Perhaps my earlier post about using this Cadillac as a driver’s education car was part whimsical fantasy combined with a heaping helping of organic fertilizer. But most of you figured that out rather quickly.
Credit for this question must be given to CharlieD612 from his suggestion in the other post. So here it is: What was your driver’s education car?
My school had a deal with a Ford-Buick dealer, quite the dynamic contrast of brands in the late 1980s. Located over an hour away in Perryville, Missouri, this dealer coughed up a new car every 2,000 miles. We went through four of them during the school year when I was in driver’s education.
I missed out on the Buick Century. I also seem to remember a J-body Buick in there, too.
As I was one of the youngest ones in my class, I had wheel time toward the end of the year. The first car I navigated was a white Ford Taurus. Equipped with a red interior and a 3.0 V6, I only drove that car once.
Upon the Taurus going away, and the dealer likely not liking the rate at which the school was accumulating mileage, we got a tan 1988 Ford Escort. I still cringe when I think of that car.
So, what about you?
Second-gen Ford Tempo, probably a 1990 or 91. What an awful, awful vehicle, even by driver’s ed car standards.
We also had a 2nd-gen Tempo at our school. My biggest memory was that I got marked down on a drive for not noticing the gas gauge was sitting on empty before we set off and we almost ran dry before we could get to a gas station.
I still did well enough that I was exempted from taking the drive test to get my license and only had to do the written test.
1989 Caprice. What better way to start driving than with a B-Body.
Dodge Aspens and Plymouth Volares. Once we got a firm understanding of the automatic transmission Aspen, we were allowed to move on to the 3+OD, floor-shifted Volare.
Possibly the last era of students required to master the manual transmission before earning the certificate to take down to the DMV.
An Olds Cutlass. Don’t remember the year model. I went to HS from 81-85. It was fairly new. Not a aero back. The school also had a white Citation.
I had drivers Ed in 1998. We had a couple of burgundy over grey 90-91 Chevy Corsicas
They were really ragged out
We went out driving two at a time with a football coach “instructor” who tried to impart wisdom on Honda clutch take-up points while the little Civic wagon bucked around the school parking lot. My fondest memory is of heading straight at the wall of a McDonald’s because my friend Leigh was pressing the clutch and not the brake, screaming, and Coach Roddenberry calmly pulling the handbrake like it was no big deal.
Chevrolet Beretta GT in red, supplied by the local Chevrolet dealer and driven home at night by the football coach, who taught drivers ed, not gym class as you might expect.
By the standards of the late 80’s, a decent car.
The Chev dealer promo + Gym Coach combo was exactly how our High School did it as well. As the “class” would give you a failing credit if you did not pass, I noped that and paid to be trained by a local driving school. A waste of money in retrospect, but I was allowed to take the written course at 14 (!), and thanks to the vastly superior training, was able to breeze thru my driven test in my parents Ford Econoline conversion van.
Watching my sister attempt to learn was a whole other matter. She did go thru the High School program… The day I went to pick her up after her training, I watched her get screamed at by her instructor for being “inattentive” while some other kid played slalom course with the cones set up in the lot. I was not amused.
’06 red Corolla.
White 3rd-gen Chevy Cavalier Sedan…yuck
1990 Buick LeSabre! Fresh from the factory just a few miles over at Buick City in Flint’s north end. It was about as perfect as a “full size” car ever got – great looking, great pickup, decent gas mileage, lots of room, and on J.D. Power & Associates’ “best” list. Decidedly an “old person’s car” in my teenage mind, but more plush and luxurious than anything I would ever be allowed behind the wheel of, otherwise.
Lucky Dog!, That would have spoiled me to whatever POS (as a newbie teen owner) I would have been stuck with after!
I earned my license in Michigan too, in ’07. Was in an Impala. I think taking driver’s ed in school and always having factory fresh cars is a Michigan thing.
I’m envious; grew up in Michigan myself but learned on a Dodge Omni. Slow enough that a mistake didn’t get you in trouble too quickly, I suppose.
That’s cool. I like a car with low “food miles”.
1967 Plymouth Barracuda with a V8 and a linkage to a right-seat brake pedal. The instructor used it more than once.
A late 1990s Chevy Lumina with the obligatory peeling paint…in 2007. It was a clapped-out piece, but I was honestly excited to be driving…anything!
First Drivers Ed car I got to take on the street was a nicely equipped ’77 Cutlass Supreme 2 door. Red with white top. Chicago Public Schools must have gotten a good deal on some.
