Has Poirot ever driven a car ?

MarcWatson-Gray

This thought just popped in to my head  whilst sitting at traffic lights !!

Has Poirot ever driven a car in any stories ?

If not.Has he ever given his opinion on driving to another character (As he has with regards to flying )

If he did drive.Would this have changed any story lines ? 

One i can think of is,in Mrs McGinty's Dead.Poirot is almost pushed in front a train as it approached the Station.Had he been driving this would not have been possible ? Any more spring to mind ?

The discipline (at least for most drivers !! )required eg: Driving on the correct side.Following traffic light signals.and the general flow and pattern of traffic routes would (i think)have appealed to his sence of order.Or do you think that he would have hated it ?

Griselda

Well, he was seen in a car speeding to or from Cranchester in a car ( on the way to the dentist, he claims), and, in that same novel, we are told that A mystery man arrived to stay with Poirot in, what Caroline has called, a closed car. It could be that Poirot had a chauffeur then, but, at other times, he asked Dr Sheppard's to drive, and Hastings used to drive him, eg, in Dumb Witness. He gets ver seasick, and I suspect that he hates any type of travel motion.

Griselda

I should have said he was seen in a car going to Cranchester in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Griselda

I imagine Poirot would have been required to drive in the latter years of his career with the Belguim Gendarmarie (or whatever it was called), because cops always do seem to be pretty mobile when engaged in undercover work. My suspicion is that having a driver is one of the luxuries he affords himself. He declares himself to be very well off as a result of his investigations. I think he would choose to prioritise this luxury because I think that driving would break the intense concentration on a particular case which occupies his mind even when, on the surface, he is talking and eating. I think he insistence on not travelling about to investigate, eg, in Three Act Play, is partly because he, of course, thinks grey cell activity has the cutting edge, but also because I just think he doesn't particularly like travelling unless it can be in great comfort. He loves his comfort, and I remember that in The Mystery of the Christmas Pudding, he only agree to take on a mystery at a country house because he has been assured that it has very modern and efficient central heating.

LeopoldoAtila

I don't think so. He doesn't seem the type that likes or knows how to drive a car or even a bike.

taliavishay-arbel

He certainly has a horror of walking in hot weather, as he says to Mr. Robinson at the end of "Cat Among the Pigeons"

Griselda

Also, he wears the wrong foot wear often, I remember it being so in The Hollow. He must have been a fit man for his age, since I notice, for instance in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe that he walks home from a restaurant. All those little 20 minute trips add up to make you fit. Of course you observe more of human nature when you walk. However, it makes you a target. You might have thought that almost being pushed under a train when investigating Mrs McGinty's death might have convinced the rich and comfort loving Monsieur Poirot to have a permanent chauffeured car. But perhaps for murder you need to smell and sense the atmosphere of a place to describe in your mind it's quality and history. How he loves to observe the almost animal nature of his suspects as they patrol or gambol around their chosen environment. He gets a feel for what they are capable of, their physical strength, and their psychological stamina based on how they negotiate the natural terrain. I found that observation particularly valid when II read Evil Under the Sun.c

tudes

Griselda said:

Also, he wears the wrong foot wear often, I remember it being so in The Hollow. He must have been a fit man for his age, since I notice, for instance in One, Two, Buckle My Shoe that he walks home from a restaurant. All those little 20 minute trips add up to make you fit. Of course you observe more of human nature when you walk. However, it makes you a target. You might have thought that almost being pushed under a train when investigating Mrs McGinty's death might have convinced the rich and comfort loving Monsieur Poirot to have a permanent chauffeured car. But perhaps for murder you need to smell and sense the atmosphere of a place to describe in your mind it's quality and history. How he loves to observe the almost animal nature of his suspects as they patrol or gambol around their chosen environment. He gets a feel for what they are capable of, their physical strength, and their psychological stamina based on how they negotiate the natural terrain. I found that observation particularly valid when II read Evil Under the Sun.c

Yes, @Griselda. I can't image Poirot driving a car. It's a kind of thing that doesn't suit him (at least how I picture him in my mind).