MAUREEN is a nickname that is hard to shift when you have failed your driving test five times like me. Like most people in my position, I can tell everyone until I am blue in the face that I am nothing like the old woman from Cardiff who shot to fame on a reality TV show because her driving was so bad - but they don't believe me.
The truth is I can actually drive and I really enjoy it, it is just that I hate exams and always seem to mess it up on the day. But recently I discovered something that might just be the answer to my prayers - the automatic car.
I went out for a lesson with Rob Vawse from Pontefract who often teaches in an automatic. It didn't matter that I was a bit rusty, having not driven for over two years, because unlike driving a manual car with gears, there is not much to concentrate on other than the all important road.
Don't get me wrong, I did miss the gears at first, but when I realised I wasn't hyperventilating every time I got to a roundabout, I soon got over that.
Clutch control is another thing you don't have to worry about because the car does it all for you, so that would be one less thing to worry about on the day of your driving test as well. And even manoeuvres, which I have never had a problem with, seemed to be a lot easier.
Automatic cars have traditionally had a stigma attached to them because people tend to think that there is no real skill to driving them - personally, I don’t have a problem with that if it takes some of the stress out of the driving test and gives me a better chance of getting my hands on a licence.
One thing to be aware of is that you cannot drive a manual car if you pass your test in an automatic, but you still have your pick of cars on the market, and it is not something that would bother me as long as I had the all important piece of paper that was my ticket to never having to get on a bus again!
The above article was featured in the Pontefract & Castleford Express on 6th January 2009.