1976 Malibu colonnade 4dr. Lime green with white top.
1983 Mustang notchback. Very basic car,it was probably a four cylinder.
I learned to drive in the winter, and asked my instructor if we could go to a snowy parking lot and do some skid control and donuts.
He replied “Uh, no. This is actually my car and it’s not paid off..”
Dad actually taught me to drive when I was 15 in our 1974 Vega. Unfortunately by the time I got my licence that car was gone, so I think I only ever drive it in parking lots.
I took it in 2006, a year late, in a silver early ’00s Chevy Malibu. I remember nothing about the car and it was so anonymous that for a while I couldn’t remember if we’d used the Malibu or a second generation Neon. I do remember one of our longer trips taking us past Stephen King’s house.
1988 Buick Century — also a result of our school’s contract with the local Buick dealer.
My most vivid recollection of that car isn’t of driving it, but rather being a passenger when a fellow student (who struggled with driving in general) froze up while approaching an intersection, and the instructor had to apply the passenger-side panic brake. Ever wonder if it’s possible to fail drivers’ ed? It is.
75 Dodge Dart two door hardtop. White over red. Nice car.
Circa 1978, I took DE in two different cars. The first one was a ’77 Ford LTD 4-door in cream with a brown cloth interior. Very nice and pleasant to ride in and drive. The next was a ’78 Ford Granada 4-door. Red with white vinyl top and a 250 cid six with a/t. It handled well, but was a real dog otherwise. Going uphill would almost always result in kickdown to passing gear with much commotion, and very little additional locomotion.
Practice car at home was my brother’s ’70 Plymouth Fury III 2-door. With 383 2-bbl and Torqueflite, it had plenty of get up and go, but the bias ply tires and drum brakes made for some interesting learning in the southeast Ohio hills.
I didn’t take driver’s ed in high school. I actually didn’t learn to drive until out of high school when I took a private course. But the car I learned to drive in was a red 1994ish Ford Focus, which was not at all conducive to my frame.
1968 Impala Sedan. Smooth, light steering, auto trans of course. Two students plus the Instructor on the front bench, three students in the back…and NO talking! Man was that car easy to drive as compared to my ’61 Corvair Monza 4-speed.
’95 Nissan Sentra, white over grey in the Summer of ’96.
Not sure how, but it was rather ratty, even then. I doubt the bombed out roads on the North Shore of MA did it any favors.
After being allowed to drive my future ’69 Dodge Polara around a cemetery by my great grandmother, that Nissan gave me very little confidence in small cars.
New 1970 BelAir 4-dr sedan. Blue with a white top. 4 students & 1 teacher in the car. Drove all over the place and I got good at parallel parking it.
1975 Dodge Royal Monaco, 2 door…I remember under the hood was the 400 cubic inch “lean burn” engine
1977 dark blue dodge monaco and it was *loaded*. the drivers ed instructor was a friend of the dodge dealer and he somehow got this as an instructor car. 2 door, plush seats, great (for the time) sound system, automatic on the floor, etc. cannot now figure out how the instructor’s brake bar went across the transmission tunnel with the console but the point is moot.
first thing we learned to do was donuts on snow in a church parking lot. everyone had to drive to and past the point of traction loss. know what that feels like so you dont recreate it on a road. he certainly had the practical side of drivers ed down cold.
In Europe (at least in Spain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands), getting your driving licence is quite expensive. I got mine in 1993 and it cost me about €1,500
The car I used was a Citroën ZX with a decent 1.9D engine. It was compact (easy for parallel parking), had decent acceleration for a diesel and didn’t stall easily. The latter is important because at the time, you had to drive manual to get your driver’s licence (now in Spain you can get a special one using an automatic).
The ZX was a completely forgetful car – not many survive on the road – but they were competent for the time and I enjoyed driving it about 30 hours before I could take the test
The car was a base model, with no AC. It had double controls in case we did something bad, so the Driving instructor could apply brakes (at the beginning they also pushed the gas).
I recall that the model didn’t have turbo but Wikipedia says that the non-turbo version of the XUD9 engine was never installed in the ZX. It might have been a Spanish-only feature.
Ive seen non turbo ZXs for sale locally, just another mistake Wiki made, there are many.
Wiki— Ancient Hawaiian word meaning: “urban legend”, LOL!
