OK, so the sign and the car that CC Cohort runningonfumes shot don’t quite match up. But what a fine sign it is. So here’s a chance to reminisce about Driver’s Ed. What car did you drive? And did you have simulators? Like these:
Here’s a group heading out in 1953. Look at how they’ve got their hands on the gear shift. Did it jerk back if you dumped the clutch?
Or maybe something a bit more modern, like this one. Yes, that could be me, at Towson High’s excellent Driver Ed facility, except my hair is too short. “I’m going to nail that guy stepping into the street!” Looks like a Mopar steering wheel to me, with an automatic. When did they stop teaching on manuals?
And here’s what I drove around Loch Raven Reservoir, on my first legal drive. Same color too. I was already seventeen and a half, since my parents’ punishment for getting caught driving at fifteen was to postpone my license until eighteen. They relented six months early. But I had two years of regular practice in between.
I made up some BS story to the Driver Ed teacher that I had already had a learner’s permit in Iowa, and was an experienced (legal) driver. So he spared me the first drive in the parking lot, and just had me head out. The brand new Chevy’s 350/THM combo was buttery smooth, and by 1970, big Chevys finally had decent sized 15″ tires, and handled unlike those of yore. Not that I pushed it hard on that trip. I was determined to give him a ride fit for the pope, and the Impala was an obliging partner. He never asked me to drive again. Too bad; nothing more boring than to have to ride around in the back of a Driver’s Ed car on a summer day. I should have pretended to be a nincompoop.
Ah, drivers ed. The car was a ’69-’70 fuselage Plymouth Fury (like just about every government car in NJ at the time – did someone at Chrysler have some major dirt on a bunch of NJ politicians?). It mostly amounted to driving around town (and no experience driving around traffic circles! in NJ! in 1971!), but we did get a stint on a newly-opened section of I-295. I still remember George Masters’ advice for entering onto freeways. “Now, I’m not telling you to burn rubber on the entrance ramp, but dammit, give it enough gas to get going highway speed before you try to merge.” Good advice then and good advice now.
My high school had a deal with the local Ford dealer; they leased the district new cars every year for a token sum in exchange for sponsorship of the driver’s ed program. (“Courtesy of Roy O’Brien Ford, St. Clair Shores, MI.”) The car I mostly drove was a new ’78 Granada, light blue 4-door with radio delete and (I assume) the 200 six. The other cars had AM radios, and I imagine the instructor, who was also the shop teacher, would have had an aneurysm if anyone tuned the radio away from WJR.
The day we did freeway driving, it was in a yellow Fairmont with 4-banger and, of course, automatic. A lovely powertrain for merging, especially for the first time. The instructor actually told me to floor it! Other cars were an LTD II and full-size LTD (just imagine some little high school girl learning to drive in THAT), all 4-doors, all new ’78s. Not a bad way to go, I suppose.
I had the pleasure of being in one of the last drivers ed classes taught free in my public school district. Picture overcrowded classes of about 40 students in a non air conditioned high school in July 1995. Classes were 3 hours long, half watching inane videos and half idling around cones in the parking lot. Even with classes at 6, 9, 12, and 3 there was still a waiting list to get in, I was lucky, I got in. Being in Dearborn, MI the cars were of course Fords donated by the hometown company 7 Tempos and 1 Contour, I believe this was a preproduction, I don’t think these were available to the public yet. With the teacher to student ratio I believe I spent maybe 15 minutes total on the actual road not going on any road with a speed limit over 35. Worse yet at this time Michigan did not require a road test to get your full unrestricted license, just a quickie written test, and to have reached 16.
When I was growing up we had a summer cottage on a private dirt road, shared by 5 families. From the age of 14 or so most kids were allowed to drive the family cars back & forth the mile or so to the main road. Much gravel was rearranged once you were out of sight & earshot of home. So I guess I learned to drive mostly in a 1964 Rambler American – a surprisingly gutsy little car with a 232 six and a 3 speed automatic. More rarely, my father let me drive his car, a 65 Galaxie XL with the 390 V-8. Man, did that thing rattle on dirt roads. It was also a real challenge to get it turned around without ending up in a ditch – but it probably taught me good maneuvering & parking skills.
