There’s no empirically correct answer to today’s Ask, but based on the comments, it seems like Autopian readers range in age from those who got their driver’s license in the Kennedy era all the way up to drivers who took the test while Biden was President. That’s a big spread, and I’m not here to ask what year you received your permit (I think we might have already asked, actually). I want to ask what you think were the best and worst years ever in history for becoming a new driver.
Having just done an article on Boss Mustangs, it seems to me you’d be hard-pressed to choose a better time than the mid- to late-sixties.
I had a work superior who got his permit in 1966, and two years later his parents helped him to get a new Chevelle 396 coupe.
I know, I know, muscle cars have major drawbacks, but just look at that thing; easily one of GM’s best-styled mid-sizers and with tire-churning power and twenty-cent-a-gallon gas it would be nonstop fun. Plus, you could tune the crap out of it and not worry about failing emissions or a CEL illuminating. Not a muscle fan? The European choices were all over the map; you could import almost anything you wanted and not have to wait 25 years. That’s got to be the best era to hop into a car for the first time.
What about the worst? Well, I was trying to find images of a yellow VW Bug similar to the now-nonfunctional one Jason has and the car from 1984’s Footloose came up on screen (though Ren’s car was a ’72 with cool FORUMULA V stickers and Jason’s is a ’73.).
You might not know this, but Jason regularly goes to grain elevators or warehouses and dances with reckless abandon to blow off steam. Maybe he didn’t want you to be aware of that. He’s just stressed out, but if you become a Member, that will help ease his mind. Just saying.
Anyway, over at the wonderful Internet Movie Car Database, they had the vehicles in Footloose (the original, of course, since I have no idea why they did a remake). This was about the time I was learning to drive myself, and looking at those pictures from the film, I was reminded that everything was pure, unadulterated crap while I was of license-getting age. Oh, sure, you can bring up some Radwood stuff, but it wasn’t MR2s and GTIs that we usually got. No, it was awful things such as Aspen/Volares like this:
Or reliable but dull-as-Hell Toyota Coronas and any manner of Iron Duke-powered FWD GM garbage.
Novas, Pintos, U.S.-made VW Rabbits with the square lights Jason hates – that’s what we were given from mom and dad (hey, are those Mercury Zephyr hubcaps on the Nova?)
Worse than that, we often got handed ten-year-old stuff from the heart of seventies malaise like that 1969 Dart Swinger in the top shot (we had a Grandma-hand-me-down in the eighties) or this Colonnade Chevy:
I’m not asking for your pity. Well, maybe I am. It was a horrible time to be driving 55 miles an hour, tops, in horrible cars that struggled to go even that fast – or even start, in some cases. When twenty-somethings whine about how bad Nissan Versas are, I just laugh; you kids haven’t got a clue how good you’ve always had it.
What about you? What era do you think was a magical time to be a new driver? Where were the lowest points on the automotive timeline for fresh license-havers?
Topshot graphic image: Paramount Pictures
the early 60s. you had vws, volvos, morris minors, fiats and renaults. step up to falcon, corvair, chevy II, and valiant. then you got into the muscle cars! for some there were the barges, full size ford, gm and mopar. a few had cadiallac or mercedes
I got my license on my 16th birthday in 1973. I had a year before the national 55 mph speed limit kicked in. So that kind of sucked. I drove my mom’s ’65 Olds Dynamic 88 and my dad’s 53 Dodge pickup that somebody had transplanted a 318 V8 into. My first car was a ’68 Datsun 510 wagon with no radio or a/c. So, not the best of times.
A friend got a ’74 Honda Civic CVCC with a 5-speed manual. That was a really fun car for the time.
Late 90’s in the UK was an OK time to get my license. Cars could still be had for relatively cheap (my first car was £100), although insurance was expensive for a new driver (£200 per year). Selection of cars was ok, although for budget reasons it was mostly small hatchbacks (Polos, Fiestas, and some poor sods had Metros).
Traffic wasn’t as bad as now, and petrol was about 25% of what it costs now.
Could be better, could be worse.
I’d say generally anything before 2020 was probably good (not including the depression or like the gas crisis). That’s when used cars could be cheap but still good. I had graduated college and just gotten my first real job in 2018. Which meant I got to enjoy the time when you could buy a fairly reliable and reasonable car for $1000 or less. And a fixer upper was $500. It was a great time to be young and not financially stable. Also, manual cars were still around on the used market and didn’t command a huge markup. I feel bad for the younger people (I’m not going to say “kids” because I’m not old yet) who don’t get the enjoy that.