My instructor had a red, late 90s Cavalier coupe. Much to my surprise, it was also her personal car. Guess the school wanted to save overhead. It was, wisely(?), one of the slowest cars I’ve ever driven, beating out a 3 cylinder Metro and the early Mercury Tracer that had trouble making it out of the driveway of the dealer who was selling it. Parallel parking with that was a breeze, which didn’t help when I used my grandmother’s 2000 Taurus for my test. That thing had way more power than I was used to, was too curvy to see where the bumpers were, and had the turning circle of a semi for some odd reason. For two sessions, I rode with her boss. What a piece of work…both him and the car. He drove a Corolla that should not have been able to pass inspection.
The Taurus and my family’s classic 1988 Lincoln Town Car eventually ended up being regular borrows for me. If you can drive those on our country, 1.5 lane roads, you can drive anything anywhere.
I’m pretty sure my High School had an early 80’s J-car – can’t remember the model – but I do remember it was blue. I guess it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.
I actually LEARNED how to drive on my father’s 79 Datsun 510. It was an automatic but had manual steering and brakes. I used it for my driver’s test as well. A nice little car – but it was a ruster.
1973 Dodge Dart Swinger, slant six – on the downtown streets of Toronto
I took drivers ed at my high school over the summer, and we had new cars from the local dealers. Curiously, our “fleet” consisted of about 6 identical 1996 Blazers, and one 1996 Delta 88. My partner and I got the 88. We had both been driving for years (I learned at 11 in a 4 speed Escort wagon), and spent most of the time trying to get the “low trac” light to come on 🙂 I was a little nervous at the start of the training, as I’d never driven an automatic before that. It would be another two years before I drove another one.
03 Taurus and 03 Escape. Our school had a deal with the local Ford dealer as well at the time I attended, I think they eventually purchased a couple circa 2009 Focuses since then though. My assigned car for the course work was the Escape so that’s where I did most of the learning, the three or four on the road tests I did in the Taurus as I recall. Despite my overall preferance towards cars I preferred the Escape, I actually failed one of the on road tests in the Taurus because I was used to the responsiveness the Escape actually had over it, even in braking… I kind of overshot the line at a light and the merge onto freeway test didn’t go super well – retook the same route in the Escape and it was flawless!
Never learned how to drive manual until way later, and I pretty much taught myself. We had a 1 day “simulation” course where we basically fake drive to a screen and operate a clutch and shifter but I got pretty much nothing out of it, in fact the sensor on my machine broke while I was using it so I couldn’t be graded, I couldn’t retake it either so I got a pass. Of all tests in high school THAT had to be the one I got by on on technicality! ugh!
1972 Pontiac Catalina four-door….like this one, but icebox white with a blue vinyl interior. Its one claim to greatness…it had the 455 V8. The other two driver education cars that year were a ’72 Ford Galaxie with a six and a ’72 Chevy Bel Air with a 327. Needless to say, the Pontiac was very popular at Bishop High that fall of ’71.
1980 Malibu 4 door and it did have the brake pedal for the instructor
Took mine in the Summer of ’83 in a white 1982 or 83 Dodge Omni with tan vinyl interior. It was uneventful. The other student I took the course with, a rather nervous girl, couldn’t quite master the level of acceleration required to get the 3-speed-auto-equipped car to climb hills or move with any determination through intersections. When she was driving we were either careening at the edge of control or puttering at a glacial pace. That got old quick. She passed the course, but I sure never would have ridden with her again if I was paid to.
I took driver’s ed in the summer of ’95. My instructor, like some others mentioned, used her personal car, albeit equipped with a passenger-side brake in case anything went awry. Tax write-off perhaps? Anyway, it was a Mustang notchback, late in the Fox generation, likely a ’92 or ’93. Black with tan interior and, interestingly, aftermarket chrome 5-spoke wheels. Being a 4 cylinder, it drove like an economy car, though it did sound good to say “I took driver’s ed in a Mustang!”
One of our days of training she was out sick, and the substitute used one of the cars from the high school’s fleet, an early 90’s Pontiac Sunbird sedan. Teal over gray. Very forgettable driving experience!
After the decent handling, relatively small Mustang, driving the ’79 Malibu back home took some adjustment…
1975 Dodge Dart four-door sedan. It had the extra brake pedal on the right for the instructor to use when necessary. Anybody out there ever seen a Driver’s Ed car with a full set of dual controls, including the steering wheel?
Only seen it in videos, quality job, probably owned by professional driving schools.
BTW heres my current car, Dart sedan since you mentioned one 🙂
We had two dual control cars, both donated by local dealerships. The 1969 Plymouth station wagon had dual steering and brake. The 1967 VW had a complete set of dual pedals. The car was narrow enough so dual steering wheels were not needed. I never got to look under the hood of the Plymouth to see how the steering was done.