In Nova Scotia in the 1960’s, ‘driver’s ed’ was something you saw only on TV. As soon I was 16, I got my Learner’s license & pestered my parents to let me drive as much as possible. With my summers of ‘practice’, I got my actual licence about 2 months after my 16th birthday.
No drivers ed here I learnt in an Austin Gypsy then a landrover at 13 took my test 1 month after my 15th birthday in a Morris Minor full licence issued at 15 no restrictions I was a god
Being jealous of all the marvelous american Icons you drove, I got my drivers’ license in July 1993 with a simple Citroën ZX 1.9D, which is a car that has mostly vanished from our roads.
I also remember that while taking my classes, the C32 (then A16) motorway (from Barcelona to Sitges) had just been opened but my teacher insisted in using the old C245 clogged road.
First gen 4 cylinder Dodge minivan. Actually a good thing to start on, as you can see the corners easily, and it was gutless, so people had to get over any fear of stomping on it.
The highlight of “Ace Driving School” was a movie I can’t believe nobody mentioned already.
“MECHANIZED DEATH”
http://documentaryheaven.com/mechanized-death-%E2%80%93-legendary-driving-safety-film/
“Legendary ‘shock’ driving safety film featuring numerous scenes of mutilated cars and injured/dead people and a voice over lacking in compassion.”
I took driver’s ed in the summer of 1968. The car was a new light blue Impala, with a brake pedal on the passgenger side. We had the simulators, too.
We watched quite a few films. These really made quite an impact on me. The most notorious of these was “Signal 30”. It showed actual crash scenes with mutilated and dead people; very effective. Driving is serious business.
Wanna see it again?
http://archive.org/details/0869_Signal_30_07_00_59_00
In the L.A. city school system in 1964, we had a two-fer instruction sequence. First, the classroom only Drivers’ Ed, which was lecture and blood and gore films (which were mostly made in the ’40’s, and seemed antiquated even then). Second, the Aetna-sponsored Drivers’ Training, which was a long, long trailer equipped with the little mini-cars and the front projection driving films, then sessions behind the real wheel. We had two cars, a bare bones beater ’57 Ford Custom (which I had the luck of the draw to be assigned to), and a ’64 Studebaker Lark, I think it was. The old Ford had the additional brake pedal in the passenger footwell, where the instructor was ready to clomp down whenever we went astray. I can remember one girl doing something that required quick action by the instructor, and that extra brake pedal nearly went through the floor, throwing the rest of us in the back seat around like being in a washing machine (no seat belts in those days). I think she was too unnerved to continue that day. Beyond the Drivers’ Training instruction, I learned to drive in my father’s ’61 Ford Falcon, not unlike the featured model here (minus the Twilight Zone accoutrements, mind you).
Anybody still reading? Two 75 Dodge Dart 2 doors, slant sixes, one red w/ black top and one pastel blue w/ white top, both with dual controls. I learned to parallel park and drive in my mom’s 72 Estate Wagon. I read above about someone backing a Town and Country into a tree. I did it too, into a telephone pole, with the tail gate up and the window open.
The driving school I went to used late ’80s vintage Dodge Omnis, all of them in that horrible beige/brown color Chrysler used back then. It was years before I was able to parallel park a normal sized car. By the time I took Driver’s Ed in 1993, they were thoroughly thrashed and would diesel for about five minutes after you shut them down.
Summer of ’76. I’m a November birthday too. ’76 Pontiac Astre, and ’76 Granada. Both automatics with brake pedals for the instructor. The Granada supposedly had a 351, but didn’t have much power. The Astres were slow, rough and noisy. At the high school (suburban Maryland) with Phys. Ed. teachers who yelled a lot.
Brand spanking new 1957 Chevy, silver in color, with cardboard door panels.
Free at the high school. New York state.
Little comprehension at the time that these cars would somehow turn into “classics”.
Dark blue Citation with a broken driver’s seat adjuster. Your two choices were all the way back or all the way forward. At 5’4″, I had to settle for all the way forward…
Mine were 1992 Chevy Berrettas from the Sears driving school pool. I was not cool like the year before where they had brand new 3rd gen Camaros.
