Every skilled driver in the world was once a beginner…
When you are new to the driving world, many mistakes could occur even though you’re being careful and you might experience new problems.
Sometimes you might take a few things for granted and forget to do them even though they’re really important for your safety and comfort.
Thus, learning about those basics or reminding yourself of them every now and then is always a great choice for your own safety and to ensure the least damage to your car especially if you ever decide to sell your used car.
Excited to go through those helpful tips?!
Let’s vrooooom right into it:
1. Seats Adjustment:
To make driving a safer and more comfortable journey even on short trips, you should start by adjusting your seat. Once you hop in your car this step should be your priority.
- Height:
Tall or short, no problem you can always readjust the seats to meet your personal preference. Just make sure you can see the dashboard, mirrors, and road clearly. If your car doesn’t have the height adjustment feature, use a cushion or use a car seat booster (yes, just like the one we have for little kids)
- Seat Incline:
I know, it’s cool to sit there leaning back like a boss, but safety is more important…
The seat incline should be at about 100 – 110 degrees.
- Headrest:
Well, yes this is also important to prevent any serious injury under any condition. Just keep your head right in the middle of the headrest and you shall be fine.
2. Mirrors:
Continue the series of adjustments with your mirrors, to avoid accidents.
- Driver Seat Mirror:
Lean left to the mirror’s side and try to get as close to the window as possible, then reposition the mirror to the point where you can see everything behind you clearly.
- Passenger Seat Mirror:
Again, repeat the same action you did with the driver’s seat one, but this time you’ll lean to the right and tilt your head to be in between the front seats.
- Rearview Mirror:
It’s always a good idea to take a few seconds of your time to check the rearview mirror and adjust it to get that perfectly centered view before starting your trip.
Though it seems like a dull and default thing to do, but trust me this mirror can be tricky as it gets bumped and repositioned during the whole drive.
3. Hands:
As simple as it seems, hands positioning is one of the most important safety tips to consider…
- Have at least 30 cm of space between you and the dashboard.
- Put your hands slightly lower than your shoulders.
- Hands-on the steering wheel the whole time. Don’t drive with one hand and use the other to eat, drink, or make a phone call as this might cause a big accident.
- Both hands should be positioned on the wheel one on each side of the center of the steering wheel.
- Just like a clock, you can use the 3 and 9 hand positioning as we mentioned, or the 4 and 8 position if you like it more. However, you should never go for the 2 and 10 positioning as this could pose a problem when you need to at any point take a sharp turn or if there is an accident ahead of you.
Those are probably things you do every day without thinking, but reminding yourself of them can always be handy. Better safe than sorry!
4. Parking:
The ultimate challenge of all time…
Parking your car is a repetitive action that you have to go through every day, so why don’t we learn a few things to help us land perfectly and comfortably in the parking lot.
- 45 Degrees Parking:
Use this method whenever you are in slanted parking places. Just make sure you’re going down the right aisle way, then you will find the parking spots slanted towards you. If they’re not facing you, then you’re probably not on the right track and parking will be tiring as you’ll have to go back and forth a lot.
- Backing Into the Parking:
Also known as the ‘Garage Parking’. Some parking places may force you to park backwards or you may want to park that way so it is easier when you have to get out. In any case, to do that you need to locate the spot first and drive 2 spots past it. Then flip on the blinkers or use your indicators to signal the side where the parking spot is before going in reverse to warn drivers around you that you are trying to park. Look around while going backwards to make sure no one is approaching you from any side or if anyone is walking behind your car. You will know when to stop reversing when you line-up with the other cars perfectly. Sometimes the parking will have stoppers on the floor to prevent you from hitting the wall, or you can use your back camera if your car has one.
- Parallel Parking:
Now we’ve come to the type of parking that many drivers hate. Sometimes they might drive a mile away from where they want to park just to avoid it.
Is it a problem for you too?
Then follow those few easy steps to help you park parallel like a professional:
- Make sure your car will fit into the spot.
- The spot you’re about to park in should be no less than one and a half times the length of your car.
- If there are two cars; one behind and one in front of the parking spot, drive forward until you line up next to the front car or slightly further if your car is bigger than the standard size.
- Drive backward in a straight line until you can see the back of the car next to you.
- Now, turn the steering wheel to the right (if the parking is on the right side) and slowly drive back into the spot.
- Once you can see the full front of the car behind you, straighten the steering and reverse the car in a straight line.
- While reversing, use the right-side mirror to spot the taillights of the front car.
- Saw them?! Great, now turn the steering wheel to the left one last time and keep on reversing till you’re parked in a straight way and you’re done parking.
Easier said than done, we know. But remember practice makes perfect.
Now that you know the whole deal, why don’t you go out there and practice parking many times until you master it?
Hooray!! Now you can drive like experts…
Basics are always the simplest yet most important things for a safe and comfortable drive. Now let’s get driving, shall we?