Almost a scam?

[Buckman]

Yesterday coming up the M5 travelling in the centre lane at about 70mph and overtaking slower vehicles in the nearside lane, we had a small car very close to the rear of our SUV. If we had braked, they would have hit the rear of our car.

As soon as we were clear of the slower traffic in the nearside lane, I pulled in to the nearside lane. Initially the car behind maintained the same speed and the suddenly speeded up, overtook us and then pulled into the nearside lane in front of us. As I determined the gap was not sufficient for safety, I started braking to increase the distance for safety. As I was doing this for no apparent reason as there were noc ars in front of them, the car in front applied brakes rather harshly, but luckily as I was already braking we were able to avoid a collision with the rear of the their vehicle, but it was close.

Not sure if they were trying it on or the driver was not paying attention, but I was then very cautious about being near them and moved into the offside lane for awhile. Luckily our turnoff was only about 3 miles away, but we never saw that car again. Maybe they were looking for another potential victim or they decided their driving needs more consideration?

 

[otherclive]

Could be a scam, but they would be pushing their luck on a motorway especially with a Grand Cherokee as the target. Your dash cam would have been useful evidence. My guess is that they were on the phone or something else that caused them to go into lane 1 and reduce speed.

 

[borderbilly]

If I come across someone tailgating me I switch side lights on and off a few times, that usually works.

 

[Buckman]

Could be a scam, but they would be pushing their luck on a motorway especially with a Grand Cherokee as the target. Your dash cam would have been useful evidence. My guess is that they were on the phone or something else that caused them to go into lane 1 and reduce speed.

That is what I would have thought, but braking harshly for no apparent reason I could not understand especially with our vehicle weighing over 2 ton and them driving a Corsa or similar.