ADD SOME CAR CARE TO THE
DRIVING LESSONS THESE HOLIDAYS
by Paul Marinelli
The summer school holidays for older teenagers allow many opportunities for driving lessons as they hone their motoring skills and develop more confidence behind the wheel. The better weather generally allows for longer drives and more experience with highway driving, which is very important for young drivers to practice in both the day and the night in wet and dry weather conditions. Something that tends to be overlooked throughout the lengthy Learner Driver period is for our newest drivers to be taught some car care and safety check fundamentals prior to taking to the road on their own. Even though modern cars from the lowest cost economy models upwards are equipped with reliable engine and electronic system monitoring when there are potential issues, this should not detract from teaching our newest drivers the car care basics. This ensures that they have the ability to check and deal with relatively minor mechanical issues if necessary.
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Things like regularly checking water, oil, tyre pressures (and how to refer to the optimum manufacturer specified levels) along with the correct function of all vehicle lighting. More importantly, the ability to remove and replace a flat tyre - or to refill a tyre in the case of there being no factory spare, is also a relatively easy skill that is totally neglected these days. Sadly many of our younger drivers these days have no idea if their car even has a spare tyre! People all too often say “How long has it been since you had a flat tyre?” but even if it has been years, none of us want to see a young driver stranded due to an issue which can be so easily fixed without the need for outside assistance. Even with roadside emergency services now being abundantly available for new and for older cars, having some background knowledge in relation to how a car operates, along with some fundamentals of the easier automotive maintenance items is never a bad thing for young drivers.
