For me, I have had VERY odd driving experiences. From the age of about 9 I used to always drive my Grandfathers car in and out of his garage. A massive 2.5TD Granada, all you did was be soft off the clutch and then it moved, no accelerator at all needed it had so much torque!
From about 12, he bought me a Fiat Uno, oddly enough, a G-reg, 999fire, 4 gears, 45, very basic but had a radio. It was crash damaged and written off, basically it meant it had no bumper and a little bit of damage to the front metal bit where the bumper should have gone on. A little bit of rope later and it looked like new (well, soft of!). From 12 until about 16 I learnt to drive in my grandpa's huge garden. I learnt near perfect clutch control, how to handle a car in a small area, grass driving etc. It meant I had to learn perfect car handling, it wasn't a massive garden, just fairly long and thin. It meant I could learn lots about how a car runs, what happens if you pull away in 4th, what would happen if you tried a handbrake turn etc. I had a lot of fun and covered about 1 mile in the whole time! Most of the time I would drive to one end and then reverse all the way back so not miles on the clock.
I also learnt how a car can handle when used incorrectly, how going in reverse at 20 mph, in heavy rain on mud with a space of about 50cm either side of a hedge row and a pear tree ends in a smash. Was quite fun that, going to fast, tried to slow, slid, smack, sideways on into the tree! I also learnt that you have to concentrate a lot more than I imagined. I reversed straight into his poor shed at the top, I didn't mention it but next week "You hit the shed didn't you?!"
All of this meant I could drive a car off-road so well - at a time when my friends were playing bumper cars. It was amazing experience!
When it came to driving lessons, I got a great guy, a nice car and very cheap. First lesson I drove for 45 minutes out of an hour. I did need another 11 lessons, why? Driving in a garden is so different to driving on a road! Driving on a road has other road users, has other dangers and you have to follow the road, not the route you make up driving up the garden!
My friends all needed about 25+ lessons, I did it in 12, the Uno cost £50 and when we scrapped it, we got £30 for it. I only had those lessons and no teaching from parents - both owned large cars. What I am trying to say is, I wish everyone had the oppotunity I had. IMO, it means I understand a car better than most people driving my age, understanding the workings of a car is very important.
One example of this is when it rained once and 4 people had parked on the grass at school because the car park was so full. The three girls and one guy basically sat there in first gear, flooring it trying to get out of the grass. Of course they eventually did it but the grass was in such an awful condition afterwards. 2 of them had to get a teacher to drive it out! The fix, stick it in 2nd or even 3rd and be very slow off the clutch, be gentle and voila, barely any wheel slip.
I don't want to say I am a better driver than anyone here, and being 18 and only have driven for less than a year I know I am not. Road experience is so important. However, touch wood, as of yet I haven't had anything too close and unlike most early on, I haven't touched the paintwork, clipped anything at all.
Would I run over the duck? In my second driving lesson I did an emergency stop to prevent running over one from 40mph - it came from nowhere. My instructor congratulated me, he hadn't even taught me an emergency stop, but did however warn me of the insurance complications of doing that again.
I personally wish I had could have driven with my parents, I could have used less lessons but I looked forward to them so much I am not sure if I would have missed out!
IMO, learning with your parents is fine aslong as you have proper training to back it up.
Paul
My first signiture (a lot of thought put into it): If you can't find the switch to switch your fogs off I am sure I can help you! Damn fogs.
