Car Driving Tips, Tricks, and Techniques For Beginners and Experienced Drivers

by Mohit Bhardwaj | 10/09/2020
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Facing issues improving your driving skills or just building some? Here's a list of all car driving tips, tricks, and techniques for beginners, as well as experienced driver that you might need.

Driving is often termed as an art to detox your soul and mind, by the enthusiasts. But for someone who isn’t fascinated much by the cars, it is more of an activity to locomote from one place to another. But handling a car is a job that needs a little more than just to know the process of driving. So here are a few car driving tips and tricks to keep in mind when taking up the process to learn driving.

1. Find the best seating position for you

car interior

The first and foremost on the list of car driving tips, tricks, and techniques for beginners we have for you is fix the ergonomics for yourself and then start with anything else. Start by sliding the seat and reach the pedals. Make sure that your legs aren’t strained when depressing the clutch pedal all the way to its limit. Also when not depressing any pedals, your legs should be folded, but not cramped. And if your car has got the option to adjust the seat height, do that in a way that you can see the road but do not fiddle around with your comfort, since that’s important. Then recline the seat to a position wherein your hands are neither cramped nor strained when holding the steering, a little bend in the elbows is just what you need.

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2. Adjust the mirrors

Car mirror

Driving without watching your own back is something we would never advise you. So adjust the IRVM and OVRMs according to your convenience, keeping in mind that the mirrors serve the purpose of showing you what’s behind. A little pro tip to adjust the ORVMs, adjust them in a way that they are you have your tail on side of the mirror.

3. Familiarize yourself with the controls

car control knobs

So once you’ve found the best possible position for the seats, steering wheel, and the mirrors, it is time to meddle around with the various controls knobs, stack, buttons, and levers placed around you inside the car. Crank the motor and start by using the stalks present on either side of the steering wheels, as German cars have them in a chiral’ed manner. After the stalks, try to understand what functions all different buttons placed on dashboard perform. This ease out in locating the button you want to press while driving and without distracting the driver.

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4. Release the handbrake before you start rolling

gearshift knob

The Handbrake is something, most newbies forget to disengage, or sometimes even forget to engage it before leaving the car, once parked. So make sure to use the engage and disengage the handbrake accordingly. Also, when engaging the handbrake, don’t just the pull the lever, and enjoy that thrumming sound of the lever mechanism. Instead press the release button and then pull it, as it would ideally give your handbrake mechanism a longer life.

5. Acquaint yourself with the car
Getting acquainted with the controls is just one thing, getting acquainted with the car is another. So understand the dimensions and proportions of your car first, and rest everything later. And also give some time and road to yourself to understand the feedback from the car to your inputs. In simpler words, try to get along with the car’s response to your throttle, brake, and steering inputs. Also, check that if the car has an automatic gearbox and you know how to use it. As auto boxes are easy to operate, but one should know how to.

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6. Carry all the documents

car driving lisence

A mistake that can be pretty expensive now after the amendments in the Motor Vehicle Act has happened. Registration Certificate, Driving License, Pollution-Under-Control certificate, and a copy of the insurance policy of the concerned vehicle are the documents that to be carried around while driving it. Since failing at doing so will attract hefty fines. However, in this modern age, using apps like DigiLocker and mParivahan also suffice for the physical copies of the document.

These were our car driving tips, tricks, and techniques that would be handy for you to get comfortable with the car. However, there’s more room for car driving techniques, to drive better and here they are.

7. Check the surroundings while reverse parking your car

Parking in reverse or say just parking your car can be sometimes tricky. To ease this out, the best car driving technique is to pull the handbrake, get off your car, examine the surroundings, and then accomplish the task to park your car. This way you get an idea of how much space you have on your side for errors and corrections.

8. Hold the steering wheel correctly

holding the steering wheel correctly

There’s a lot you can find out about steering holding techniques, explaining the science behind holding a steering correctly. But we’ll just go with the thumb rule. And the thumb rule is to hold the steering by placing your hands on 9 and 3 O’ clock positions, just like the clock.

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9. Do not rest your hand on the gear lever

putting hand in the gear knob

Spotting the so-called ace-drivers resting their hand on the gear levers is easy. What’s tough is to not do that. Resting your hand on the gear lever transfers the weight on the lever, which results in early wear of the synchronizer and the bearings.

