More than a quarter of New Zealand drivers are awful, but think they're great, according to a new Fly Buys online poll.

Loyalty New Zealand, the company that runs Fly Buys, found that 27% of voters thought drivers were 'frankly awful, but think they're great'. 41% said that kiwi drivers 'need instruction to find their indicators, brakes or rear-view-mirror'. Only 3% agreed drivers were courteous and skillful.*

Fly Buys drive community editor Steve Vermeulen, who also writes for Top Gear New Zealand, says, "It's no surprise so many are damning of Kiwi's driving ability; our open road car control is generally pretty good, as a nation we still struggle with city and motorway congestion and a lot of us fail to grasp the bigger picture when it comes to traffic flow in these situations.

"Awareness, and importantly, consideration of other road users is the key here. But that's a two-way street, it's one thing to jump on those less confident or slower drivers, but they have every right to share our roads too. Giving a little old lady the finger because she didn't pull over doesn't make a good driver, exercising empathy and patience does."

Fly Buys recently launched its community site, and its first area of focus is on driving, but it plans to launch other areas soon, including parenting, home & garden and a range of other topics.

Chief Executive Andy Symons explains, "Fly Buys Communities is taking off and the evidence is in the sheer number of people taking part in the poll. It has had more than 1000 votes, and there are almost 4000 members who have signed up to be part of the community in the past two days.

"Our 2.2 million Fly Buys card holders are increasingly online for information and have a real thirst for social networking. The Communities site is a place for people to chat, seek advice about anything and everything and share information freely." Any Fly Buys Member can sign up for an account, read content, participate in forums or comment on posts.

Top Gear New Zealand is providing feature articles, reviews and content for the Fly Buys Drive Community and blogs are by former auto electrician Steve Vermeulen.

Car lovers can redeem their Fly Buys Points for a wide range of motoring rewards, from TomTom Navigation Units, to scale models of high performance cars.

You can also collect Fly Buys Points at participating automotive retailers Avis, Beaurepaires, Dunlop, Goodyear, Orica, Shell, State Insurance and VTNZ.