I’m going to guess that the worst time was during World War 2. Gasoline and tires were being rationed and going for a pleasure drive meant that you wanted the Allies to lose and you should be in the service anyway.
I would say the best time was the 60s. So many exciting cars were introduced and traffic was much more sparse than it is now. Even family grocery getters could be had as wagons, coupes, sedans and convertibles. I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses though. Quality got worse and worse. Cars would overheat at the drop of a hat and most warranties were 12 months. Of course a car was toast at 100,000 miles anyway.
But I imagine a bunch of kids got taught to drive (and fly) by the military when they’d never have been able to afford it in civilian life.
Relatedly, I know a guy who joined the Royal Engineers, (partly) because it’s the only way to get a driving license in the UK before you’re 17.
Perks come with the job!
There are two sides to this… the vehicle side and the society side.
On the vehicle side, today is the best era ever because the vehicles of today (particularly EVs) need less maintenance and are easier to drive than than the vast majority of vehicles from the past.
On the society side, I’d say the best time was in the 1950s where paved roads became much more common, but there weren’t nearly as many cars and people out there. So it would be easier for a new driver to practice without having to deal with as much traffic.
Sidenote: A big reason why there weren’t as many cars/people around is because many of the cars/people got destroyed/killed in World War 2.
Also from a society-side of things, it was easier to get a license back than than it is now.
Now as for the lowest point for new drivers… I’d say it would be before World War 1.
Back then paved roads were uncommon, traffic lights/signals/signs were non-existant nor standardized, vehicles were VERY EXPENSIVE in relation to income, vehicles were unreliable/shit compared to today’s vehicles, car controls were not standardized at all and to operate a vehicle, you pretty much had to be your own mechanic.
I’m going to be like everyone ele here and plug my own youth, but I got in a ’16 Odyssey about 5 years ago. Plenty of power (and VTEC) on the on-ramps, next to no maintenance, and the 6auto got decent mileage. I think once used cars started getting direct injection and 6-speeds, and emerging from the depths of flat plastic in the 2000s, it got to be a pretty good time. Many of my friends had approximately ’07 Priuses, and those were great on ga, reliability, and reckless-proofing. Even today, I still think they’re great first cars, being that I’ve seen some for $1500 lately.
I think the best time is whenever you got old enough to get a license and your own car (or at least access to a family car), whether that was 1920 or today. Instant freedom. I got my license 40 years ago this very month. That was a great time to start my driving career.
Well, that’s how it used to be anyway. Not so sure about today’s kids who don’t seem to want to leave the house in many cases. Noses in screens 24x7x365.
I started driving in 1979. My friends and family group included a Baja Beetle, Subaru that we pulled the engine out by hand (no crane) Pinto, Dodge Dart, Chevy S10, Nova station wagon, and my own first car, a 1969 Ford Falcon Sport Coupe.
The sheer variety of affordable used vehicles that kids could wrench on in their own driveway was impressive. The best time to start driving!
I’m going to take a wild swing to an era 30 years before my time, and say the 50s. Factories switched from war production to consumer goods. America was in great shape all things considered. The interstate system was being fleshed out. It sounds like a time of hopefulness (ignoring nuclear anxiety and all that) and easier exploration.
I’ll give my 7 cents (thanks inflation!) And go with Recession era-early 2010s. The available econoboxes were simple enough to not harass you for turning your head to check the blind spot or scanning an intersection, generally safe enough to not turn the occupants into spaghetti in a crash, slow enough discourage racing but still able to merge on the highway when sending it, and cheap enough that accidentally parking by feel wasn’t accompanied with a $2000 repair bill.
Late 90s! Cars had been generally good for some time then, and hadn’t started to decline into the suckiness of today yet.
I took my licence in 1991 – in a horrible GM J-car. And all the 10 year old used cars a new driver could afford then had carburettors, general shoddy quality overall and poor rust protection.
I own two 1991 cars today (and some older ones with certain vintage qualities) and they are great!
The one when cars had bigger back seats. Oh, and vans!!
Assuming “new” means 16 years old or so.