1962 Lancer. Dodge’s version of the Plymouth Valiant. Push button transmission. I loved it. But then, as a high school senior I loved every car. Problem was, I had been driving since I was 12, so one turn around the block and one perfect parallel park, and I was then placed in the back seat while my DE classmates white knuckled the car around corners at 9 mph.
Late-sixties High School Driver’s Ed Plymouth Fury with dual brake pedals and separate inside mirror for the instructor. My girlfriend said her instructor always aimed his mirror between the girls’ legs, because they all wore skirts back then. Pants were not allowed on girls, even in Winter.
Dual control Cessna 172… Oh wait… ;o)
All kidding aside, the driver’s school car was dual control, but it was a librarian mobile… Either a Dodge Dart or its successor, the Aspen/Volaré. Army green if I recall correctly.
But the family car in which I took my driver’s test? This car right here!
(Mine had different wheel covers and no cornering lamps, but you get the idea… Parallel Parking in this land yacht was, um, challenging… But I got it in on the first shot on my Maryland MVA driver’s test!)………
My friend’s dad had a dark green one like that. He crashed it into his dads front porch and destroyed the porch 🙂 I remember a local dealership gave one of those away (1972 model) in a contest in 1984. A new LTD that went unsold for 12 years! Last man standing with his hand on the car won it.
My car was a 73 just like the one pictured except for the aforementioned differences. But the 72, yeah, I loved the look of that car, especially the ragtop (only 4260 built). I really wanted one of those, but it was too rich for my blood at the time.
+1 on the Ford LTD. Ours was a 4-door in sort of a Maalox Mint Green. I still don’t know how I passed the parallel parking in that boat.
Like many posters on this thread (and Jason’s April Fools thread), if you learned to drive (and park) in a large car like this, you ultimately can drive anything. My Dad felt that way. While the driver’s ed school liked to use smaller cars to make things easy, my Dad felt you needed skills to drive well, and I was given LOTS of stick time in this LTD before the car eventually became my first car. My subsequent Fairmont Futura was a much easier car to drive, park, and everything… In fact it handled very well, and start me on a long list of “foxes” over the years including many T-Birds. My Dad even woke me up very early one morning to go drive in the snow in that LTD, saying, “They aren’t going to teach you this in Driver’s Ed!”
My Mom’s red ’89 Nissan Sentra 2dr with 4-speed manual. That’s the car I learned to drive a stick on, and had to get good at it before taking my driver’s test.
On a side note: I’ve heard they no longer require a testee (haha) to parallel park. Why is this?!?! No one seems to be able to do it anymore and frankly, my car’s getting scared.
License to Drive = great movie. The Escort pic above reminded me.
Driver’s education? You mean in high school? Never had it.
I got my “driver’s education” in my parents’ 1960 Impala sports sedan! Dad & mom taught me.
That car was a real beast: 283 Powerglide, AM tube radio. That was it! Armstrong steering, unpowered drum brakes – the “power” was on you.
Two rules dad taught me:
1. Always know the width of your car.
2. Never rely on your brakes.
Those rules kept me out of a lot of trouble except when I did something deliberately stupid, of course!
I went to an all male Catholic high school in New York City. There were two drivers ed cars: ’77 Olds Cutlass’ bristling with the appropriate roof and magnetic signage. My groups particular instructor was one of the social studies teachers (and football coach) Mr. McLaughlin. He “didn’t want to be seen in one of those cars with you mugs” so he appropriated an “unmarked” unit used by the priests, a nine passenger ’77 Olds Custom Cruiser station wagon. Fun driving (and parallel parking) in Greenwich Village!
1990-91 Beige Toyota Corolla. Loaded up with five people it was scary trying to merge onto the major deegan expressway but very easy to park.
1968 Mercury Montego. Took driver’s ed when I was 15 and a half, had to wait six months before I could get a temporary permit. My Pittsburgh area cousins said their driver’s ed in the early 60s was with manual transmissions.
