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Where did you learn how to drive?

24

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,060 ✭✭✭✭biko


    Forest roads around where I lived at the time.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,400 ✭✭✭Medusa22


    Hammer89 wrote: »
    Medusa need not answer.

    There are far more interesting things that I can teach you in a car anyway! :pac:


  • Posts: 15,055 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    OP I'd advise an actual instructor over learning with a friend. At least til you get to grips with things, anyway. Learning from friends and family always seems to end in arguments.


    I learned most of my practical stuff by driving around very late in the night/early in the morning, when there was very little other traffic on the road. Gave me a chance to try and do hill starts and such on roads that I'd actually be using in my day-to-day life, without the fear of other cars being around.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    In a field, aged 13 with my Dad beside me. I managed to hit both of the two hay bales in the field. Then my first boyfriend taught me hill-starts in Killiney car park a few times, then we went interrailing and hired a car in Spain, where he got me to drive up an unpaved road with a 100ft drop on one side. They were pretty good lessons, come to think of it.

    Got a honda 70 when I was 23 and living in the country, so that was my 1st provisional. Then I got my 2nd provisional and a ford fiesta and was legally allowed to drive it without a licensed driver beside me and without ever having driven on a public road before in my life. I drove home from buying the car in a garage an hour away.

    I also drove myself into the nearest city (40 min drive) for my one and only driving lesson before I failed the test (not too badly, but not being aware of stopping distances and driving too close to parked cars!). Failed the test a second time as I was heavily pregnant and needing a wee very badly. Got flustered at a roundabout :( Passed with flying colours on third go (with 3 lessons)!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭maudgonner


    On a lakeshore. We'd wait for summer to roll around and the water level to drop far enough that there was a good stretch of sand and then off we'd go. Cousins would come down visiting and be given driving lessons on the sand. Great craic.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    At 18, driving my Dad's car around a Superquinn car park at 10pm while he sat beside me inhaling cigarettes in one go and leaving imprints on the door handle from gripping so tight.

    That was just to get the stop/start basics in. Then I did five or ten lessons with a local driving school.
    That being said, I'll be getting lessons off a mate in the coming days hopefully and if anybody has any decent suggestions of location, in the South Dublin area, I'd like to hear them.
    Aren't you required to do lessons with a registered instructor before you can get a licence these days?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,299 ✭✭✭✭The Backwards Man


    Starting learning when I was five or six in a 365 spreading lime from a linkbox.

    Still learning thirty years later.

    No one ever knows everything about driving, that's the first lesson you have to learn.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 48,742 ✭✭✭✭Wichita Lineman


    Brittas Bay car park, back in the days before they put a barrier up so you cant use it in winter. A few years later had a few proper lessons, bought my first car and two of us (provisional drivers) set off for Kerry for the week. Had a ball.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭Asmooh


    Official driving school in The Netherlands.. the way you should learn to drive the correct way if you ask me.

    Passed Theory and Practical test the first time, and believe me those tests are soo much more difficult compare to here.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,949 ✭✭✭Mesrine65


    2 wheeled vehicles in a field at the age of 12, 4+ wheeled vehicles in the military.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,672 ✭✭✭✭josip


    First lesson was with my brother in the back yard where he decided he'd show me how to use the clutch to get the car moving.
    I cared f**k all about the "biting point" of the clutch.
    I was preoccupied with the concrete pump house 10 metres in front of me that I'd have to do a 90 degree turn to avoid and that my brother seemed hell bent on ignoring.
    Lucky for him I never managed to bounce the car far enough to get to the pump house.

    He gave up on the back yard lessons and brought me in to the derelict Barrowland Ballroom in New Ross around which there was level(ish) ground but there were holes deep enough for a whole platoon to take cover in.
    By this time I had become familar with the concept of steering and gears, but he had neglected to advise me about braking.
    It was just a crazy jumble of pedals down there and my left was stuck on the clutch and my right was stuck on the accelerator.
    Going around in 3rd gear trying to dodge foxholes did teach me why they're called "Jesus handles" however.

