Struggling to make ends meet isn’t an excuse to be a danger to other people.

Check engine light? That’s fine, if it goes wrong it’s just him. The high beams are dangerous, inconsiderate and just a dick move, but also something that could be done by mistake.

Flagrantly violating traffic control signs is dangerous to him, anyone in his vehicle, other drivers, and random passerbys. That’s a pretty big no-no, and worth reporting in the harshest terms on its own.

Would you have wanted previous riders to have reported that behavior before you got in the car? If you knew they were going to drive like that would you still have picked them as a driver?
If not, why would you let someone else be in the same situation you would take steps to avoid?

You should have told him to pull over to let you out, not paid him, and reported him. Bonus points to have recorded evidence first.

Assholes like this, regardless of their current situation, hard times or not, should not be allowed to continue doing this. If I go into work, and push code into production without reviews and approvals, I lose my job or at least get reprimanded. Nothing excuses the behavior you’ve described.

I’d ignore the check engine light, it isn’t a problem, if his engine ends up dying, it won’t kill anyone. Rule of thumb is yellow warning lights (check engine, or washer fluid) can be ignored, red warning lights (like breaks) shouldn’t be ignored.

Driving dangerously is inexcusable no matter the economy. Please report him. People can die because of this kind of behavior and we as a society shouldn’t tolerate it. When you operate a multi-ton machine moving at high speed, you have an immense responsibility for the safety of everyone around you.

It sounds like he’s going to get someone seriously injured or killed.

Depends on if his asshattery got you there faster or not

Was anyone waiting at the lights? Were other drivers in small cars that could be blinded by the high beams?