Driving

B

BlueCurl

Pathologist
Since I love my very old car that is amazingly still up and running I was wondering about how people here are thinking about driving, owning a car, learning how to do it...

I live in the Netherlands and here youhave to be 18 before you can start to learn how to drive. I was excited. Since learning to drive aint cheap... 5 years agp the average for passing an exam was after 30 lessons and the were 32 euro's each (in that periode euro=dollar) So that is about 960 bucks then ofcourse the exam... I failed once since I'm a nervous prick when someone yells test... those tests were 180 each and then 30 bucks or so for the piece of paper itself I thought which makes a total of 1350 bucks.. Then having my license hoera... with a 1.49 euro these days for a liter makes it even better.. US citizens pay about 1/3 of this price... So after all a expensive thing but I can;t say I dislike driving.

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eta: I totally forgot the costs for the theortical exam.. Have no idea what those costed me though
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Do it as much as I can and I am making my very old car look good. It was totally worn down and now it is in excellent state. It is a Suzuki Swift (1992)...

I have seen accidents like two highly flamable trucks that both didn;t handle a nasty turn to flats on the free way and such. I have had a flat on the freeway and landed 2 inches from the rail besides it Don;t ask how and such :p it went to fast... I must have crossed about 3 lanes in between time... Didn;t hit another car.. just left a nice piece of even more black on the black top.

I prefer stick shift over an automatic even though my car is an automatic but the car was for free and I am living an a student budget and after getting my license all my money was gone! :lol:
stick shift is much more real experience of driving... it just makes it more fun even though it is about the insight when driving during rush hour..

Thrill: Driving 165 km/h (100 m/h) on a 100 km/h (60 m/h) zone freeway and get passed by a police car! I'm so relieved that I wasn't pulled over! You don’t wanna know! Especially driving around with 2 swords, an iron chain and nunchakus in the trunk of the car. (Kung Fu practise)

For the ones that want to know. I usually don't drive over the speed limit for 20-30 km/h (12-18 m/h). So I can afford my own speeding ticket and that I do not lose my license or worse... :D

Got a ticket recently too for speeding... 130 bucks (100 us dollars) I only went about 16 km/10miles to fast or so... :lol:

so what do you think about driving... what do you drive and what are your experiences on the black top?
 
I had my first driving lesson from my dad recently and I was actually really surprised :lol: I could back up better than I could park :rolleyes: My brother was the exact opposite. Although my dad freaked me out, I was making a turn and I knew I wasn't going to hit anything and he was screaming, "Brake, brake, brake!" :lol: I was sitting there thinking, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!!" :lol:

The car I drove is like 20 years old now but my dad still has it running. It's an old '85 Volvo with over 100,000 miles on it :p
 
Okay, I'm in Driver's Ed. We'll do btw(behind the wheel) with classmates and we'll go on the freeway, and these people go 20mph, and it's like oh my lord, the speed limits 60 mph. so I'll drive and be going like 65mph. It's crazy.

I hate getting lessons with my parents cuz my mom is like "Are we done yet?" and my dad's like "BRAKE, FASTER, SLOW DOWN!" Thanks I know how to drive.

I drive an '03 Kia Spectra, it's small and cute, I love it :)
 
I'm learning to drive at the moment. Down here in Australia you have to be 16 and a half to sit down and take your 'Learners' Test... its a road rules/safety theoretical test. Then once you pass you get your Learners Liscence and you have to drive around with your 'L' plates on... which is good caus when you're driving people are more patient with you and are more cautious around you.

You have to have your L's for 6 months before you can go for your practical driving test to get your P's... which means you can drive by yourself but you can't have ANY alcohol whatsoever and then drive. I'm getting my P's in June hopefully!