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10. Do not override the clutch

override the clutch

In manual transmissions, the clutch is an important mechanical linkage. It connects the engine to the gearbox. So when you drive with your clutch pedal depressed that result in wear and tear of the clutch and pressure plates. So next time when you are riding with a foot on the clutch pedal, remember that it will affect the life of your clutch plates.

11. Check and reduce your blind spots

checking the blind spots

A blind spot is an area where your vision is obstructed. And when you are driving there are many you need to take care of. The pillars and wing mirrors are also a part of that list, as they hinder the peripheral vision. But they can’t be fixed, what can be fixed, are the temporary blind spots. The area on the sides of your vehicles is a blind spot and any car or vehicle there can’t be seen in the ORVMs. Also when you are tailgating or following a bigger vehicle than yours, like a truck, all of you have in your vision is a blind spot. And making any manoeuvre is difficult without knowing what’s ahead is difficult then. So to avoid that try to look for other vehicle’s tyres through the under-side of the truck since they sit higher, it is easy to do so. For smaller vehicles, you can try to look through their windshield, if there’s anything ahead of them, even speed bumps and potholes can be located by doing so.

12. Avoid over-speeding

traffic sign

Speed is the reason most of us fascinate about cars. But over-speeding is dangerous. Apart from getting you challaned/fined, it can be dangerous. As the speed limits are fixed for the roads only once they are calculated if its safe for a vehicle to traverse that path with such speeds. So zooming past defined speed limits can be a risky affair.

13. Car Driving Techniques To Drive Better - Resist yourself from tailgating the vehicle in front of you

We Indians have a habit of following other vehicles closely, that’s what tailgating is. However, it isn’t safe to do so. As the Indian mainland is still a developing nation in terms of driving manners and thus following the vehicle in front of you closely reduces your reaction time and space available for manoeuvring.

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14. Use turn-signals and check mirrors before splitting lanes

car driving techniques

Changing lanes while driving seems easy as all you need to do is just swerve the steering and it’s done. But no, that isn’t all. While changing lanes, check your mirrors and see if there isn’t anyone coming darted in that lane, and let it pass. Also, use indicators to let the other road user know that you are shifting from a lane to another.

By now, It is now quite evident, that we are done with basic driving tips to get your driving style improved. But there’s the last part to this list that might be of certain help when everything’s not on your side even if you were following all the basic car driving tips and tricks.

15. Do not panic

The key to driving better is to drive stress-free. Focus on what moves you are making, and what moves you’ll be making. Driving stressed in any way is going to hamper your ability and might lead to a mishap or just a random argument with someone you’d mess up with.

16. Avoid road rage and try to leave the spot ASAP

escaping from the spot

Indian road users are arrogant, that’s something one should keep in mind before cranking the engine. God forbid if you happen to land in such a situation, avoid getting engulfed into the argument and try to make a quick exit from the situation’s heat.

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Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs about car driving tips

Q. How to improve my driving?

A. Referring to our car driving tips, tricks, and techniques mentioned above would certainly help you to become a better driver. The above mentioned car driving tips, tricks, and techniques would not only help new drivers but would even help experienced soul to get them better with their driving styles.

Q. How long does it take to learn driving a car?

A. As such, there’s no definite time to learn driving a car. It is a skill set that gets better with every kilometer you clock. We would advise you to be patient with the car and yourself that would help you to hone your skills better.

Q. Any pre-requisite for driving a car?

A. First is you should have a car and the passion to learn driving. But before you start driving, it is important to acquaint yourself with the various controls of the vehicle, and you can quickly become a master of any vehicle.

Q. Is it tough to drive a car?

A. Nah, not at all. Driving a car can be as easy as breathing, once you are comfortable behind the wheel. And to get comfortable behind the wheel, you need to gain experience with the car, as we said earlier you get better with every kilometer.

Q. How to reduce fear of driving?

A. Human being feel the fear of getting caught performing something that isn’t ideal. In case of driving, it is generally the fear of a collision or getting fined. To overcome this fear, one should keep the documents handy and follow all the traffic rules. To overcome the fear of hitting the car, we believe our car driving tips, tricks, and technique are more than you need.

Q. Which car is best for driving?

A. To be honest, almost every car out there in the market is best for driving. What matters are the pros you are looking for in your car, and with what all cons you can live with. So till the time you are enjoying the car, it is the best car for you.

For more such detailed know-how about cars keep following the space on IndianAuto.com.

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