I did. This summer. Yes, I spent a decent part of my summer taking driving lessons only to culminate in failing my road test. And yes, I'm turning 21 in 2 weeks. One thing I learned, through driving at least four different cars this summer is that no matter what anyone says, every car is VERY different. The steering wheel, pedals, mirrors, signals, and many other things work the same or similarly. The biggest problem I had was with the ignition. To those of you who are better versed in cars than I am, I'm sorry if I botch names of things. What I'm talking about is the spot in the car that the driver (or often in my case, the person starting the car) puts the key and turns it.
I was led to believe before trying it myself that if I simply put the key in the ignition and turn it and voila, the car will start. After trying, and trying, and trying, I still had no luck. I was given many suggestions ranging from push the key in while you turn it to pull it out a little because otherwise something is locked. Very few of these worked. Often I had to try many of these suggestions in combination to get the key to turn even a little bit. I then felt like a fool each time someone else would get in the car and start it without thinking twice.
Looking at the ignition, or the area around the keyhole there are many words or abbreviations. Sometimes something will also say push or turn. Usually one of the words is lock or unlock. The problem there is that if the key wont turn to that position, it usually won't unlock. What the small words around the keyhole don't say are the tricks and often necessities to start a car. Between the four cars I drove there were different methods to making the key actually turn and start the car. In one car I needed to unlock the wheel or turn it slightly as I tried to turn my key. In the driving school car I needed to have my foot on the break for the car to start. Another car required me to press in the area surrounding the key with my fingers as I turned the key with my thumb.
It seems simple to have a hole with a key cut to fit in the hole. As a small child I played with a toy like that. I had different blocks to fit in different shaped holes. The key going into the ignition isn't the problem though. The problem is actually getting the ignition to do what its intended use is and start the car. After many trials and tribulations, I managed to figure out the trick to each and every car I drove. Sometimes I just wish there had been an instruction manual to starting a car.
~Marin
I was led to believe before trying it myself that if I simply put the key in the ignition and turn it and voila, the car will start. After trying, and trying, and trying, I still had no luck. I was given many suggestions ranging from push the key in while you turn it to pull it out a little because otherwise something is locked. Very few of these worked. Often I had to try many of these suggestions in combination to get the key to turn even a little bit. I then felt like a fool each time someone else would get in the car and start it without thinking twice.
Looking at the ignition, or the area around the keyhole there are many words or abbreviations. Sometimes something will also say push or turn. Usually one of the words is lock or unlock. The problem there is that if the key wont turn to that position, it usually won't unlock. What the small words around the keyhole don't say are the tricks and often necessities to start a car. Between the four cars I drove there were different methods to making the key actually turn and start the car. In one car I needed to unlock the wheel or turn it slightly as I tried to turn my key. In the driving school car I needed to have my foot on the break for the car to start. Another car required me to press in the area surrounding the key with my fingers as I turned the key with my thumb.
It seems simple to have a hole with a key cut to fit in the hole. As a small child I played with a toy like that. I had different blocks to fit in different shaped holes. The key going into the ignition isn't the problem though. The problem is actually getting the ignition to do what its intended use is and start the car. After many trials and tribulations, I managed to figure out the trick to each and every car I drove. Sometimes I just wish there had been an instruction manual to starting a car.
~Marin
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