I'm driving on a manual at the moment. It's hard and I hate changing gears! But I'm getting there... eventually... I hate going on the roads in traffic, it scares me!
 
in germany the driving age changed recently, from 18 to now 17, but you may only drive with an adult :rolleyes:
all my friends paid like 1200 € but i only paid 800 €, so i guess i was pretty good :D i only took the lessons i needed, which was about 18 or so....

oh i almost forgot to say that it snowed when i had my practical and i didn't stop at a stop sign twice, btw it was one and the same stop sign :lol: :lol:
and the driving inspector gave me sheet of paper with "ST_P" on it and said "please complete that so it makes sense" :lol:
but...i got my license and that's what counts!

after you got your driver's license you have to drive for 2 years without any incident, say an accident or speeding or whatever...otherwise you have to take an extra test which is pretty expensive and the qualifying period will extend to another 2 years.

i've got my license for 2 years and a half now. i always drive too fast, ALWAYS, but i never got caught and i hope i never will *crosses fingers*
i think i'm a pretty good driver, everyone tells me so. my father even said "omg, she drives like a goddess" :lol:
i love to drive and i wished i was driving like a bmw or an audi, but i only have a toyota, pretty close ;)
 
I got my permit on my 16th birthday last August, now I need to take drivers ED, my parents keep forgetting to find a place and sign me up.
 
Wow, it's amazing what some people have to go through to drive. Here (NJ) I paid about $300 for the driving school, and ten dollars for my permit, or something like that. I only had two driving lessons, each 3 hours long. Some people split it into 3 two hour sessions, but the school I went to only did the two sessions.

So right now, I'm sixteen (which is when you can get your permite, which allows you to drive with an adult over 21 with their GED) and I passed the written test on the first try. In exactly a month and a day (a day after my birthday) I'm taking my drivers test to get my Cinderella licence, which is a restricted licence. It means that you can only drive with one other person in your car, who isn't a relative.

I drive a cute little Ford Escort Sport. It's red, my favorite color. It's even got a soccer ball with my name on the back!! It's so cute, and I love my car, 'cept the sound system isn't great.......but hey, it moves!!! :)
 
wow there are some serious rules and costs in other countries. thats craziness. i didn't have drivers ed at my school or anything like that. i just took my permit test when i turned 16 and 6 months later took my driving test and got my license. i didn't learn how to parallel park or anything like that until the night before haha but it was all pretty easy, to me at least. my stepsister ended up taking both tests like 3 times each but she's not the brightest crayon in the box.

i drive a 99' VW beetle. her name is Abbey. i love my car, we've been through a lot together but we tend to attract law enforcement. i've been driving for 3 years and i've been pulled over 10 times. but no tickets yet *knocks on wood* i drove through a really deep ditch that i swear to god just jumped out in front of me...hit a deer....sideswiped a truck (in my defense it was raining like crazy)...rearended an SUV (not my fault, she didn't have to stop at that redlight) and i've been stranded miles and miles from home on more than a few occasions and always at the most inconvienant times, like at 3 am in BFE. nonetheless...i love my car and i swear i'm a great driver. :D or at least thats what i tell my passengers.
 
I can't afford to learn to drive. My parents have cars that are too powerful for me to learn in, we have a 4x4 and a golf GTI, so insurance is too high any way. :(
Instead I am going to learn to ride a bike. In England you have to take a Compulsory(sp?) Bike Training (CBT) course, which is a full day, then you can drive a bike on your own up to 125cc, with L plates. I will then have a few lessons just to get me ready for the test, then you can ride whatever bike you want, and carry passengers. :)
I'm going to get a bike soon, believe it or not buying a bike is cheaper than the insurance for a car, lol.
I just have to book that CBT course first...

I plan to learn to drive whilst at university or something, I figure there is no hurry. :)
 
cathwillows explained already how it is with driving in Germany. So I don't need to repeat that.
Getting a driving licence in Germany is very expensive I think. You have to pay for each lesson, for each test (a paper with some questions with multiple choice answers and the actual driving). And if you fail one test you have to pay again. (Hopefully I remember it in the right way). And your driving instructor decides how many lessons you need. And sometimes those driving instructors are really mean and say that you need more lessons only to get more money. A very good friend had more than 45 lessons, only because the instructor wanted to have all her money.
I paid about 1000€ and took 24 lessons. When I compare my lessons with the lessons of my friends, my amount of lessons seems to be small. Most of them needed more than 35 lessons.

I have my licence now for 1 year and a half. That means my qualifying period ends in half a year. Yay :D And when it's over I can almost drive like I want ;) and my driving licence won't be taken away at once.

