Teens and Cars

My daughter got into a car accident about 3 months ago. Well, she didn’t really get into an accident; instead, her car was hit in the parking lot where she works. Of course, she wasn’t at fault since she wasn’t even in the vehicle and she was lucky in that the person who hit her car was honest and came into the store to let her know.

Three months later, she is finally getting her car repaired. I’m amazed how long it took from the time of the accident until they were willing to fix her car. Since she’s young and doesn’t drive a new car, she doesn’t have full insurance on it. Without full coverage, the insurance company doesn’t help you out. To get them to fix your vehicle, you need to contact the other person’s insurance and do much of the follow-up work yourself. Her car is also a bit older but the body shop doesn’t care about vehicle age and the body work is still expensive.

The main damage to her vehicle was to the plastic bumper covering; it was completely torn off. There were also a few nicks and scrapes on the front fender and the headlight. When she originally took it in for appraisal, the work was going to “just” exceed the value of the car and the insurance company was going to have to write it off. Luckily, the body shop was able to bring the cost down and they didn’t need to take that drastic step. The car has been extremely reliable and it would be unfortunate to have to dispose of such a wonderful machine.

The day finally came. Her car was going in for repair. The insurance company told her that they would have a rental ready but warned her that her current insurance would not cover the rental. She would have to purchase insurance from the rental company. She was fine with having to do this, confident the insurance company actually knew what they were advising. Oh, how naive we can be. She woke up early to head to the body shop as soon as possible so that she would have plenty of time to deal with any complications. Of course, there were some. After dropping her car off and going to get her rental, she was told that she was too young and that they couldn’t sell her the insurance. I’m surprised that the insurance company would even offer her the option of a rental if she couldn’t get it in the first place. It’s unfortunate that body shops don’t give you those, barely running, courtesy vehicles anymore. I remember one time when my parents had to get a vehicle fixed, the body shop gave them a 1974 Ford Thunderbird. That thing was massive and we didn’t drive it unless absolutely necessary. Just starting it used more fuel than any one person can afford. Anyway, there my daughter was, stuck on the other side of town with no vehicle. Thanks to the rental company, her problem was now also mine.

Before she even left to take in her vehicle, I suspected that something like this might happen so I had offered my truck to her if she needed it. It turned out that this offer was now in play. It’s been cold and snowy around here so the roads are icy and I needed to explain how my truck handles on the ice. Basically, if it’s not in four-wheel drive, it doesn’t handle well at all. If you’re at an intersection, it better be a nice calm one because you’re going to spend a lot of time in it just trying to get through before the light turns red. The ice does look pretty once you finally get through though since your spinning wheels have polished it to a perfect shine.

If you are in four-wheel drive, you really have to know what you’re doing when making a turn. If you take it too fast, you’ll find yourself staring at the headlights of the oncoming traffic as they weave back and forth trying to avoid you. Luckily, it’s a truck, so those Fiat 500’s and Cooper Mini’s are the ones doing the evasive maneuvers as you slowly work your way back to your own lane. If you take it too slow, it feels like you’re driving over a log pile as the vehicle jerks and jumps through the turn. Then, you risk a “distracted driving” charge as you attempt to pick up all the stuff that used to be on your center console off of the floor. Finally, I needed to mention that four-wheel drive gets you going quickly but doesn’t help at all with stopping. I decided to demonstrate this by “almost” sliding through the next intersection…my anti-lock brakes chattering away to emphasize my point.

As I’m explaining all of this to her, I’m reminded of exactly how much I love my truck. I suddenly find myself placing a comparison of value between my truck and my daughter. Of course, my daughter is more valuable to me but, is she “drive my truck” valuable or is she “public transit” valuable? I’m suddenly taken back to when I was teaching her to drive to help me with this evaluation.

When she was first learning to drive, ironically, she learned in my truck. I am still proud of myself for how I handled it back then. I remember us driving around the streets in our neighbourhood and her drifting to the right side of the road as oncoming cars approached. While she was doing this I remember there being approximately one pinky finger width between the side mirror of my truck and the mirror of the parked car beside us. In my calmest voice possible, I told her to bring the truck a little more toward the center line before Daddy suffers a heart attack.

As she gained experience driving a large vehicle, I started taking her out in our car — which is now the car she owns and the one that is in the shop. You may be asking why I would use a large vehicle like a pickup truck to teach a teenager to drive? Well, it’s because the truck has an automatic transmission and the car is manual. There’s enough to think about when learning to drive without also having to worry about what your feet are doing, what your hands are doing, what gear you’re supposed to be in, and how the car is responding to it all. Then, once you get all of that under control, you need to figure out how to do it on a hill where all your motions have to be quick and precise so that you don’t roll into the vehicle behind you.

Every time we did a driving lesson with that car, she would end up in tears at some point. Sometimes it was because I took her to a hill and it took her 5 times to get going. Sometimes it was because we stalled 3 times at a light because neither of us realized she was trying to get going in 3rd gear. Other times it was simply due to bad luck where another driver didn’t pay attention to a stop sign and I had to yell out “STOP!”. That was a fun one. We pulled over to the side of the road and cried for a long time. That was truly a therapeutic, bonding moment for both of us. One thing I learned from that experience is, don’t yell “STOP!”; instead yell “BRAKE!”. Of course, this suggests you’re actually thinking about what you’re saying rather than just blurting out words as your life passes before your eyes.

While she was learning to drive that vehicle, she swore that she never wanted to drive it again. She hated manual transmission vehicles and would never own one. Then, when she graduated from high school, we offered it to her. It’s amazing how one’s opinion of a vehicle changes when it’s offered up for free. Now she loves and babies that car. Suddenly, driving a “standard” is cool and she talks like all the other manual transmission drivers out there. She says things like “you have so much more control over your vehicle” and “now I can drive anything”. I make fun of her, but I’m proud that she can drive a vehicle with a manual transmission. Not everyone can, and it seems to be becoming a lost skill.

I’m glad that her vehicle is going to be fixed and that she will be getting her car back. I decided she is “truck worthy” and she hasn’t let me down so far. She is under “truck probation” though and there is no “out of probation” option. I’m just lucky that she is a responsible driver. My parents weren’t so lucky with me…but that’s a whole other story for another time.