As far as rites of passage go, passing your driver’s test is right up there with, uh, another important milestone that probably happened within a few years of that time, and possibly also involved a car. Everyone remembers their first time, which was hopefully your only time (reminder: I am talking about taking your driver’s test, not the other thing). Like a lot of you, I aced the test on the first try. Or tests, I should say, since there’s that written exam too, but what I’m Autopian Asking ya’ll about today is the far more intimidating road test.
I don’t recall what model car I took the road test in, but I do remember the guy scoring in the passenger’s seat (not a sex reference) had a strong aura of I don’t want to be here, which did not bode well. I was already on high alert for any potential test-ruining goofs, but I notched it up a little more as it seemed this guy would relish failing me.
He didn’t waste any time, either. Before I had even swung the door shut, he was encouraging me to “just go ahead and pull away.” Not before I check my mirrors and we both put our seatbelts on, thank you very much! The hand-signaling portion of the test went on way too long, and he chose the tightest possible situations for the parallel parking and three-point turn tests. There was no power steering to help me out, but I met the challenge. When he opened his door to check the distance to the curb after I parallel parked, I could sense his disappointment when he saw the gap was just right. Now give me my license.Â
I asked the gang if they had any road-test stories to share. Mark had some hard luck, but persevered:
Took me three tries. We had one tester in my hometown who failed EVERYONE, and I got her twice in a row, and she failed me for piddly shit like parking too far from the curb. Third time, I got the “nice” one, and aced it.
Brian got his license with nary a point to spare:
It was my 16th birthday, and my mother drove me to the testing site in Goshen, New York. I took the test in her white third-gen Honda CR-V, which I knew wasn’t a very good car even then.
The test went off without a hitch, or at least I thought so. I stopped at every light, signaled correctly, and parallel-parked flawlessly. Little did I know I’d made a wide right turn somewhere along the test route, for which I was docked five points. Thankfully, I still passed. I’m sure I’d do far worse today, for some reason.
Your turn!
How Did Your Driving Test Go?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Eventful and episodic! I was 21 at the time, and took the test in college-town McMinnville, about 50 million miles west of Portland. I’ve been driving on our family farm since I was 7, karting professionally from 10, and driving legally from 18 – all of it in India, where one drives on the left of the road. Remember this detail for later.
The “written” test – administered on a computer at the McMinnville DMV was a toughie. My 21-year old bulletproof self went in without even glancing at the book we were supposed to read before the test, and I blew it. Passed with flying colours the next time around.
I went around for the driving test a month later, in my roommate’s borrowed Civic with a manual. I failed the test because I drove too slowly – I was 5 under. So, Round 2 of the test, 2 days before Christmas break or something like that. My girlfriend at the tie had invited me over to her folks’ for Christmas, and I’d made a reservation at the local Hertz with the test a foregone conclusion.
I’m at the strip mall in front of the DMV with the Civic. The girlfriend was at the Hertz, 3 doors down in the same strip mall, waiting for me to finish the test and come get her. I start the test – picture perfect! We do a couple of miles on Highway 99, chatting away about our holiday plans and how I was planning to handle meeting my girlfriend’s parents for the first time. Just banter. And then we loop back around a wooded area to the strip mall. The strip mall was on the far right corner of the junction, and when the lights turned green, the inspector asked me to turn right. And I had a brain fade and started a wide right turn into the opposite lane. I caught myself in time, and corrected the slip, and made a smooth left turn a little further up into the strip mall.
I stopped the car in front of the DMV, waiting for the inspector to fail me. I could see the holiday plans falling apart. And then he passed me. “You didn’t hear me say turn right in time, did you? My mistake. I guess you wanted to go straight through the 4-way and turn into the north entry. You passed! Well done and Merry Christmas!”
It’s been 23 years and I (touchwood) haven’t gotten into a fender-bender, or even ticketed once.
My first license was in a country that required hours of expensive professional instruction. The examiner had me in the back seat while another student was driving for her test. She slowed down at a stop sign but didn’t stop; she treated it like yield sign. She didn’t finish the test.
I don’t remember my part. I passed.
Coming from that lengthy formal process to the US, where you just show up, take a bullshit written test and an easy driving test, was a shocker. I failed the written test by one question, and I was allowed to retake it on the spot. Yet somehow the US doesn’t have disproportionate car crash or fatality statistics, so I guess the loosey-goosey process works well enough.
