Learning to drive

ingenie’s best learning to drive stories

As one of the last people to learn to drive at ingenie, I've been the butt of quite a few jokes over the year and a half I've been here.

But now I've passed and I feel like having a bit of a laugh at what everyone else did wrong on their road to success. We've all done ridiculous things, right? Time to celebrate them.

Our favourite driving fails

On my test, I was waiting at a junction and thought I stalled. Trying to keep calm, I turned the car off and then restarted it. Turns out I hadn't actually stalled at all and I failed for what appeared to be randomly cutting the engine!

Hannah
DBU advisor

I gave myself a little pep talk in the loo before my test. Then I walked out and bumped straight into a lady who was waiting. It hit me that the reason she was staring at me like I was an absolute freak was that she’d obviously just heard me chanting to myself in the loo. Brilliant.

Katey
Customer Service Executive

I couldn't read the number plate at the start so I wasn't allowed to take my test. Instead, I spent the afternoon trying to book an eye appointment...

Savina
DBU Advisor

I failed my first test because the examiner asked me to get in the left lane before a roundabout and I didn't make it - I went all the way around the roundabout to get the exit I needed instead, which I thought was the safest thing to do. When we got back to the test centre and the examiner said I'd failed, my instructor (who was with us) called her an "pedantic old bat" which made me feel a bit better.

Freddie
Acquisition Marketing Executive

When I was learning to drive my driving instructor had a weird habit of teaching the whole lesson with a different accent. These would include American (specifically Texan), Spanish and French. He would ask if I minded whether he did this - at the time I just used to say it's fine and go along with it but on reflection, it was really very, very weird!

Charlotte
Customer Service Executive

This was a long time ago but they'd just brought in raised traffic islands and I accidentally scraped my instructor's bumper along one. Oops!

Laura
Social Media Manager

A friend of mine learned to drive but only had daytime lessons. He had practice with his dad at the weekends but again that was during the daytime. He passed his test in winter and that evening went out to pick up his girlfriend from her house - but he didn’t realise you had to turn on the lights (this was in the days of pre-sensor headlights). He drove 5 miles without headlights, pulled into his girlfriend’s driveway and bumped into her dad’s car - ex-girlfriend 2 weeks later!

Chris
Chief Finance Officer