encounters where the cop could have issued a painful moving violation but instead wrote a fix-it ticket or equipment violation. I wonder if it makes sense to intentionally leave something small on the table for him to write up, the way you'd leave a conspicuous flaw in a project that you know a micromanaging boss will later insist on revising.

The problem is, whenever I get a warning instead of a ticket, I always feel guilty about speeding in that area in the future. I can't rationalize it by telling myself that it's just a stupid revenue trap, if the cop doesn't even try to collect the $$$.

This. I've owned P-cars, F-cars, you name it, since my early twenties. Nothing gets you out of tickets like a little more gray hair. Cops really, *really* do not like young people in fast cars.

 

+1. Good for sport bikes also. Pulling off helmet to reveal gray hair seems to help sometimes. Once, across a double yellow passed an unmarked car in the hills. He thanked me for stopping and sent me on my way!

Mike

 

+1. That and an honest apology goes a long way.

 

I have a friend that's a motorcycle officer in San Francisco and has been for a few decades. I was talking with him about the job and what he encounters and the variety of people he comes across. He said effectively the same thing about attitude. In fact, he said the first thing he's looking for is if the driver in question passes what he labeled, "the attitude test."

It's never a problem for me. I was raised to understand that LEOs are there to help and protect.

Having said that, my only two tickets were complete BS - 65 in a 55 (before Clinton repealed that abomination of a National law) when I was maybe going 63. I think it was more about being young (at the time) and driving a sports car.