I think we have a problem

My 13 year old daughter just stumbled on a website that has all kinds of sample tests. She took two different drivers exams and passed both of them. She has obviously never taken drivers ed or looked at a drivers ed study guide, yet she was able to pass two different tests. No wonder the roads are so full of people that can't drive.

That's just a knowledge test, and her father is the sort of person for whom driving matters. So it's not surprising she's picked up the info by observation. But she'd still have to pass a practical test to get a license.

Meh. Katie asked us once (when she was 13 or 14) how to turn on the blinkers.

My step brother's kid used to like to steal keys.

One day we heard his grandmother's Monte Carlo start. All the drivers in the family were accounted for. We ran around the house in time to see Joel drive the Monte into a tree about halfway down the 1/4 mile long driveway.

Joel was 2 1/2. He was standing on the seat, and had figured out how to start the car, and get it in gear. Couldn't reach the pedals, or turn the wheel too well.

In reply to SVreX:

My younger cousin did that when he was about that age. Was a Malibu wagon. His mom went in the neighbor's house and left her keys in the ignition. He climbed out of the kid seat, flicked the key and dropped it into drive. Down-hill through the woods. Bridged a creek bed. When he was 16 he was reminded he already totaled one car, he wasn't allowed to total another.

i did absolutely zero studying for my permit test when i was 15, and only got one wrong... and i got it wrong on purpose because, dammit, in the real world you can and do speed up past the speed limit to pass someone.. then when i took the behind the wheel test- after using my behind the wheel instruction time to absolutely terrorize the instructor and then spending the 3 months between then and actually getting my license to terrorize my poor mom every time she let me drive- i aced everything then purposely parked crooked about 3 feet away from the curb when doing the parallel parking.. i had to do it: the guy said i had already aced everything and it was just a formality at that point..

i got my permit in the beginning of June of 1990 and my license on October 30, 1990 and haven't had a single accident or unintentional offroad excursion yet..

SVreX wrote: My step brother's kid used to like to steal keys. One day we heard his grandmother's Monte Carlo start. All the drivers in the family were accounted for. We ran around the house in time to see Joel drive the Monte into a tree about halfway down the 1/4 mile long driveway. Joel was 2 1/2. He was standing on the seat, and had figured out how to start the car, and get it in gear. Couldn't reach the pedals, or turn the wheel too well.

I did a similar stunt when I was about the same age. Was a Morris Minor wagon and it was parked on a hill.

NOHOME wrote:

SVreX wrote: My step brother's kid used to like to steal keys. One day we heard his grandmother's Monte Carlo start. All the drivers in the family were accounted for. We ran around the house in time to see Joel drive the Monte into a tree about halfway down the 1/4 mile long driveway. Joel was 2 1/2. He was standing on the seat, and had figured out how to start the car, and get it in gear. Couldn't reach the pedals, or turn the wheel too well.

I did a similar stunt when I was about the same age. Was a Morris Minor wagon and it was parked on a hill.

I don't think I started it, but I took an RV out of park and down a hill as a little kid. My grandfather tried to jump in the window to stop me and got a cracked rib for his efforts when I hit a tree.

In reply to Tom Suddard: I learned! Some things you pick up in a car family, some things fly over your head.

I really believe your kids learn more from your actions than they do from your words. I'm 54, accident free,(unless you count the racetrack, which I don't), I take my driving very seriously and both my daughters passed their driving test first time, and neither has yet done more than scuff a bumper in the parking lot. I think they know its the one thing you do every day that can most easily kill you or someone else.

I got 2 points off during my driving test. If i lost one more point, i would have failed.

What did i get points off for? Taking one hand off the steering wheel mid-intersection during a left turn.

Why did i take my hand off the wheel? To shift into 2nd.

Seriously. I almost failed my test because i drove a manual transmission.

In reply to Tom Suddard:

the only question I had when learning to drive (on the street) was whether up was for right or left turns.

Tom Suddard wrote: Meh. Katie asked us once (when she was 13 or 14) how to turn on the blinkers.

Growing up around BMWs I'm impressed she knew what they were.

Kids pick up a lot by watching. My parents are both good drivers, my dad having maybe four minor accidents in over 40 years with a CDL and I don't think my mother ever had one. They taught us to drive and my brother has never had one, I've had four at fault accidents but I've covered a lot more miles, and my sister seems safe though she just got her license a year ago at 36 yrs old,

I remember as a kid riding with my uncle in his manuel transmission Audi 5000cs. I was fixated on the gear changes and footwork. Maybe it was because I could only see 2 pedals, but for the longest time I thought 1 was clutch, 1 was gas, and you step on both at the same time to brake.

MrJoshua wrote:

NOHOME wrote:

SVreX wrote: My step brother's kid used to like to steal keys. One day we heard his grandmother's Monte Carlo start. All the drivers in the family were accounted for. We ran around the house in time to see Joel drive the Monte into a tree about halfway down the 1/4 mile long driveway. Joel was 2 1/2. He was standing on the seat, and had figured out how to start the car, and get it in gear. Couldn't reach the pedals, or turn the wheel too well.

I did a similar stunt when I was about the same age. Was a Morris Minor wagon and it was parked on a hill.

I don't think I started it, but I took an RV out of park and down a hill as a little kid. My grandfather tried to jump in the window to stop me and got a cracked rib for his efforts when I hit a tree.

Same here, a row of rosebushes were annihilated on that fateful voyage. I think it was an 024 or a GLH.

In reply to Swank Force One: My driving test negative was that I used the "emergency brake." It was uphill turning left at a traffic light, in a stick shift VW Rabbit. ..

By the time I took my drivers test, I'd been driving for 5 years. Learned in a 1962 Chevy truck when I was 11. In those days I could cover most of Edisto Island on private dirt roads. Man those were the days.