The first and most important car driving tips and tricks when you start learning how to drive is to acquaint yourself with the vehicle. Before you step inside and start meddling with the various knobs and buttons, understand their functions first. Learn what each button does in your car so that you know what to use when the situation arises. Next, understand the three main pedals, the accelerator, brake and clutch.
Among the simplest new car driving techniques is to remember the foot controls as ABC, where A, B and C represent the Accelerator, Brake and Clutch respectively. Lastly, familiarise yourself with the gear knob and the positions of the various gears. You can practise shifting when the car is off but avoid doing it too much as it damages your gearbox. Understand the positions of all the gears in a way that you don’t have to look at the knob ever while shifting.
This is a very crucial point among all the car driving tips for beginners we have mentioned here. It is something that a lot of people often tend to ignore. Most newbies to car driving are completely unaware that every car has a provision to adjust seats, mirrors, and, in some cases, even the steering wheel. The mechanisms allow you to adjust the aforementioned components in a way that they are optimised for your driving. It is crucial that you position the seats in a manner in which you are comfortably able to access all the controls of the car, namely, the pedals, the steering and the gear lever.
In fact, some cars even allow you to adjust the steering for rake and reach to ensure an optimum driving position. Always ensure that you adjust the mirrors, seat and steering in a way that none of your body parts get strained while driving.
Usage of mirrors is important to ensure safe driving. Also, it’s important to adjust the mirrors before you start driving the vehicle. One needs to first adjust the driver’s side mirror. Always adjust the mirror in a way that your car’s image doesn’t occupy more than 10% of the field of view. Adjust both the driver’s and the passenger’s side mirror and then sit back in the driver’s seat to ensure you are able to see the maximum possible road behind you.
Remember, only a small position of your mirror should show the side of your car. Similarly, adjust the rear view mirror in a way that you get the maximum view of the road behind you while you’re comfortably seated in the driver’s seat. Always remember to make all the necessary adjustments before you start driving.
While often overlooked, familiarising yourself with the dashboard controls and symbols is among the most vital car driving tips for beginners. These buttons and controls give you access to a lot of features, including the aircon, wipers, beam adjustment and more. Also, every car’s instrument console shows many symbols, which, in most cases, are warning lights in your car that warn you of a malfunction. That said, there are some symbols that simply notify you of activation of a feature such as a cruise control or high beam. Meanwhile, most other symbols are actual warnings. These might be anything from a low engine oil light to even low tire pressure.
Also, the colour of these lights matters. The blue and green lights are simply to let you know that a feature is in use. However, orange, red or yellow lights are actual warnings and point out that the vehicle needs inspection.
Seatbelts might look merely as a feature to avoid a fine but they are the most important when it comes to saving your life. When you hit the brakes or when your car hits an obstacle, you’d be thrown off the seat. In such a scenario, you’re prone to suffering injuries as you would hit parts of the vehicle such as the steering wheel. However, this is where a seatbelt comes to the rescue. It simply breaks the motion and prevents you from hitting any object.
Basically, seatbelts secure the occupants in the seat and stop them from being thrown out of the seat and hitting the dashboard, windshield or steering wheel. Seatbelts disperse the opposite force depending on the force exerted due to an impact or braking. Majorly, seat belts help with the protection of two of the most critical body parts – head and spinal cord.
