How old when you learned to drive?

[VINMAN]

14. I learned on a 63 Chevy p/u with 3 spd on the column. Not the easiest vehicle get started on.

[on2wheels52]

Was driving B John Deere's at 5, '52 Savoy in the government acres and around the farm by 10. Would drive dad to town occasionally before 14, remember switching places once for a (rare) checkpoint.
'NO cars had 1st gear synchros when I learned'
+1
Jim

[71T Targa]

I can remember driving my grandfathers farm truck. He passed away when I was 12 so it was before that.

I had a mini-bike before I could pull the pull start. And when I rode my cousins dirt bike I couldn't touch the ground. I would start it while it was on the kick stand. Get off and put the kick stand up, let the clutch out and jump on when it'd start rolling. I could just reach the foot pegs to be able to shift. I was still jumping the field drive...

I have already started teaching my 12year old step-daughter.

[Tishabet]

13-14, my dad and I had bought a 73 VW Beetle so he could teach me to wrench (this was around 1994, so it was an antique) and he would pick me up at the bus stop at the end of my street (about 3/4 mile from home) and let me drive it home. Learned to drive stick in no time!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

16.

[JavaBrewer]

I was 12. Learned to drive in a '67 VW squareback in the parking lot of my Dad's company. Lot's of stalls that day... A couple weekends back I surprised my 11 yr son with the same driving lesson in my Audi TT. I'll keep this up as a reward system. He loves it and so do I.

[The Gaijin]

I was about 11. My dad says "push in the clutch". I am like - what is a clutch??

Still have the old truck - a 1951 Willys.

[nostatic]

motorcycle? 7 in the desert. 4 wheels - age 12, vw-based dune buggy in the desert.

I have fond memories of the desert...

[Seahawk]

Both my kids, 15 and 13, have been driving my five speed Tacoma for years around the farm. They also have a good handle on the tractors

First time I drove on the interstate I was 14...the guy who helped us get alfalfa hay was sick the day we needed to get the hay. My Dad was desperate since we were getting a great deal.

We left very early in the morning, headed north on 101 down the Conjeo Grade into the valley, about twenty miles one way.

My Dad led with the Ford truck and flat bed, I followed in the El Camino with a small trailer. We made two trips.

That was in 1970/71. I can't even imagine doing that now!

[Zef]

I was 11...in a Chrysler Newport 1971 with the famous 383 four BBL.

[peppy]

I was 15, 1971 f100 3 on the tree. No P/B No P/S.

[RoninLB]

driving at 15

parking cars at the beach club at 16

bar boy at 16

bartender at 18

got laid at 16. First orgy at 25

was pushed off a dock for the first time in SCUBA at 15. Training consisted of reading Dacor regulator instructions. Sunk right to bottom and walked out.

[oldE]

Sometime around 10 years of age, too darn light to get the clutch in on the MF 35 tractor in the hay field, so had to get both feet on the pedal and use the steering wheel for leverage to get the thing to stop (on level ground).

Around 12 or so I guess I 'graduated to the Chev Cheyenne p/u. Dad would say, "Back the truck up to the garage.", so learned to use the mirrors from the start. Sister 4 years older, so we would practice starting, shifting and backing up in the driveway while she was brushing up for her license.

When I took drivers' Ed., the biggest thing I had trouble with was keeping that big old Mercury with the power steering from twitching all over the road, as everything I had driven before that had 'Armstrong power steering".

Skipped a geometry test so I could keep the appointment to take my drivers' test.

Les

[Rikao4]

Had my first wreck at 5.
Dad had a 57 /58 Chevy conv. baby blue + white..the kind that goes for stupid $$ on Barrett.
He was working BOTH sides of the blackmarket.
So in 1959 I climbed thru the back window (zippered ) vroom, play with stick,pull those levers.
Took out a haybarn, lots of farm equipment and beaters by 14.

Rika

[Rob Channell]

One day maybe I'll learn. Right now I don't seem to get enough seat time.......

OK. So maybe I know just a little......

I started offroad at 12 and on road occasionally with increasing frequency as I approached 15 in Dad's 1961 Corvair pickup truck and his 1971 Volvo 164. I really liked the 164 but he got smart and sold it before I turned 16. One of his favorite things to do was make me stop on a hill and restart without killing the engine. I sure wish I could take him for a drive today

[Tim Hancock]

Hell, I couldn't say for sure. Honda 50 at five yelling for dad to come out of the garage and get me stopped when I was done (too short to touch the ground...so no stopping until dad came out).

My best buddy and I drove farm trucks and beater cars in the field at a very young age when my buddies dad was not home (probably 10-12).

[johnco]

first bike at 9 (moped), licensed at 14 with first car by 15(Simca). 15-20 bikes and 200+ cars since then. about 5 or 6 my mother left the keys in the car, I got in, turned the key and since it was in gear, drove thru the carport wall. funny thing is, decades later, while working on my 911, I reached thru the half open window, turned the key to spin it over thinking it was in neutral which it wasn't, and drove into the same wall.

[Normy]

I drove a car for the first time in the summer of 1981.

1980 chevrolet Chevette. Me and my dad started building radio control model airplanes in 1979. My dad, electrical engineer for Detroit Edison....actually learned to fly. He qualified and was accepted as a member of the Toledo Weak Signals Model Airplane Club. That club is fairly prestigious....primarily because of the show that they have every year. In model airplane land, this is the "holy grail" of shows.

Well, as a 13 year old I always climbed into the passenger seat of dad's car. Until that day in 1981:

"I want you to drive" he said to me.

"holy ****" and all went through my mind. At the same time, I wanted this new challenge, and though I would have never considered actually taking my parents cars for a drive, outside of a serious emergency...I wanted to try it out.

We carefully backed the car out. I was curious about how easy it was to get the "feel" of this incredible 65 horsepower device.

I did what dad told me, and suddenly...I'm at the controls of a 2000 pound vehicle traveling 45 miles per hour up a country road in Michigan. It was a Saturday morning, and I am pretty sure that a Dodge Aspen went past us. When we got to the flying field, 4 miles from my home, my dad had to direct me in the proper backing of the car so that we could unload the model planes from the yawning chevette trunk.

-I didn't just learn to drive from that chevette; I learned to fly. I have a Boeing 747 type rating [one of 1900 in the world, according to a magazine~], and 1500 hours in type, most as Captain. But that little car? I learned to drive in that thing. It was the vehicle that taught me that I have proprioceptive senses, something that not everyone has. I am indeed doing the correct job!

[rouxroux]

I was 12...the car was a '62 VW beetle.

[Arizona_928]

13 in my sisters brand new CRV. it was fun