My DE class wasin summer of 1989, so i was 15 at the time and already had my permit for several months. Our car was a brand new charcoal grey Buick Skylark sedan, near identical to this one. After plenty of seat time in our ’85 Bronco this was a welcome upgrade. I mean, just look at this beautiful machine! It oozes class and sportiness all at once! It had the powerful iron duke hooked to a 3spd automatic which was unbelievably responsive. The car had so much power that if it werent for the sportscar like handling, youd have to think only a madman would put a teen in charge of a performance machine of this caliber. Even with 4 good sized guys aboard, the Duke was almost TOO powerful. And buttery smooth also. Yeah, we all felt like A-listers tooling around in that chariot. “Some day”, I thought…”some day when I’ve made it, Im gonna buy one of these for myself.” But for that moment Id have to savor just that taste of GM’s excellence just for that too-short week.
Iron Duke too powerful?
Who are you and what have you done with MR74? 😉
Its the truth! I swear, on this day April 1st of the year of our Lord 2016….
Lt. Jim Stanley’s Driving School had me driving a yellow AMC Spirit hatchback with dual controls. My dad was trying to teach me how to drive a manual transmission and went to Al Castrucci AMC on Colerain Avenue, took a new Renault Alliance on a “test drive”, took me to a nearby mall parking lot and let me experiment on the dealer demo. He didn’t want me tearing up his new Nissan Sentra.
Took my driver’s test in my mom’s 82 Olds Cutlass Supreme sedan. Passed the first time, too.
I don’t remember what the Driver’s Ed car was, except that it was not full sized. I drove myself to high school at the time and did take Driver’s Ed. The teacher did let me drive some, but l was far more experienced than most of the others. I do remember in the winter the carburetor was icing at one time. The car I drove was a Buick straight eight.
My school district had a fleet (4 or so) of 1978 B210s, One fastback and 4 sedans. I always scored the fastback. It was OH so cool!!
I really cant think of a less safe vehicle but I guess someone got a nice kickback.
My driver’s ed car was a 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air four door sedan, with the 307 V8 and (presumably) the THM, automatic for sure. It was much nicer than the 1960 Ford that my dad was driving and wasn’t rusty like my grandmother’s 1959 Pontiac. The Bel Air had power steering and power brakes, two items not included on the Ford; it may or may not have had A/C, if it did we never used it. I had obtained enough bootleg seat time that I could at least drive the car without running into things. In my hometown the driver’s test was always on the same route and the key thing was being able to parallel park. I remember that one of my fellow students managed to hit both the car in front and the one behind while trying to park. Fortunately no damage was done.
I spent some time riding in the parents’ 307-powered 68 Bel Air wagon. I remember the 2-speed Powerglide park/neutral whine. Also the groaning drum brakes if Dad had to stop it fast from highway speed. Most Chevies in those years had Powerglide. Wikip says the three-speed Turbo Hydramatic could be ordered with all V-8 engines on the Impala Sport Sedan and Custom coupe.
It may well have had a ‘glide, I just don’t remember.
My dad was not a car guy. Had owned the Bel Air for several years, when one day I said to him, ‘The transmission has only two speeds.’ His reply was along the lines of, ‘What?’ (lol)
My school did not offer driver’s ed. Once you obtained your learner’s permit, you either took it through a local driving school, which got you the license in 4 months, or took it with a “parent or guardian” which got you the license in 6 months. If you took the latter course, as I did, you had to take a “drug and alcohol” class at a driving school anyway.
I started out driving my dad’s 1994 Mazda B2300 pickup. No power steering, no power breaks, stick. We started in a cemetery, graduated to local streets, state highways, and finally the interstate. Dad and I knew I wanted a big car. He supported that. Safety. Mom did not want me to have a car because she hadn’t had one/was cheap.
We bought the ’87 Ford LTD Crown Victoria in secret, and hid it at the local storage yard. I took my driving test in that car (way easier to do the backparking required). Then back into hiding until I got a B or higher in a summer math course I agreed to take at a community college to get into AP Calculus. This was the bargain my father negotiated with my mom. I got a B+. The Crown Vic came home. Mom has never been the wiser.
The driving test was easy. The funny part was the drug and alcohol course from a shady driving school in another town. It involved worn 1970s textbooks and videos with a Burgess Meredith-like narrator. The would-be reckless teens were straight from the late 70s, the actors either looked like Burt Reynolds (parents) or members of Sweet. This was 1999-2000 so I’m afraid we did not take it as seriously as we should have done with all the mullets and moustaches.
In our neck of the woods, when cars were too old and beat up for the county motor pool, they ended up as drivers ed cars. In my case, that meant flabby mid-70s stripper Ford Torinos in refrigerator white. The Better Idea Guys at Ford must have run out of ideas, because those Torinos were dreadful.
The attached, in all its hub-capless splendor, looks just like one of the vehicles we were stuck with.
Starsky loved his.