Learning to Drive

admin

Retired Administrator
I have finally (albeit just under a year late!) decided to take the plung and decide to learn the drive.

How many of you have learnt to drive. Any embarssing stories :D Failed tests etc? :D

I will probably start learning in October. Have you TJ or other 17/18 year olds here started to learn yet or indeed past? :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Well ive been learning for a while - no rush, ive passed my theory and have my practical in a few weeks.....

Lucky americans can start learning much earlier than us in the UK. They can start learning at 15 right?

Im not gunna get a car thought, insurnace is too expensive.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
tjpeople said:
Well ive been learning for a while - no rush, ive passed my theory and have my practical in a few weeks.....

Lucky americans can start learning much earlier than us in the UK. They can start learning at 15 right?

Im not gunna get a car thought, insurnace is too expensive.
Quite a agree, the insurance is far to great for my own car, I shall just use my mums! - my dad won't let me near his car :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
That sort of thing is pretty different in the US. As you may have learned from MITM, American teens instinctivly know that wheels are much cooler than legs, so people generally learn to drive ASAP even if not everyone gets their own car.

I just got my license a couple of weeks ago. And I turned 16 a month ago; it was teh soonest I could get a road test. I did almost perfect on the test, BTW.

And you can start drivers ed. in America when you 15, and actually start driving wtih a temporary permit when you're 15.5.
 

admin

Retired Administrator
Thats pretty cool, here you can't drive onroad until you turn 17 bang on, you can get your provisinal before, but its not legal on the roads until your 17th birthday.
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
No offensive to americans but your driving standards are much lower than the uk (as far as tests goes)

insurance is also a lot less.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
we take a drving test at the end of our first year of high school(or 9th grade) Yet, you can't drive legally in NJ until you turn 16. that means, you take the test at 15, get a permet at 16, and get a license at 17.
 

Jimmy Junior

New member
I passed my test 3rd time after about 6 months and £1000 of lessons.
A word of advice: don't use BSM - you have to pay extra for the privelige of having a shop which you go into once, and the instructors are no better than you'd get with an independant company.

My first car was a green Peugeot 205 which cost me £350, sounded like a tractor and was held together with rust. I loved that car.
 

Kratos

New member
Did you pass yet? :confused:

I really enjoy driving lol, passed last August, at the grand old age of 20, :p (I started well late because of the cost of it all)

It's all about going slow really and taking it clamly, you pass much quicker that way.

I do think the UK standards are higher test wise, unlike the US people here dont HAVE to have a car to get any place, plus the US loves it's fuel taxes :D

Do feel 15 is a bit young to be honest :eek: they are complicated machines that can do massive damage after all...
 

Kratos

New member
yardgames said:
Hey--15 year olds can get drunk in England! :D

I'm sure 15 year olds in the US can as well ;) , I dont know maybe 15 driving a car over there works better in the long run, I dont have any SATS about crashes etc, so cant truly compare the two systems.
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
15 year olds can get drunk everywhere, if they tried hard enough...

I can drive a boat (not legally of course) but I almost grew up on a boat, learned to drive it at 8, and every summer, my uncle's sport/fishing boat, cranking the thing up to 50mph and letting me take the wheel. :D mmmmm....baptism by fire...
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
admin said:
Quite a agree, the insurance is far to great for my own car, I shall just use my mums! - my dad won't let me near his car :D

What type of car does he have? Dad bought a new Mazda several months back after Blake bought his old Commodore off him. We'd had it like 2 months before Blake whacked into it driving up the driveway. Dad had parked on a weird angle which didn't help but neither did what Blake had been doing while he was out...:eek:
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
J. said:
15 year olds can get drunk everywhere, if they tried hard enough...

I can drive a boat (not legally of course) but I almost grew up on a boat, learned to drive it at 8, and every summer, my uncle's sport/fishing boat, cranking the thing up to 50mph and letting me take the wheel. :D mmmmm....baptism by fire...
J, are you saying you've been drunk? :D

amigo22 said:
What type of car does he have? Dad bought a new Mazda several months back after Blake bought his old Commodore off him. We'd had it like 2 months before Blake whacked into it driving up the driveway. Dad had parked on a weird angle which didn't help but neither did what Blake had been doing while he was out...:eek:

A little reminder that we don't know your people...who's Blake? :)
 

NeCoHo

Retired Mod
I'm not saying anything about me being drunk. All I'm saying is that if you tried hard enough (bribe an older brother, give a hobo a dollar to do it, I don't know) anyone can get drunk underage. :D
 

rzombie1988

New member
I'm only 17 years old, and I learned about a year ago. The permit test took me 2 times to pass, and the actual drivers test took me 3 times to pass.

Personally, I don't like driving. It's boring and there are way too many people being stupid on the road between not paying attention and talking on the phone and driving.
 

simon_4420

New member
I always think it weird that you can be on the road at 15 in the USA, because when I look around at the 15 years old I know I couldn't imagine then driving, unless they stole the car!

I fluked my test, I have no idea how I passed first time as I was bricking it. I remember that I had a lesson before the test and I could hardly drive I was so nervous. I only just past with 10 miners! If you are taking a test soon though I recomend that you tell no-one. Its way more fun. No-one knew I had a test not even my parents, so when I passed I came home and took my car out and my parents went mad at me for driving it on my own until I showed them my certificate. ALSO.... if you fail NO-ONE KNOWS!!!!:D
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
rzombie1988 said:
there are way too many people being stupid on the road between not paying attention and talking on the phone and driving.

I totally agree! I get so annoyed when people are going all slow and swerving all over the road because they're trying to talk on their stupid cell phone and drive at the same time.

I saw a bumper sticker one time that said: "I wonder if you could drive any better if you shoved that cell phone up your a$$." If I ever see it in a store, I'm buying it! :D
 
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