Single word for driving slowly?

Question

I am looking for a single word that means to drive a vehicle slowly, especially in a way that is unexpected or looks out of place eg. blown tire on a highway or race track and carefully trying to drive out of the way. I know the word "cruise" but this has too positive connotations, since you wouldn't use cruise to describe a driver who was cruising slowly away due to being in danger or having damage to their vehicle, since it sounds like they either do not care or are even enjoying the problem.
The only other options I had considered is to add an adjective to the driving eg. driving slowly, or similarly describing the speed of the vehicle's movement eg. vehicle moved at snail's pace, but I am hoping for a better alternative?

Laurel · Accepted Answer

Slow moving cars crawl:

MW: to move or progress slowly or laboriously

traffic crawling along at 10 miles an hour

See also this example:

... as the car crawled through a five-mile backup on the New Jersey Turnpike. — Fly Away Home: A Novel

Pete · Answer

How about puttering.
Definition

to move or go in a specified manner with ineffective action or little energy or purpose: to putter about the house on a rainy day.
to move or go slowly or aimlessly; loiter.

"Putter" is also the sound of an engine running at low speed.
I have heard it used to describe driving slowly.  Here's an example

Cascabel · Answer

It might sound like personification, but this could work...
limp

to proceed slowly or with difficulty

Ex. The ship limped back to port

Merriam-Webster
In your case, you could say...

The car limped off the track/road.

The car limped down the track.

user405662 · Answer

I think this one fits the bill nicely:
tool

to drive a vehicle, especially in a relaxed way or without any specific purpose

He spent the evening tooling around the town in his new car.
[Macmillan]
when intransitive, often followed by along

to drive (a vehicle) or (of a vehicle) to be driven, esp in a leisurely or casual style.

[Collins]
EDIT: Thanks to @Criggie for suggesting tootle, which seems to me a better word in the given context.

A leisurely journey.

I was interested in a little more speed from the car than a tootle.
[Lexico]

Greybeard · Answer

Merriam Webster:

dawdle verb, intransitive
2 : to move lackadaisically "I don't want you dawdling while you making deliveries for Mrs. Ford."— Connie Porter

gidds · Answer

You could say that the car is pootling along.
To pootle is ‘to wander or ramble in a leisurely, indirect, or aimless manner, such as by walking or driving; to potter’.  (It's common only in British English, apparently.)
However, while that matches the headline question, it does not imply care or caution — the reverse, if anything.

Dis-Vet · Answer

If you had a flat tire on your car, you could say, my car hobbled along till the next exit where I could get the flat fixed. (To indicate a personification of your car being injured)
My car thumped along as I continued on the highway with a flat tire.
(To give the reader a sense of the annoying sound the tire was making while you drove the car to the next exit to get the tire fixed or call for help in a secure area).

ocæon · Answer

trundle
MW

intransitive verb
1 : to progress by revolving
2 : to move on or as if on wheels

"Even through the city streets they trundled, reaching the warehouse at eight."

Mark Foskey · Answer

In addition to crawling, a car can creep.

That car up ahead was just creeping along. She wondered what was wrong with it.

negul vaser · Answer

slowpoke
from Merriam Webster

someone who moves slowly or more slowly than others

Single word for driving slowly?

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