Although Dad taught me to drive in the family cars starting at age 8 with the ’69 Chevelle.
a blue 1974 dodge dart swinger .learned on the streets of brooklyn ny. if you could not parallel park you stayed home
DMan:
Biking on 395 twice a year…I envy you!
Actually, the Bishop car dealers have consolidated and expanded over the 40 years. Eastern Sierra was Ford-Lincoln-Mercury and added Mazda in the mid-late 70s. Virgil Oyler was Chevy-Olds-Cadillac-Datsun. Perry was Buick-Pontiac-GMC-AMC and added Toyota and Honda in the late 70s. Luther was Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth, Economy was International Harvester-Jeep, and Bishop Volkswagen was…Volkswagen.
Oyler burned down in the late 70s, turned out to be arson and the subsequent investigation revealed massive fraud. All their franchises went to Perry, which suddenly had all of GM, Datsun, Toyota and Honda.
Economy folded around the time International discontinued the Scout, and Perry got the Jeep franchise.
Bishop VW went under in the early-mid 80s and nobody picked up that franchise.
And sometime in the last decade, Luther (which got Jeep after Chrysler bought it) closed its doors. You can’t buy a Chrysler product in town anymore.
My driver ed car – was a 1978 Chevy Nova.
No simulators used then (about 1979). Did see the classic accident movie, Red Asphalt, though.
1996 Oldsmobile Ciera sedan, Medium Adriatic Blue Metallic with blue cloth. And a second brake pedal on the passenger side. It drove rather nice, and was only a year or so old at the time. I took driver’s ed classes through a company during the summer, not through school.
I actually had two drivers ed cars when I took lessons, because they came in two sets of sessions, ones early in the year and ones later on in the year through the same course plan in the same school, and the instructor bought a new car.
In the early section my instructor had an ’05 Pontiac Sunfire which decided to short out it’s alternator one afternoon when I was out on the road. It was kind of funny, watching every single warning light come on over the course of 15 minutes. I remember having a hard time adjusting to that car after learning to drive in an ’85 Mercury Topaz that had a very heavy accelerator pedal. The Sunfire had a light one that I always forgot about and I’d spin the tires the first time I hit the gas.
During the second set we had a brand new 2010 Ford Focus, which was very similar to the Topaz, actually. Hard to see out of though, and ultimately boring, although the ABS test was quite fun, as I’d never used ABS before in a car. Sounded like someone running a wooden spoon up a giant coil spring.
A 2001-ish Pontiac Sunfire coupe. What a stupid car. Drove like 1982, terrible on-the-floor seating position and the lowest-bidder plastic interior creaked over every bump. Thing only had like 12,000 miles on it, too.
The state of Ohio required 12 hours of on-the-road training in that thing. Ugh.
Oddly enough, that was one of the “it” cars for cheerleader types I knew at the time.
Not long after I got my license, the local driving school acquired a new Mustang. Not a GT, but still.
Of course we cant talk about drivers ed without talking about drivers ed instructors, ourse was Coach T. All the patience and sympathy of a hardened 30 year Marine Corps drill instructor, without any of the warmth. Short, mustache, mesh baseball cap, mirrored sunglasses, the full regalia. I dont know how his clipboard would survive a semester, cause he was always throwing it and slamming it against the floor
I took Driver’s Ed in the early part of 1988 in Worcester, MA. At the time, IIRC, Massachusetts would let you get a learner’s permit at 16, a driver’s license at 16 ½ if you had taken driver’s ed, and a license without having taken driver’s ed at 17. I had just turned 17 when I took driver’s ed, however. If the preceding is correct, I don’t think I needed to take driver’s ed to get a license, but if that’s the case, I don’t remember why I took it. Maybe it was to get as insurance discount (as others have stated), or maybe my parents thought I needed the experience. I think there was a written test to get a learner’s permit, then a road test to get a license.