I tend to look at things as a parent more often than a driver when thinking about stuff like this. I would say the best time to be a new driver was probably late 90s to early 2000s; the pre-smart phone era. I am generalizing here, but cars were getting safer and in some cases, better built. New drivers had to know how to use maps and pay attention to the road, not the GPS. Road trips were an adventure because while you had an idea of what was on the route, you didn’t KNOW so you still had to do some exploring. Finally, other drivers weren’t speeding down the road looking at the phone rather than what was in front of them.
To me, the best time was the malaise era. The cars were so slow that a new driver couldn’t get in to too much trouble and you had to learn how to use the power you did have.
I got my license in the mid-90s, It was pretty good time actually. My first car was a 1990 Ford Probe GT with the 2.2 turbo and a five speed manual. That thing was spicy!
A few years from now, when good EVs have depreciated down to first-car money, high schoolers everywhere will be able to mooch off their parents’ electricity instead of paying for gas!
I thought the mid 80’s were a terrific time to be a new driver.
If you were on a budget – you just had to be smart enough to know what to avoid – and realize that 10+ year old midsize (1972 and earlier – to exclude the Colonnades) and full-size American cars were the smart choice.
And the kids from families with money – they were showing up in new Camaros, Fox Mustangs, Celicas, 200SXs Preludes, Sciroccos, 3 Series and Audi GT Coupes.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Best can mean a lot of things. Before I was alive, you could apparently work for the summer to pay for your next year of college AND a used car. That sounds pretty great. In the 90’s things were still affordable-ish and the options were safer and more reliable. If you can have someone pay for your car today, it’s a pretty nice time to be a new driver with how great cars from the last 15 years are.
Since we don’t have time machines, I’ll say today is the best time to start driving. If that doesn’t work, try again tomorrow.
That is a hard one.
Best time:
On one hand today is the best time to start driving because the cars have never been better or safer. On the other hand the roads have never been more crowded and much of driving is just sitting in gridlock.
In the 60’s the cars were death traps and traffic deaths were almost 5x higher than today but the roads were empty and you could do pretty much whatever you wanted with a car.
Worst time:
70’s and 80’s. The cars were crap and we had 55 mph speed limits. Gas was $4 to $6 a gallon adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars. The interest rate of my Aunt’s 1981 Oldsmobile was 17%
If would project that into the early 90’s for new drivers because at least in my world nobody was driving a new car. When I got my license in 1994 most of my friends were driving cars from the early to mid 80’s. My was relatively new as a 1987 but that was because we bought it with a blown engine and rebuilt it. 1987 GMC S-15 Jimmy 4×4. 110 hp with the optional V6
In my late teens, right around high school graduation (’92) or just after, I seriously considered buying a 1986 Yugo because anything else in budget was 1979-81.
The mid 2000s. Relatively cheap, used cars were relatively powerful (80hp or so on the low end as opposed to 30-50), had reliable fuel injection, OBDI/II, airbags, ABS and power brakes/steering. Rust-proofing was on the up with more and more cars becoming galvanized, and the average car on the road was a 150-hp sedan, with above-average threats still being under 4000lb and 300hp. Most drivers didn’t have smartphones to look at or touchscreen climate controls to fiddle with. It was probably the safest time to be a new driver, and if you had the cash, you could even get something newer with stability control equipped if you were so inclined.
From a young enthusiast’s perspective, it was also the best time to get into cars, forums were rife with wisdom, youtube was rising, and you could buy all the cool 80s and early 90s cars for a song. This was the time to buy today’s unattainable dream cars, you could get a 964 or an AE86 for fair used-car values relative to their MSRP/age/condition, and drifting was an underground movement that didn’t yet have the market presence to push a 240SX pignose’s value higher than a Boxster’s.
I think any earlier than that, cheap used cars weren’t sufficiently durable yet, and any later, traffic starts to get increasingly dangerous as the mass and speed of the average commuter car grows.
It’s all rose tinted looking back.
That’s the Doppler effect. Things receding away from you are red-shifted as the wavelength of the incoming light is stretched. The future is blue for the same reason.
😉
My grandmother used to tell stories about her family owning the first automobile in Franklin Pennsylvania, which was great fun. Then after a few weeks another family bought a car, and shortly after that they ran into each other. There weren’t any real rules about driving other than don’t hit pedestrians because they have the right of way, but generally the custom was to let the horses figure it out ( full self driving ) and stopping at intersections wasn’t a thing yet.
So that was pretty cool untill it wasn’t.