Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[radiator]

I gather that a lot comes down to the individual examiners discretion. I heard that it can help to try and chat to them and build a rapport, but my one was rather humourless and cold.

It's also annoying that nerves really get to you and cause you to make stupid mistakes.

I really don't relish the prospect of retaking it - an unpleasant experience that put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

[Professor Bear]

I wouldn't care much about failing the test as I know people I wouldn't trust with a tv remote who got it first time out.

I never bothered with getting a licence as there were two people licenced to give the mandatory driving lessons in my hometown, one was decent, affable, stand-up, patient, and got along well with people, while the other was a miserable scrotum who only got work because the other guy was booked solid and - I learned later - because parents who wanted to dissuade their kids from driving booked ahead with the arsehole safe in the knowledge that a great many people who hired him once never did so again because he was so utterly unpleasant.  Blissfully ignorant of this yin/yang setup, guess which one I booked a lesson with?  I'll give you a clue: halfway through the first lesson I threatened to murder the bastard.

[TordelBack]

As I'm sure I've recounted before, my driving instructor for my (second) test, a retired law enforcement officer, advised me to have a spliff before the test.  I'm not convinced it's a very regulated profession.

As others have said, Radiator, all the best people fail at least once.  Don't let it deter you from screaming around the Oregon badlands bullseyeing womp-rats in your T16.

[Trout]

I miss proper cars. These automatics (I've been here a year) kind of worry me. It all seems too easy.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Taking the driving test is hard, as you will be nervous and on edge, there is nothing you can do about that, it's life. The difference being is that nigh on all the other tests that you may have done before hand in your life, it was just you and some questions that needed answering, or something that needed repairing, made, etc...

This test involves everyone else doing whatever they feel like on your test route and that is the challenge! You can drive and it doesn't matter if you drive an automatic, what do you think most HGV's are today! Just don't overthink it during the time you are out on the test.

My advice is to make eye contact with the examiner, tell him you have never been so nervous in all your life and don't come across as being over confident. They are human too and even though they know you'll be nervous, it brings a human side to when they decide if they are going to tick certain boxes, as you drive along.

Good luck!

[Frank]

I miss proper cars. These automatics (I've been here a year) kind of worry me. It all seems too easy

I'm in and out of different work vehicles all the time. The approach to the first junction on a journey in a manual shift after having been driving an automatic is marked by my either slamming on the anchors because I mistake the brake pedal for the clutch or forgetting to change gear and trying to pull away in third. Five minutes later, and you'd think I'd been driving automatics all my days, and it's the same the other way round.

My point is that most processes involved in driving are unconscious instinct, rather than deliberate thought. Radiator's observation that learning gear changing and footwork is just a distraction from paying attention to what's happening on the road is a good one. I think anyone passing their test in a manual would find acquiring the laughably rudimental skills involved in not stalling a car to be a piece of piss, once they're not being distracted by trying to rub their bellies and pat their heads at the same time.

[Dandontdare]

I've no idea if it was true, but it was well known that a particular examiner in Blackburn would always find a reason to fail anyone who turned up for the test in a school uniform - it was the "top tip" for 17 year olds.

Took me three tries - after two fails, my mum decided I'd had enough lessons and just needed practice, so I was her driver for the summer holidays as she did deliveries for my dad's printing business - third test was a breeze.

[JamesC]

Personally I think it's best to learn how to drive with manual gears. That way, once you've passed, you can drive anything, which makes it much easier in the future if you ever need to hire a car or van or want to get insured on someone else's car.
While the gears cab be a challenge at first they soon become second nature and something you don't really think about.

[TordelBack]

Manual gears are a ridiculous impediment to learning to drive, largely because learning to use them takes focus away from what you should really be learning to do, which is drive safely - a whole different matter.  Ideally you should just feck about with gears in a deserted carpark/track/beach where you can't hurt anyone for a good long while, and then when you have the mechanics (which aren't hard to grasp when you're not simultaneously learning to manoeuvre a tonne or more of vehicle past suicidal humans and other impatient huge vehicles at speed), move onto learning to drive. 

However.  My brother and his wife who live in Oz learned on an automatic over there, and as a result aren't able to borrow our cars when he's home visiting.  The eyes of car-hire places light up whenever they arrive. 

[radiator]

Personally I think it's best to learn how to drive with manual gears. That way, once you've passed, you can drive anything, which makes it much easier in the future if you ever need to hire a car or van or want to get insured on someone else's car.
While the gears cab be a challenge at first they soon become second nature and something you don't really think about.

I see what you're saying, but my point is that nowadays NO vehicle really needs to be manual.

While it does become second nature eventually, even experienced drivers will sometimes stall, and stalling during a test is a real pain - once you do it, it just chips away at your confidence. It just seems like an outdated technology to me.

[Frank]

I see what you're saying, but my point is that nowadays NO vehicle really needs to be manual ... It just seems like an outdated technology to me

Every modern car has an annoying wee light on the rev counter that lights up, telling you whether to change up or down gears, which makes the business of giving you a manual gearbox to play with a nonsense. The future is definitely going in the direction you describe, and any hybrid vehicle I've been in has an automatic or dual shift. There's a generation of guys who think being able to change gear makes them hot shit, but they're all dying!

As Burdis points out, truckers - great big manly men with forearms like tree trunks, baldy heads and stubble like steel wool - all drive automatics, and the time when double clutching made driving a little more of a skill is long gone, so the idea that manual shifting has anything to do with machismo is baffling.

[JamesC]

Personally I think it's best to learn how to drive with manual gears. That way, once you've passed, you can drive anything, which makes it much easier in the future if you ever need to hire a car or van or want to get insured on someone else's car.
While the gears cab be a challenge at first they soon become second nature and something you don't really think about.

I see what you're saying, but my point is that nowadays NO vehicle really needs to be manual.

While it does become second nature eventually, even experienced drivers will sometimes stall, and stalling during a test is a real pain - once you do it, it just chips away at your confidence. It just seems like an outdated technology to me.

I totally agree with you, no car needs a manual gear box but I think it'll be a good few years before automatic becomes the norm.

Apparently the guy who invented the type of manual gear box we currently use said something like 'That'll do until something better comes along'.

[radiator]

Heh. I'm sure there was also a generation of writers who thought using a word processor over a typewriter was wussy.

[Trout]

Yeah, come and listen to me muttering about fuel consumption because my Nissan hasn't changed up a gear and tell me there's no need for a manual transmission. There's nothing macho about it. I just prefer having more control, especially in the snow.

[Richmond Clements]

Anecdotal evidence - I used to have an automatic, and when I swapped back to a manual, my fuel consumption plummeted. And you have much more control over speed and acceleration in a manual.