Learning to drive later in life in an automatic... any positive stories?

[Hamsternautss]

After not needing to drive and living in London I had about 30 hours worth of manual lessons when I hit 30 years old but still felt extremely out of my depth and found driving very stressful especially on roundabouts and trying to figure out right of way in the not obvious situations.

I stopped lessons when I was very pregnant with my 2nd daughter and just didn't get around to picking it back up again.

Im 35 now and we have moved out to Surrey and I really need lessons to ferry my kids about when they start at Junior School etc. Im due to start lessons in an automatic instead of manual in a few weeks in a hope that it's a bit easier than automatic and I can focus solely on the road itself rather than if I'm gonna fuck up changing gears and stall etc.

Does anyone have any positive stories of driving later on in life? I feel like it's the last chance saloon now. I never imagined I would be an adult with kids and not know how to drive.

Not me but my lovely (and very impressive) nana! She had no lessons until she was I think 55 as she is in a very old-fashioned marriage where driving was grandad’s job. She passed her test first time and although at 86 she’s not the most… reassuring driver as we found out when driving behind her on the way to see my grandad in hospital (she’s 4’11” and drives my grandad’s massive fairly new Discovery now) she can drive manual and automatic with confidence.

Automatic is SO much easier.

Also driving in London is hard!! All the traffic jams, and roadworks, and giant roundabouts, and insane pedestrians. I failed my test several times in London but had no problem passing it in Guildford.

You will be fine you just need to learn to drive outside London.

UPDATE:

Well I did it! I passed today finally on my second test with 0 faults! I started lessons in August 2022 so almost 18 months of driving (I'm a slow learner but a safe one at least!). I'm so so relieved I'll never have to do the test again

Couldn't edit original post as I've name changed and changed back again.

Now to choose a car!

Congratulations! It’s not easy, but you stuck it out and did it! Happy (and safe) driving 🚗

Oh wow OP well done!! You're my inspiration to start learning at 43...

I mean this kindly, but 35 is absolutely NOT later in life.

I’m approaching 40, failed my test 10 years ago and am thinking about restarting again. This time of year is the absolute pits to be walking around doing school run and to work when it’s minus degrees weather!! I’m sooo nervous though but I hope I manage to do it before my 40th birthday. Have always been told by family and past partners that I couldn’t do it / it’s too expensive to learn etc so always had a bit of a downer on myself and finding it hard to build it back up again. Well done op on passing your test, I imagine it’ll be quite life changing for you!

Thank you!!! It's never too late so go for it, I'm a slow learner when it comes to driving and automatic worked out so much easier for me.

Congratulations 🚗❤️

So so happy to read this, I'm currently doing automatic lessons (same as you did manual years ago and I made mistakes and gave up and got a fear/accepted I'd never drive). I'm still too scared to go over 40 but this gives me hope :)

Well I'm 37 now anyway as it took me so long to get confident and its almost 2 years later. Most of the people learning to drive with my instructor are under 25 so almost 40 is later in life in terms of driving considering you can learn from 17 onwards.

This is so heartening to read OP, I'm 49 and still trying to pluck up the courage so love reading stories like yours. I need to drive more than ever now (upcoming career change plus caring responsibilities) and it terrifies me but would make my life so much easier. Congratulations, you should be really proud of yourself

My Mum passed her test at 50. She learnt in an automatic

Congratulations @Hamsternautss , well done for getting there, and thank you for coming back to update. I'm on 14 months now, and had a horrible lesson today where my brain was just working in slow mo. Got no less than 4 major faults on a mock test, although no minors. Only big screw ups will do for me, lol. Sometimes I think I will get there eventually, sometimes I feel it's impossible. I will try to keep the faith.

Congratulations!!!!!
I've only been driving one year and I'm 40+.
Only ever took auto lessons.

There's no doubt about it, it's expensive for sure but if you can afford it and it makes your life easier go for it. I have a ridiculous situation with 3 different schools within 5 miles of eachother (nursery, infants and juniors) and have a bit of waiting around to do between them so it's been really hard this winter and I've relied on my OH too much, I'm so relieved I can finally take some of the driving burden off him. I think if I still lived in London it wouldn't have mattered so much.

If I can do it you certainly can, don't give up!

Congratulations!!

I struggled for years to learn to drive & eventually passed on 6th attempt when I was 35. I had to get beta blockers from doc as nerves were so bad

I'm the same honestly, it's taken me what feels like forever to feel confident and even recently I've had lessons where I make stupid mistakes. When I first started doing mocks I was getting loads of serious faults all over the place. As soon as my instructor says "mock test" I just forget the most simple things and doubt everything and balls up. I eventually asked if we could just not do mocks and my driver could just count my faults instead which is much better. I tend to find I drive really safely in general but just have these moments of forgetting things I've been doing forever.

Going into the test today I was a bag of nerves and I thought I had failed based on hesitating too much when I could have gone so I was dumbfounded to have no faults and have passed. Keep going you will get there!

Well done OP, that’s wonderful news! It makes such a difference having that independence.

Congratulations! You should be very proud of yourself! Make sure you get out there and drive as much as possible to keep boosting your skill and confidence.

@Hamsternautss congratulations on passing your test as well 👏