    After that he gave up on me completely and handed me over to Meyler.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,949 ✭✭✭Mesrine65


    FTA69 wrote: »
    I've done 25 lessons and failed two tests. Just failed my second test around an hour ago and feel like sh*t. London must be one of the hardest places to learn how to drive, the crap thing is that I've only had one major on each and even then nothing remotely dangerous. Absolutely gutted.
    Chin up son, there's always the next time...best of luck ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,192 ✭✭✭mrsdewinter


    In an industrial estate on Sun afternoons. I remember in the 80s when my dad gave my mother a few lessons, it was in the car park of a supermarket, again on Sunday afternoons. No Sunday trading that time, so the local Dunnes was the perfect choice.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,610 ✭✭✭Charles Babbage


    Asmooh wrote: »
    Official driving school in The Netherlands.. the way you should learn to drive the correct way if you ask me.

    Passed Theory and Practical test the first time, and believe me those tests are soo much more difficult compare to here.

    How far you have to go in the Netherlands to find somewhere for a decent hill start!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,900 ✭✭✭InTheTrees


    I learned in a VW Beetle on a farm in connemara. Passed my test in Galway, then moved to England a few years later and didnt realise I could swap licences so I did the test in England twice. I've done two tests in different states in the USA as well, although their tests are a joke compared to europe.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,177 ✭✭✭sesswhat


    On a TVO tractor.

    Same here! Pulling up whin bushes.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,462 ✭✭✭Asmooh


    How far you have to go in the Netherlands to find somewhere for a decent hill start!
    Enough places.. I lived at the southern part..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,056 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    Started on tractor about 8 or 9, by 12 I was able to move 12ton trucks round the yard and able to drive car on the road (much quieter back then) full liscence at 18, never took a lesson.

    I started my 12yo daughter around the field in the jeep last summer and it went well.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,163 ✭✭✭Shrap


    No one ever knows everything about driving, that's the first lesson you have to learn.

    Very true. I've been thinking of applying for advanced driving lessons in the last while. Would help with the insurance as well as ironing out any bad habits I haven't noticed.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,252 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    I had no lessons and no pre-test, yet I passed the test first time! It was the Finglas test centre and I had a horrible Austin Metro at the time.

    Such an arduous test. :rolleyes: My wife was so nervous she couldn't drive to or from the test centre, yet she also passed first time.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭Tilly


    On Dollymount beach in my brothers Sierra Cosworth when i was 16. Good times :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,084 ✭✭✭questionmark?


    On the back roads early on Saturday mornings in my early teens. Not saying its right but sure everyone in the area learnt that way! The only vehicle you'd meet would be a farmer driving 5mph as he was looking at other peoples land. Provisional at 17. Passed test at 18 with no lessons.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,084 ✭✭✭questionmark?


    Pherekydes wrote: »
    I had no lessons and no pre-test, yet I passed the test first time! It was the Finglas test centre and I had a horrible Austin Metro at the time.

    .

    I say the instructor felt sorry for you having that car and thought you needed cheering up!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,947 ✭✭✭✭Neyite


    I went to a job interview. All was going swimmingly, more or less told I was getting the job, it was a significant pay increase and lots of potential until the interviewer sez "Oh, I forgot, you need to be able to drive for the position - you have a car, don't you?"

    "Yes. Yes I do", I lied firmly.

    The by the following evening I'd booked my first lesson, got the car loan arranged at the bank, and had a friend of a friend lined up who knew someone with a banger to sell. By the time I'd worked my notice, I was driving.

    Passed my test a month before the theory tests came in. You could drive on a provisional and not get pulled by the Guards those days, but I wanted my insurance to come down so I sat the test anyway.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,887 ✭✭✭✭osarusan


    Driving School in Tokyo.


  • Posts: 26,219 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    In Kent aged 16, around the grounds of my secondary school. Sat my test aged 17 and passed first time, to my amazement.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Did not learn to drive until I needed to for work reasons.

    Do not buy a car unless you need to. The amount of money you will need to maintain and fuel it is quite expensive.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,452 ✭✭✭✭The_Valeyard


    Did not learn to drive until I needed to for work reasons.

    Do not buy a car unless you need to. The amount of money you will need to maintain and fuel it is quite expensive.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,790 ✭✭✭Aglomerado


    My dad taught me, by making me drive over the narrow bridges in Killaloe (pre traffic lights) and O'Briensbridge ... I used to be terrified!!!

    Various cars, Ford Fiestas/ Escorts/ Toyota Corollas/ Nissan Sunnys.

    I got lessons before my test to iron out a few bad habits I'd picked up...


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,343 ✭✭✭davo2001


    KC161 wrote: »
    On the grounds of a mental hospital when i was 14 in a 1994 toyota carina. Happy days

    We still have a 94 carina, great car in fairness, trading it in for a 161 next week, going to miss it :(


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