These Are The Pieces Of Car Advice You’d Give To Younger Drivers

Despite what everyone says, the Jalopnik audience seems to be pretty sensible. We asked you to share your most sage advice for younger drivers, and you did not let us down. It warms my heart to see that Jalopnik has an audience that knows how to be respectful and responsible road users. If you want to regain some faith in humanity, or at least in the Jalopnik readership, go back and read through all the other comments.

My colleague Collin answered the question by saying that you always need to wear your seatbelt, which is sage advice, but I think my younger self would benefit from hearing that owning an expensive or cool or fast car doesn’t necessarily make you a cool or good person. As an impressionable teenage automotive enthusiast, I often idolized the stereotypical “cool” cars, to the point that I was unreasonably cocky when I got my first car. I bought a 2005 Saab 9-3 cabriolet, and I thought it instantly made me cool, and honestly better than drivers of the German alternatives because I bought the left-of-center car instead of the stereotypical compact luxury car segment. Thankfully life teaches me lessons early and it rapidly developed a catastrophic fault that forced me to junk it and buy a brown 2003 Honda CR-V that humbled me thoroughly. Anyway, these are some of my favorite pieces of advice that you’d offer younger drivers.

Your trip will ALWAYS take longer than you think it will, so leave earlier. Rushed drivers are bad drivers who make mistakes. Driving is not the time to shave, eat, do your make-up, or any of the other things you should have done before starting the car.

Basically, successful adults know how to budget their time effectively.

Submitted by: Randy Velarde’s Bum

I’ll be teaching my kids to drive in a few years. First things first, is to put the phone in the glove box.

I will also teach them how to change a tire and basic maintenance such as wiper replacement, air and engine filter replacement.

Submitted by: Minivanman

Not just for teens but all drivers: in the words of Cat Stevens, “just relax, take it easy”.

I think people just being in too much of a hurry is a cause for a lot of road problems. I see way too many people going 20, 30 or more over the speed limit, weaving through traffic, etc all just to go to work, the grocery store, or some other mundane destination that you really don’t want to go to anyway. What is your hurry? Do you not realize all of that speeding and added risk is going to save you maybe a couple of minutes? Is it worth it?

Submitted by: Thomas Hajicek

If you’re doing anything illegal or even close to it, keep it out of your car. You have constitutional protections inside your home that don’t exist in a car.

Submitted by: RWP

Build habits. Always use your blinker when changing lanes. Even if it’s 3am and you KNOW there’s nobody around you. It should be automatic. You never know when it’s the 1/1000 chance when it will save your life — or someone else’s, like a motorcyclist approaching quickly.

Let People In. When merging, you are not going to get to your destination any faster by not letting that car (or big rig) in before you.

Give memorable, not preachy, advice. I’ll never forget my dad telling me one time that racecar drivers are some of the most boring, plain drivers on the road. They have seen firsthand what can go wrong and don’t take chances. This comment has stuck with me more than any other little piece of advice I can remember.

It’s not about you, it’s about them. Drive like you expect others to mess up. Right of way doesn’t mean anything when you t-bone someone. Just because you are in the right, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect other drivers to be idiots (they are). This is especially key when going through intersections. Always be ready for someone turning into the lane you’re in, even when they shouldn’t.

Submitted by: Globemaster

Look both ways before you pull out from an intersection when the light turns green. Running red lights is epidemic. I can’t tell you the number of times that a simple, quick glance has saved me from getting broadsided by some jabroni that has no intention of stopping

Submitted by: dinovelvet

When driving, remember to drive for yourself AND others. Because others aren’t paying attention to the road.

Submitted by: DocFunk22

All those signs on the road about stopping, yielding and speed limits aren’t there as suggestions or decoration, they’re instructions. Follow them.

Submitted by: Alf Enthusiast

If we’re talking manual, then my advice would be ‘Too much throttle is better than not enough’. Saved me a huge amount of headache when leaving from a stop. Sure, I did a peg leg burnout ever once in a while, but I cut back on my stalling and restarting at a redlight significantly.

If it’s an automatic, my advice would be ‘Sell this and buy a manual.’

Submitted by: KillingTime

My grandfather instilled in his grandkids never to let your gas tank get below 1/4 tank. The rationale was that it gave you a cushion so that you’d never run out of gas, but the primary reason was you never know when an emergency may arise where you need to get somewhere right then, and in an emergency to get to someone or somewhere, you don’t want to have to delay yourself and have to stop for gas.

Submitted by: Wes

Lots of advice on driving specifically here, so I’ll pick a different area.

1) That $500+ a month car note, especially over 5 or more years, is going to make you unhappy a lot more than the ‘new car’ feel is going to make you happy. Especially for your first few cars, buy used but relatively modern (within 10 years), with a reputation for reliability, and inexpensive.

2) Keep track of and keep up with routine maintenance needs. Prevention often costs way less than fixing stuff after it goes wrong.

Submitted by: Connor Paull