How old were you when you first drove?

[bugo]

I was 11.  It was on the access road from Irons Fork Lake to CR 70 in Polk County, Arkansas.  The road is a narrow low speed gravel road.  It was in a white 1980 Ford Fairmont station wagon with a 200 cid I-6.  I kept locking up the brakes every time my dad would comment on my driving.  After that, he would let me drive on the forest service roads south of Mena.  One lane roads with grassy "medians" and zero traffic.  Once we were driving on a forest service road that forded a creek.  I panicked while I was in the middle of the creek, and the car got stuck.  We had to walk about 5 miles out of the woods to make it to a state highway.  We got a ride into town and came out and pulled the car out of the creek.  Now I know not to stop when driving through a natural ford (I got a Ford stuck in a ford.)  By the time I got my permit/restricted license at age 14 I was a veteran driver.  I also had a 5 HP go kart at age 9 or 10, and so I already knew how to drive the first time I took the wheel.  The go kart also taught me how to push the limits.  I tried to flip that thing but I couldn't.  By the time I was 16 I drove like a bat out of hell, but I was good enough at driving to know how to drive at limits.  My first car was a 1980 Mercury Cougar XR-7 with a 302/5.0 (actually 4.9L) V8 bored .030 over (it wasn't as impressive as it sounds, as it came with a 2bbl carb and about 150 HP.)  It had a first year AOD transmission, which was terrible.  I eventually put a C4 transmission in it and while it was much quicker and didn't slip as much, it was taching about 3000 RPM at 55 MPH.  But learning to drive at such an early age was very beneficial to me.  I hope that if I ever have kids I can teach them to drive in a similar matter.

[golden eagle]

As far as learning to drive, probably 13. I was licensed at 16. My first drive by myself was just a couple of months later.

[kphoger]

14 years old, under my dad's teaching before entering driver's ed.  I got my learner's permit shortly before turning 15.  I learned to drive on a 1988 Toyota Camry with a five-speed.

[1995hoo]

15 years 8 months to the day, i.e. the day I got my learner's permit. After I got the permit my mom took me to the car park at my high school (WT Woodson in Fairfax, Virginia) and let me drive her car (a 1988 Volvo 740 sedan) a little bit there. Later that week my father started teaching me the five-speed on his 1982 Honda Accord and I had that car on the Beltway within the week.

Neither of my parents ever let either my brother or me drive before we got our permits, but living in Northern Virginia I couldn't argue with that. They DID let me drive most of the way to New York when we went to visit relatives in April that year (a month and a half before I hit 16), but they made me pull off at the last service area prior to the Goethals Bridge so my father could drive into Brooklyn. I understand apparently New York City law prohibits (or at least prohibited back then) anyone under 18 from driving even with a valid out-of-state license.

[signalman]

Growing up in northern NJ I never got the oportunity to drive on rural roads before I had my learner's permit.  Once I got my permit at 16, I drove my dad's 1986 Chevy Celebrity a bit, but more often I'd practice in my car (I bought my car as I was geting my permit).  My first car was a 1990 Toyota Camry 5 speed.  I drove all over with dad in the car in all different types of weather and driving conditions.  By the time I got my license I had perfected clutchless shifting.  My first solo journey was right after I obtained my license. 

[KEK Inc.]

15

[Biff858]

About 11.  My dad would sit me on his lap behind the wheel of his '73 Buick LeSabre- and sometimes the '80 Olds Delta 88 Diesel Station Wagon.  He'd control the brake and gas and would let me steer as we would cruise slowly around our subdivision.  Later on, around age 14 we'd go out driving and he'd let me drive around town on the secondary roads before I got my learner's permit at age 15.  Got my DL at 16.

[Takumi]

14 or so. Got my learner's permit at 15, license at 19.

[Sanctimoniously]

I drove for the first time when I was thirteen. . .right into a tree in my mom's Kia Sephia. I generally avoided trying to drive until I started drivers' ed when I was sixteen. I got my permit after that and my full license when I was twenty.

[kphoger]

My first solo long-distance trip was during my senior year of high school, when I drove from our home in Atwood (KS) to Denver International Airport.  I left before dawn (in time to catch a flight to Chicago, which was also my first solo airplane trip), and it was 220 miles one way.

My first introduction to city traffic was while I was still driving on a learner's permit.  Denver, CO, during rush hour.  I still hate traffic.

[hbelkins]

Early teens, I'm sure, driving my grandmother's old 55 Pontiac around our field and the oil field road in the woods back behind our place. I also got to shift the column shift on my dad's old 40-something pickup and my mom's 57 Chevy Two-Ten (three on the tree).