I like driving and I can't get enough of it. I think driving a stick shift car isn't harder than driving an automatic car. You just have to get used to it! :) Besides driving a stick shift car is a lot more fun. In my opinion the important thing is that first you learn how to drive a stick shift car and after your actual driving test you can decide whether you wanna drive a stick shift car or an automatic one.

I know some people who are afraid to drive with their car into the city. They are afraid, because there are so many other cars and the parking lots are small. But I live and did my driving licence in the city, so luckily I don't have a problem with it. :)
 
I failed to get my liscence 3 times and it wasn't even my fault! It was my instructors fault. They just robbed me.. I spend over 2500 euro's but they just didn't let me pass. Bunch of assholes..

Anyway I am now 22 and still don't have my liscence. Don't have to money. Once I get a descent job I will also get my liscence. One day. In the future. Some time.
 
In the UK you can apply for a provisional Licence and learn to drive at 17. You have to take a theory and a pratical test to pass.

I learned fairly late (21), I only started to learn in July 2006. I passed my Theory in October 2006 and Finally passed my pratical test in February 2007 (2nd time around). So all in all from start to finish it took me 6 months, I didn't think that was too bad.
It cost me an arm and a leg, including 36 hours of profensional tutorage 2 practical tests and a theory test, it cost nearly £1000 :eek: :eek:

I don't have a car, but I'm insured to drive the family car which is a Suzuki Swift 2005 Model. I love it its a beaut to drive :cool:

Doesn't everyone in America learn in an automatic though? Driving is easy if you've only ever learn to drive in an automatic. It would have taken me only a couple lessons if I'd of have that privalige, but over here you learn to drive properly in a manual, and it takes a bit longer to learn as you have to do more :lol: if your shit in a manual and have no chance of passin you can then attempt an automatic
 
But we have the lowest accidental numbers in the world for driving... And for being a small and over crowded country I think it is not bad at all that you have to be 18 to drive. You just need the insight and responsibility to drive else you're just a danger on the road here! And everybody can drive stick shift because you have to learn it that way. In a school not from your perants whatsoever so schools get checked out and make sure you really can drive when you get your license then it is up to you if you even get the insight which most people don;t get who don;t drive during rush hour and make pour judgments on the streets... I really hate driving during normal day hours and weekends...

everyone keeps telling me I drive like a guy and I kick everyones asses without driving recklessly. And yes I am proud of that! And since I don;t drink and drive... even.. not even 1 beer whatsoever... I tend to be the driver mostly too and I kinda like driving....

Stick shift is indeed harder but much more fun and looks like it is more like driving than an automatic which feels more like a toy car way of driving... First car I'm gonna buy and not get is definitely gonna be a shift stick!

What are the cost to go trhough drivers ed?
 
Yeah a driving thread! I love driving, that is, I would even love it much more if it wasn't so expensive *lol*
I got my license when I was 18, but I admit that I failed the practical test once. That sucked and made it even more expensive, I'm so glad my dad paid for me. It summed up to 1500 €... Just imagine, I don't understand why driving lessons have to cost so much... :confused:
Now I'm 21 and I'm happy with my 97' Ford Fiesta. I love driving on the highway, no traffic lights, only straight ahead, with the music turned on. Since driving school I've only been on the "autobahn" (guess that's freeway in Am.E.?) once, I was so proud of my little car as it reached 150 km/h (93 mph)^^ When I was in driving school I was on the autobahn, too, and my teacher just said: "Drive as fast as you want to, it's better you do it when I'm with you than on your first ride alone." Okay... When the steering wheel began to vibrate I thought I was fast enough - I was driving with 200 km/h (124 mph)... My dad nearly freaked when I told him later *lol*
 
I realy really love and enjoy driving. To get a license here in Spain you gotta be at least 18, and pass two exams, one teorical and another one practic. The price depends where you are.

I've had my license for 3 years, late, i know, I had to do it after I finished college, because i was studing outside. Since then, I' driven a lot of cars, I even had two, one from 11th hand and the one i bought new. My car is a Chevrolet Kalos (I think this model is sold only in europe), and has two years next june.

I've never had a car crash, but I've been driving a lot, mostly work related, so i've seen a lot of car accidents, even bikes, so that made me be more careful when i get in my car.

Between the cars i've driven, i liked more my brother's one, an Alfa Romeo 147... I was really amazing to be inside that beautiful car.
 
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