If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed that Sarah Kate is driving now AND that we bought her a brand new car (!!!) She won’t turn sixteen until the end of this year, and I’ll be honest – I’m not a fan of buying new cars for new drivers. As with most things, however, our family’s boots-on-the-ground reality as it relates to driving ended up being a little different from most people.
Although the process of actually learning how to drive was both simple and quick for Sarah Kate, the story of how we got to this point is a bit more detailed and complicated. When we first started looking ahead to the possibility of her learning to drive, I had a hard time finding any information about her options for training or equipment, and just from what little I’ve shared on social media, others are looking for this same information, so I thought a post series might be appropriate. Today’s post is Part Two; you can find Part One here and Part Three here.
It was clear to Mr. Andi and me after the evaluation that we were going to have to buy a car sooner rather than later. EVEN IF the evaluator was wrong and it took Sarah Kate twice as long to learn to drive as he estimated AND there were some weeks in the middle when she wasn’t able to train because the instructor wasn’t in our area, we were still looking at midsummer at the latest before they cleared her to drive. Once she finished training, what would she drive to practice for six more months before she was old enough to get her license? It didn’t make sense to install the hand controls in one of our vehicles and then move them six months later, so we were suddenly faced with buying a car – pronto.
I spent the week between her evaluation and the start of her training researching vehicles with 5-star safety ratings that were inexpensive and might appeal to Sarah Kate.
We were only willing to consider a handful of manufacturers, in part because of the mobility rebates and in part because of personal preference – Honda, Hyundai, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen were our focus. Sarah Kate was anti-sedan and anti-SUV; I told her we’d try to accommodate her by getting her a car she actually did like (neither Mr. Andi nor I had any choice in our first cars) but the bottom line was that she pretty much had to take whatever we got her and be grateful. 😉
On Saturday morning before she started her first week of driving training, Sarah Kate and I set out with a list of possibilities, starting in Pensacola with a planned finish in Mobile. Most of the options were used cars, but there were a few 2017 Volkswagen Beetle and Jetta models new still on the lot that seemed to be in our price range based on the dealer online advertising.
The first place we went was the Volkswagen dealership in Pensacola, and as it turned out, it might as well have been the last and only. She fell in love with a Tornado Red Beetle and had little interest in finishing the planned car shopping excursion across three counties and two states, though I persisted in the tour for awhile. (Sidebar: Pete Moore Volkswagen in Pensacola was AMAZING to work with – the salesman, Rick, wanted to understand Sarah Kate’s needs and concerns so he asked questions and made suggestions that were truly helpful while we were considering the car. I despise car shopping and once walked out of a dealership after a salesman told us we couldn’t walk away from his offer. I shared with him rather forcefully and with my finger in his face that he was not allowed to tell me what I couldn’t do. But I digress…)
Sarah Kate started her driving training on March 26.
The instructor met us in the parking lot of a church in a nearby town, gave us an idea of what to expect on the first day, briefly demonstrated how the hand controls worked, and the two of them took off. Within a few minutes, he had determined that she was ready to try a little bit of driving on quiet streets. At the same time she was driving on public streets with hand controls for the first time, Mr. Andi was in Pensacola seeing the Tornado Red Beetle for himself and attempting to negotiate a fair price (SPOILER: He did). Without going into a lot of details (since this post is already split into multiple parts!), I’ll just say that it was clear early on and at several points along the way that the Tornado Red Beetle was meant to be.
Her training lasted about an hour each time from Monday-Thursday of that week.
By the end of the week he had her driving on a busy(ish) four lane highway and driving through traffic circles. By Thursday of that first week, she had driven in pretty much every common scenario she’ll face as a teenage driver, save the interstate, and when she got home from training that day the Tornado Red Beetle was parked in our garage (SURPRISE!)
Early in the second week, the instructor let Sarah Kate drive on a rural(ish) but still busy section of the interstate. They had covered everything he had to teach her by the end of that week, and from then on out she just needed more time and experience on the road. On the last day of the third week – and she was able to do all three weeks consecutively, by the way – she passed her road test and was given a FastPass for the DMV. When she turns sixteen all she’ll have to do is show up with that piece of paper, pay her money, have her picture made, and walk out a licensed driver. She was ready.
The only problem was…she still couldn’t drive her new Beetle, because it didn’t have hand controls yet.
Another Cliffhanger!!! You’re killing me! It’s so exciting to see all the steps for her independence.
Beautiful VW. And it suits her personality. Should have enough room for her chair with the seats folded down. Awesome tool for accessing Sarah Kate’s world.
We haven’t tried to put her chair in it yet, but I do think it will fit. We figured worst case scenario she’ll have to pop the wheels off. And YES it does suit her personality – that’s what everyone keeps saying!