How To Drive

How to Drive

For simplicity's sake we are going to limit the score of this manual to American driving standards. We are going to assume the vehicle has front wheel drive and an automatic transmission. These assumptions are purely to keep this as concise as possible. However much of the information covered here will be universal.

The first step in driving a vehicle is to find your vehicle. You have many options which will offer varying degrees of success. You can try to call your car by name. A simple "Chevy Tahoe, where are you?" will suffice. You must be careful as there are many similar cars and you may get more than one response. The major problem with this method is despite my encouragement automotive manufacturers have yet to create a talking car. Another method you may try is to wander through the parking lot systematically trying your keys in every car; you will eventually get results, but other car owners and police tend to frown upon this method as the car you open may not be your own. This leads me to a point we will discuss later, you should always lock your doors. The third method, and my personal favorite, is to press the buttons located on the small plastic device that accompanies your keys. If your automobile manufacturer did not equip your car with such a luxury, my advice is to remember the general area in which you parked your car. It helps if you have your car smothered in various easily identifiable political bumper stickers. We will car decoration will be discussed in my next volume.

Now that you have found your car, you will open the door. The sequence I recommend is to first insert your key into the keyhole. The keyhole is a small, round, metal hole found in the door. Be certain to only insert the key into the keyhole, otherwise damage to your paint may result. Once the key is inserted, you will twist it to the right with a simple wrist motion. You should feel the door unlock. After the door has been unlocked you can now open it. Opening your door unusually involves lifting the handle in an upward motion. If you are successful the door will open, at which point you will pull it toward yourself. Leaving the door in the open state, you will sit down in your car. Sitting down is accomplished by placing one foot at a time on the floor of the car and eventually positioning your posterior in what is referred to as a seat. Make note that although this is the seat of your car, it is not what is called a car seat. Be sure to close the door once you are seated inside.

Starting your car is very similar to opening your door. To start your car, you insert your key into the keyhole located adjacent to the round object that we will call the steering wheel. Once the key has been inserted you will, with the same motion used to unlock the door, turn the key. You will hold the key in the turned position until the car starts. Starting can be recognized by the engine coming to an idle.

Now that you are inside the car with the vehicle started, it is time to put the vehicle into gear. You will notice that on the floor by your feet there are a series of pedals. In this particular instance there are two pedals; the gas pedal and the brake pedal. The gas pedal is located on the right, will be depressed using your right foot, and is used to make the car accelerate. The brake pedal is on the left and will also be depressed using your right foot. It is used to make the car decelerate and eventually come to a stop. The reason you only use your right foot is two fold. The first reason is it allows your left foot to tap to the rhythm of the music coming from your stereo. Secondly, if you were to depress both the gas and the brake pedals the car would get confused and this would more than likely end in an accident. The shift lever is located down and to your right on the center console. It has a series of letters that correspond to the position it is in. The letter we are going to use right now is R. The letter R stands for reverse. To put the car in reverse, you must first apply brakes. With the brakes applied, you depress the button affixed to the shift lever and pull it toward yourself until you see it line up with the letter R. Now that the car is in reverse, if you remove your foot from the brakes the car will move in reverse. While the car is moving backward, you should then turn the previously mentioned steering wheel to the right, which is the direction the rear of the car will go. Take special care not to turn