Your driving lessons/driving instructor

[johnsy]

what was your driving instructor like? did they have any funny sayings? or something they said all the time?

Did anything funny happen to you while you were on a lesson? do you still see your instructor on the road, what does he say?

Sorry for asking so many questions im just doing some research, anyone that helps me out, will be awesome in my books!

[jayhawk]

Oh wow. I just realized my driving test was 16 years, 5 months ago.

....doh...

[watisdis]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

Oh wow. I just realized my driving test was 16 years, 5 months ago.

....doh...

[Steve Levin]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

Oh wow. I just realized my driving test was 16 years, 5 months ago.

....doh...

bah humbug. Mine was during the Reagan era...during the first term of his presidency

Steve

[thedguy]

My driving instructor was my dad. 18 years of listening to him bitch at other people on the road about what they are doing wrong. I aced my (written) driving test without ever reading the book because of him

My other instructor was unrestricted golf carts used by the maintenance department (with the high amp controllers to get a bump in pace), and free reign over a 36 hole golf course. I just had to avoid the Marshals, as I was 9 years old.

[BlaRo]

I don't even remember most of my driving instructors. That's how forgettable they are in America.

I remember my instructor for the classroom work, though. He looked and sounded exactly like Bob Hope, which led me to believe that he had followed in Elvis's footsteps on account on getting no respect. He would always introduce girls as "the lovely...", which may have been pretty creepy but nobody cared. He introduced the guys as "the pride of (their hometown)", which was evident that he had never been to Shrewsbury before. The funniest part, though, was when he was showing us a movie of how Princess Di died to beat into our heads the habit of wearing seat belts (which I've done since I was old enough to reach the floormats), and he prefaced this dramatic CG-ridden film with a notably stirring monologue. "Her shoulder flew forward into the seat, which punctured her lungs...she drowned in her own blood. DROWNED...IN. HER OWN BLOOD."

Some kids in my class ended up calling me Yao Ming for the entire 6 weeks straight, simply because the basketball player was the only Asian guy they've ever heard of...hence the correlation. racistsThere was also an incredibly hot girl that would always get hit on by a creepy fat idiot that was supposedly 16 but looked more like he was 43 and wore grimy white t-shirts 3 sizes too small for his beer gut and sat next to me, who giggled as he said "she's got...a nice figure".

You meet the creepiest people in driver's ed.

[Alex_0700]

I remember my instructor fell asleep several times during my test. He had the IQ of an 11 year old so it was probably better that he did so I could get on with teaching myself how to drive. Except for when the completely trashed tranny would grind into 3rd, he would keep telling me to press the cluth in all the way like I was some some sort of idiot. Eventually I got sick of it and skipped 3rd, but to get back at him I ran over the biggest pothole I could find everytime he would nod off.

[Prost264]

My real driving instructor was my dad.

My official driving instructor (provided free of charge by the Philadelphia school district) was an extremely creepy guy from AAA. He had a banged up Dodge Neon he took me out in. We made trips to the bank a couple of times, also one time I sat in a parking lot for 20 minutes while he walked a block away "just for a minute."

My second to last day of driving the boss came to pick me up in his new, top of line Mazda Protege. It was such a nice car, had all the bells and whistles, and drove fantastically. He was in his mid 20s and was a real cool guy, we even had the same taste in music.

My last day out the creepy guy was back. After driving around for a few minutes he asked if his boss had said anything about him. I said no then he said "no, really, did he ask about me? Did he mention anything about me getting fired?" I laughed it off thinking he was joking, but then he asked again, more emphatically. I said no again, then said I had to go back right away and used work as an excuse.

Also the guy smelled.

[No Boss]

Never had a driving instructor.... learned everything I know from Gran Turismo and Twisted Metal II on PSI.

WHO WANTS TO GO FOR A RIDE?!?!?!?!?

[Prost264]

No Boss = ?

[JipJopJones]

My driving instructor was really quiet all the time. He would say almost nothing untill the end of the lesson. Kind of intimidating, but he was good, so in turn, I'm a good driver.

My in class instructor was into cars big time, so during lunch break we would talk about cars.... he was cool.

[Salanax]

I learned most things off my dad, had a few lessons with an instructor just to pick up anything small I needed to pass my test. First lesson was in the rain and it was my first time in a small car. Not thinking of the difference being in a small car compared to a bigger one, I attacked a roundabout at the speed I normally would. In the rain. My thought process went:
I'm missing something.
What is it?
Rear end grip that's it!
Shit countersteer you dickhead!
Gave the instructor a good laugh when we stopped sliding, but it confirmed the view I have of never to get a small car, never liked them anyway so no big loss.
After that all was dandy and I passed the test first time.