Got my permit by taking the written test as soon as possible after my 16th birthday, but couldn't actually drive until the spring, because we had a very bad winter that year and the road (a main Kentucky state highway) stayed snow-covered until the end of February/beginning of March.

Got my license and later that day our family headed out on vacation to Nashville. I remember being disappointed that my dad wouldn't let me drive on the Cumberland Parkway.

[Takumi]

The first vehicle I drove was my dad's mid 90s Ford Ranger, which is a stick shift. I wasn't very good at it, of course, so I didn't pick manual up again until my early 20s.

[vdeane]

Growing up in northern NJ I never got the oportunity to drive on rural roads before I had my learner's permit.  Once I got my permit at 16, I drove my dad's 1986 Chevy Celebrity a bit, but more often I'd practice in my car (I bought my car as I was geting my permit).  My first car was a 1990 Toyota Camry 5 speed.  I drove all over with dad in the car in all different types of weather and driving conditions.  By the time I got my license I had perfected clutchless shifting.  My first solo journey was right after I obtained my license. 

Who needs rural roads?  It was parking lots for me.

[cpzilliacus]

15. 

Started with an automatic (might have been a family-owned Plymouth Valiant) but quickly was transitioned to a standard transmission in a Chevy Vega in driver education. 

Back then, driver ed was offered in Maryland's public schools, which they no longer do.

Took the test and was licensed the day I turned 16.

[pianocello]

14, in a parking lot shortly after getting my learner's permit. My first solo trip was on the first day of school last year (age 15 with a school permit), and I'll get my license as soon as I get back to Davenport late this month.

[DBrim]

Permit at 18, license at 19.

[roadfro]

I got a learner's permit at 15-1/2, nearly as soon as possibly permitted under normal circumstances of Nevada law. That was the first I ever drove.

I actually renewed my permit twice... I wasn't in a hurry to drive regularly when I was 16 and I didn't have my own vehicle yet so it wasn't a priority. Summer between junior and senior year of high school, my folks got serious about me driving. I took my driver's test around that time, so I was 17--soon after, my parents bought me my own vehicle.

[deathtopumpkins]

First drove on residential streets and in parking lots at 13, got my permit at 15.5, then my license at 16.25, as is typical in Virginia. Did my first major road trip, Hampton Roads to Boston while still on my permit.

[Duke87]

My mother dragged me off to the DMV to get my learner's permit in March or April (I forget which) of 2004... a few months after my 16th birthday (16 is the age you need to be in Connecticut for that). I started timidly sticking my toe into the idea of driving after that and it wasn't until over two years later (July 2006) that I actually got my license. And then it was nearly three years after that (June 2009) before I got my own car.

Although, I do also remember a time further back... I was probably about 7 or 8 (I know I was in elementary school, at least), where, in a parking lot behind one of the schools in town during the summer when it was completely empty, my father sat me in his lap in the drivers' seat and let me turn the wheel while he handled the pedals, just slowly puttering around. Does that count?

[DandyDan]

I had relatives who were farmers, and the year I turned 14, my grandpa had me try to drive his old pickup truck on my uncle's farm.  I didn't actually get a permit until I was 16, in part because all my high school friends were older (so they drove everywhere), in part because I didn't have a job and in part because I loved to ride my bicycle (I was something of a Lance Armstrong wannabe, except no one knew who Lance Armstrong was then, of course).

[venturafwy]

Learned to drive when I was 13.  Got my learner's permit at 15 and driver license at 16 on a 75 VW Beetle.

[bugo]

I learned how to drive a manual transmission in a '69 Beetle and a '73 VW Type 3 fastback that looked like this except it had stock wheels on it.  The Type 3 is a rare car today.

[yanksfan6129]

I did all of my driving stuff the earliest that I legally could: I got my permit on my 16th birthday, my provisional license on my 17th, and my regular license on my 18th (actually, I might've waited a day or two after my 18th birthday because of the lines at the f***ing DMV. I waited for a midweek midday time to go...luckily, my birthday is in the middle of the month).

When I was 16, I drove around with my dad a fairly decent amount, more than anyone I know, probably accruing 1000 miles that way. My age 17 year I probably drove 10,000 miles, certainly a lot for a teenager, mostly as a result of commuting into the city 3 days a week during the summer before senior year (well, not all the way into NYC, but the train station I drove to was a good 35 minutes away).

[Ian]

I went and got my learner's permit about a week after my 16th birthday (just under a year ago), but a few months prior, my dad let me drive the family's 1999 Oldsmobile Aurora around on the dirt roads of a resort in Maine.

[agentsteel53]

11.  stick shift '82 rabbit.