I had been driving since I was 12 , on a very regular basis. I failed my test 3 times, barely passed on the 4th. I was way too comfortable, driving with one hand, not checking mirrors, slightly bumped the curb on the parallel parking, etc ….
The real story though, was that only a short 30 min after passing my test , I was pulled over by the local smoky for whipping cookies on the flag football field. I got a ride home, a $30 nuisance driving ticket, and a 30 day license suspension. That must be some kind of record.
I’m pretty proud of my driving test.
Maybe my third time driving that car, after having otherwise practiced in an awkward minivan (and the more-similar driving school cars).
It was also snowy/icy…I think it was the clearest day that week, though.
I remember the roads being basically completely empty, and the only problem I had was the weird “back around the corner” segment.
What even is that? I remember it being some ridiculous exercise where you’re trying to reach an arbitrary distance from the curb?
I think I just failed that outright, but passed on having a perfect score otherwise.
The car I drove then is the same one I drive now.
Must say my driving test went smoothly, except…I locked the keys in the car, a VW Squareback. We tried various methods to open the car, including hitting the wind wing with a hammer. No luck. Eventually, my much displeased Step Father had to come down to the DMV with his keys. I really had no problems with the actual driving part. I had spent the previous six months learning to drive in Italy, Naples to be exact. My step father said, “If you can drive here, you can drive anywhere.” So the California test was a breeze. Of course they left out important element of driving, like various uses for the horn, driving on sidewalks, ignoring signs and parking pretty much anywhere you felt like and all important, waving at exceptional beauties while driving in maniac traffic, steering and using the stick. Got to be skilled.
Is it true the Topolino was designed so you could carry a basket of espressos across a field without spilling?
I haven’t read all the other comments yet, but I got my license ON my 16th birthday in a ’65 Olds Dynamic 88 that I had to parallel park as part of the test.
And a CR-V of any generation is NOT a bad vehicle to take your test in. My son, who took advantage of his mother and my willingness to chauffer him around for a couple of years too long, passed his test the first time at age 18 in the CR-V we had at the time. Relatively compact. Great visibility.
I taught him parallel parking between a couple of garbage cans on the street. And what it felt like when you had to nail the brakes so hard you got into ABS and steer around one of those garbage cans (in an empty church parking lot on a Saturday).
Gosh. That was only 14 years ago. In the meantime, he has confessed to going 100 mph in the CR-V with classmates on a camping trip shortly thereafter, graduated from college and law school and is now married and expecting with his wife. (And never been in a collision.) Time can feel so non-linear.
Doing it in the same parking lot around 10:30am on a Sunday would have been more fun.
I grew up in the UK and took my driving test twice. It’s much harder than the various US tests.
I took the California test in my 1968 Porsche 912 with lap belts and the instructor was so fat the belt wouldn’t fit him. He was going to fail me for that but I prevailed. Once I started driving, we just went 100 yards and he said “you learned in the UK?” and I said yes and he said “OK, we’re all good” and that was it.
Went to take the test for the first time on my 17th birthday (the minimum age in NJ). While I felt prepared for the exam, nerves had gotten ahold of me, and I mentioned this to my mother as she drove me to the road test facility. “Oh, if you’re nervous, just make some idle conversation with the instructor; that’ll calm you down.” Taking her advice to heart, when they called my name for the driver’s test I asked the instructor as we buckled into my mom’s station wagon, “So, how many of these tests do you give in a day?” The instructor glares at me and says, “You should be paying attention to the road, not to other passengers in the car” and puts a check mark in his form.
I ended up passing, with the ONLY demerit being for speaking to the instructor.
Thanks for the advice, Mom….
I got the lowest passing score possible according to the woman who tested me. My buddy got a near perfect score and gloated endlessly about it. Fast forward a year, I had a clean record and he had totaled one vehicle street racing and had so many points for speeding he had to beg the judge to not suspend his license.
The written portion I got a perfect score on. I took my test in a 1961 Oldsmobile 98, I got docked for going over the yellow on an early entry to a left turn lane. I think it was a ticky-tack violation, but it wasn’t enough to fail me.