[Ottobon]

Our teacher was a kind of goofy man who shouted alot and told us anything that might be illegal will definitely kill us. With that said his attitude worked alright, as none of the 400 or so classmates died on the road, well atleast not during the time we were in high school. I think a girl who may have been in my class had a fatal accident on some icey roads , but i think my graduating class of 05 was pretty safe so far as mortalities go.

[BlaRo]

Oh! And another driving instructor I had...

Those of you in America will be undoubtedly familiar with Skid School. When you're 15 and a half and you've just come back from the DMV with your flimsy piece of paper learner's permit, you'll hear the big badass 16-year olds by the high school lockers talk about how awesome it was, and how it's the coolest thing ever (next to unbuttoning Jenny Martin's blouse behind the gym bleachers). It's included in all driver training schools in MA to teach us how to manage slides in wet conditions, and it really is the funnest thing you can do with cars and get away with.

So naturally, it was my turn. Me and a bunch of my fellow high school rejects waited during a damp day for our turn behind the wheel of our fearsome firebreathing skidding beast. It was a 1995 Plymouth Neon sedan. The front bumper had been removed, the odometer had ticked over at 380,000 miles, and everything rattled like an aging hooker's ribcage. My instructor, I estimated, was approaching his 132nd birthday. "You gotta restart the ignition after every try," he grumbled incoherently.

We were in the skidpad, pointed at the large puddle.
"Should I just gun it?" I remarked, half-jokingly, half-seriously, completely eager.
"...gun it?" He looked at me cockeyedly, as if I had just given him an iPod and told him to put on some Mos Def. "What do you mean, 'gun it'?"

His breath smelled like weak mothballs and asparagus soup.
"Never mind." I gave the poor beleagured Neon a boot full of welly.

He jerked the wheel for me. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I collided with the hard plastic door. We went around for what seemed like hours and hours. The tires shuddered squealed like nervous boars, the entire car felt like it was being stretched apart like some sort of giant mechanical Gumby, and my elbow was really starting to hurt at this point. How Wilford Brimley sitting next to me hadn't collapsed into a pile of dust was nothing short of miraculous.

Afterwards, we did the same party trick 4 or 5 more times, except with the handbrake and countersteering so it wasn't as much fun. The old man didn't say much other than that, and I didn't bother provoking him into a conversation. I'd be lying if I didn't say I hadn't learned anything, though.

[FATMOUSE]

A guy I had for the classroom portion of driver's ed related how road rage can go horribly wrong.

A priest was driving along, minding his own business. This one other guy was tailgating him and just being a general prick, and also said threatening things. The priest turned the other cheek, and eventually turned off on a road on the way home.

The road rage man turned off with him and followed him. When the priest exited his car, he noticed the angry dude was stomping over, potentially to do something unpleasant.

Since he was afraid, the priest reached into the boot of his car, pulled out a crossbow and shot the guy.

Moral: Road rage kills.

[KaJuN]

My driving instructor couldn't have cared less what I was doing. The only time he ever spoke was to tell me where to go. Most of the time his head was down looking at his schedule or in a magazine. He may as well have not even been in the car with me. Not to mention the vast majority of my driving time was spent in a parking lot maneuvering through cones at .4 miles an hour. Yeah that'll make me a safe driver perfecting that vital skill. In hindsight I can't believe I paid money for that waste of time.

My motorcycling instructors, on the other hand, were quite a different story. They were both genuinely interested in what they were doing and they provided a lot of helpful tips. Breaks were spent sitting around talking about bikes and taking the piss out of one another. I'm probably going back for the advanced rider course as well as the off road course just for the fun of it. Heck it's only like $25 so why not?

[Cobol74]

Mrs Cobol taught me! I'd had some lessons with a proper instructor but she let me drive her car for some months before taking the test. Oh, and we were not married at that time.

[Peter3hg]

So do you have an actual practical test in the US?

[KaJuN]

Yes but I believe the content of the test varies from state to state. Here in Ohio you basically just go out on some roads and if you can prove you won't kill anyone you get your license. The hardest part of the test is parking, especially when you take it in a minivan with the worst turning circle in the world. My mirror was less than an inch from knocking the cone over.

As for the bike Ohio has a cool program with the rider education course. If you complete the course you don't have to take the state's test. Neat!

[Polly]

Originally Posted by JipJopJones

Kind of intimidating, but he was good, so in turn, I'm a good driver.

Yeah, that's what everybody says at that age.