I took Driver’s Ed at a school called Safety First Driving School. My recollection is that some high schools offered driver’s ed at the school, while others didn’t. I think the Worcester public schools didn’t, while the public schools in some of the suburban towns did. I went to a Catholic high school with no access to any public school driver’s ed, so it was driving school for me. The course had classroom and road components; there were no simulators. As with others, I remember watching a bunch of movies, most of which seemed like they were pretty old; I remember the title “Mechanized Death”. I also remember watching a movie about how cars were built and how they worked which appeared to have been made in the late ‘50s or early ‘60s. I recall thinking that most current-day cars (in 1988) really weren’t built and didn’t work like the cars depicted in the movie.
All of my driving school road time was behind the wheel of an early ‘80s Chevy Malibu sedan. It was definitely an automatic, and I’m sure it was a V6. My parents also let me practice driving in my mom’s ’87 Plymouth Sundance. My dad’s vehicle at the time was a ’76 Ford Club Wagon, and they weren’t about to let me behind the wheel of that (my mom didn’t even like to drive it).
When it came time to take my road test, the person from the driving school showed up not with the Malibu, but with a Chevy Celebrity that I had never driven before. That may or may not have contributed to my failing the test. Scanning the posts above me, it looks like I’m only the second person here to ‘fess up to failing on their first try.
I couldn’t really tell you whether the different car played a role, because I don’t know exactly why I failed the test. Most people I’ve talked to over the years who failed on their first attempt were well aware that they had committed one or two egregious errors; these were typically pointed out on the spot, and in some cases the road test was terminated right then and there. In my case, the road test continued to its conclusion, I didn’t think I had done anything wrong, and nothing was said to me until the test was completed. At first, I thought I had passed. At that point, the person conducting the test said something to the effect of “I think you need more practice”. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was failing me, not just giving me some general advice. (This was all he said to me. I was never explicitly told “you failed” or “you didn’t pass”.) The person from the driving school then said something to the effect of “Sorry, better luck next time” and drove away, leaving me standing there outside the RMV office.
When I arrived home – I took the bus – my parents were not happy. On one hand, I think they found my story somewhat implausible. On the other, I think they were also upset that things really could have happened the way I described them. My mother actually called both the driving school and the registry, and managed to talk to the person who had conducted my road test. He confirmed my story but gave her a list of several things I had done wrong, none of which I remembered doing – which isn’t to say I didn’t do them – and none of which were pointed out to me during or after the test.
To this day I’m not sure what the deal was. Did the guy feel that I did no one major thing wrong (so he said nothing during the test and let it run to its conclusion) but looked sufficiently uncomfortable behind the wheel (remember that I was taking the test on a car I had never driven before) that he couldn’t in good conscience pass me, and then just made up a bunch of stuff to get my mother off the phone? Did I actually do all of that stuff, but he found no one thing worthy of pointing out, yet by the end of the test it had all added up to the point where he felt he had to fail me, but he still didn’t feel the need to tell me any of the things I had done wrong? Was it just his style to fail people without giving them any feedback as to what they did wrong? Did he have a quota to meet, and anything less than perfect on that day was going to get you failed? (FWIW, it was the end of the month.)
After some further practice with my parents – I had no further involvement with the driving school – I took the road test a second time, in the Sundance, and passed.
My Driver’s Ed car was a 1976 brown Ford Granada. Very mundane, automatic with a straight six. No extra Driver ED equipment besides an extra brake pedal on the passenger side. My instructor, Mr Trautwein, retired the year after I took the course. I doubt there was any connection between the two…
Like another commenter above, a blue 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger. Tow other students and I shared afternoons driving her for two weeks I believe, on the streets of uptown Toronto. Two brothers owned the driving school – Scotland Driving School, on St. Clair Av. They were contracted by Pro Drivers to provide in car instruction. The mornings they (Pro Drivers) taught us in a classroom. I think I kept my notebook from that class, if so, it’s in a box somewhere.
“West Middlesex High School Driver Ed Ford Falcon…Courtesy of Stiver Chevrolet-Oldsmobile.” I can hear the students complain, “That ancient Ford was terrible. When I get my license, I want a new car. I’ll go to Stiver’s and check out the new Vega or a 98 Regency….” It pays to advertise!