<p>
</p>
<p>This happened to ME in college. I found someone who could drive a stick and he (reluctantly) agreed to drive.</p>
<p>Problem with teaching D how to drive a stick was that we don’t currently own a car with one and no one I know well enough to borrow a car from does either. She does go to college in a major city where she will never have a car, so it isn’t a issue for her at school.</p>
<p>How topical! DS#3 just finished the project that all my kids have had to do in their tenth grade health class, which is mostly the classroom portion of driver’s ed. Had to do everything on your list for the car they would be driving the most, plus a lot more. I assumed all kids learned this when learning driver education.</p>
<p>My dad forced me to learn all of these also. I can also drive a manual transmission. However, when I had a blowout in the middle of nowhere my 5’4" of muscle was NOT enough to remove the lug nuts. </p>
<p>I would never call AAA unless there is no other choice. Their response time is awful. I just keep them for dire emergencies (ie the towing package).</p>
<p>Oh… one really useful device is the small battery starters you keep in your car. You DO have to charge them every couple of months, but they are way easier to use than jumper cables. I have helped 3-4 people with it already. I think I paid $75, but they are cheaper now. I plan to get my son one before he leaves for college.</p>
<p>Both drivers have been taught how to check the oil, add oil, check tire pressure and add air. They have not been taught how to change a tire.
My husband is constantly on their cases about taking care of their cars. That means if they hear a funny sound they should get it checked out. They don’t always hear him. My oldest has always found a male friend who is good with cars to help her out. The latest was having help putting in a new tail light. All our cars have jumper cables. We also have a plug in battery charger at home along with a compressor to add air to the tires. No excuses at home. Granted my husband also loves to wash the cars. He usually checks air and oil at the same time.
We also all have AAA. I know how to do all but change the tire. I don’t have to since my H does it for me.
Regarding the gas station attendant doing air and oil. In Ca if the gas station even has full service it is so much more per gallon that only the elderly use full service. My kids all know how to pump there own gas. Even the one who doesn’t drive.</p>
<p>I thought I knew how to put air in the tires, but last month I did it wrong! I guess I wasn’t using the gauge correctly (it was a “real” gauge, not the one at the air station). It was pitch black and I had only a tiny, wind-up flashlight. </p>
<p>Afterwards, I thought the car was riding a little rough. After taking my son on a 1500-mile college search trip, I took the car in for an oil change. The mechanic said, “Did you know that your tires were dangerously full - 50 psi?” Oh, dear. </p>
<p>We use AAA Plus, or whatever they call it, and they would even come to our remote cabin if we needed them to. We’ve already hit one moose, so the need does arise!</p>
<p>Okay… I’ve had to change a tire three times in my life (I’m 54). The first time, I was 16, it was my parent’s car, and some friends and I figured it out together. The second time, I was 24 and it was on the NJ turnpike, at dusk. No way I was waiting for someone to come help. (Before cell phones.)</p>
<p>The last time was just a few years ago when my tire shredded on I-5 and I pulled over to the side of the road just as it completely disintegrated. I-5 in Washington has a tiny stretch of remote valley with hills on either side, so NO CELL SERVICE. (I notice that three-mile stretch still has no cell service.) It was either change the tire or walk for help or flag someone down. My friend and I changed the tire and were out of there in about ten minutes.</p>
<p>I was cracking up at the idea that gas station attendants do anything for you. Yep, our gas station attendants are minimum-wage high school dropouts here in Oregon; and we HAVE gas station attendants… only two states where they still pump your gas, NJ and OR.</p>
<p>I take my car by my dealer every few months and ask them to check everything for me as part of my regular oil change. They even drive it around the block as part of the check. I also do that before major trips (more than 500 miles or so). They haven’t charged me yet.</p>
<p>My son had a flat about three weeks ago–another shredded tire on I-5, in his case just outside Eugene. His car (cute little two-seater) doesn’t even have a spare, so he had to call Les Schwab, persuade them to bring him a spare, drive the car to Les Schwab, and get a full set of new tires (which he needed, apparently). BUT he used Twitter to advertise his need for a place to stay overnight, and within 15 minutes he had a couch for the night. Smart kid.</p>
<p>My neighbor who is a sherrif’s deputy urges people to NOT change their own tires on the freeway unless a sherriff is there to assist with bringing attention to the car with his lights on. I also read an article about this several years ago with some pretty awful incidents of deaths due to people being hit while changing tires.</p>
<p>In our house, husband emphasizes maintainance above repair. Can shredded tires be anticipatedr?</p>
<p>Run flats make me feel safer too. </p>
<p>No one has mentioned putting on chains, especially on an incline, but that skill may be most valuable in places like N. Cal, where you can cross many climates in just a couple of hours.</p>
<p>re Keymoms post ^My neighbor died that way 6 years ago. Sideswiped on the freeway by a hit and run driver.</p>
<p>What, no one else carries flares?!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Because parents always know everything their young adult off spring are up to?</p>
<p>My D learned how to change a tire in Driver’s Ed. The instructer asked the class what they should do when they discover they have a flat tire. One of my D’s friends raised her hand and answered, “Flag down a nice man to change it for me?” The instructor, a retired police officer, gave them a 15 minute tirade on the perils of flagging “nice” people down. He proceeded to tell them that the real world was not nearly as safe and kind as their small catholic school! Made quite an impression on my D who I would have thought would know better anyway. I guess you can’t assume that kids will know better.<br>
They then had to change the tire on their own. Those lug nuts are hard to get unscrewed. My D, who is tiny, finally climbed up on the lug wrench and jumped until it started to move!
Several weeks later at a musical event, one of my friends had a flat and my D offered to change it for her! I was so proud! My friend would have taken her up, but she didn’t have the extra tire with her…can’t remember why. I think AAA finally towed her.</p>
<p>“what no one else carries flares”</p>
<p>—Yes, my neighbor who was hit and killed used a flare.</p>
<p>Last time I got a flat, I was wearing heels and a skirt, but even so hindered, between my husband and I, we’d pulled off the freeway into a parking lot, changed the tire, and had gotten back on the road in ten minutes flat. We topped off the spare at the next town.</p>
<p>I remember when I was younger, my fantastic mother (also our troop’s Girl Scout leader) organized an Automotive Day for our troop and several other troops. We changed tires, checked and topped off fluids, learned the basics of cars, learned about car insurance, learned that there’s no such thing as headlight fluid, and got information on how often to get cars serviced. We were all 14 or 15 at the time, just learning how to drive, and everyone’s parents were more than happy to see that we were learning how to do all this stuff. I still think it’s a great idea. God willing I should have kids and get to be their troop leaders (I’d be a third generation Girl Scout leader!), I’d want to organize the same sort of thing.</p>
<p>Let’s add knowing how to use jumper cables to the list. And don’t tell me you’d never need to know how to do this.</p>
<p>My Dad taught me how to change a tire over 30 years ago and I know I would not attempt it unless there was no other option. It’s like anything you learn where you haven’t had a chance to actually practice it. While I might attempt it in a remote location, I would always prefer to have the Triple A guy do it right. I also will stop at a gas station if I need oil or tire pressure changed – my tire place will check the tires for free as well. I think the important thing (and we recently learned that one of our twentysomething kids didn’t know this) is for kids to understand they have to check the oil on the car, especially if it’s an old car. But I would also emphasize to kids to know how the car feels and if something feels “off”, even if they can’t put their finger on it, to make sure it goes in to a mechanic. Most of the time when I take my car in for a problem, it’s because I realized my car just didn’t feel right.</p>
<p>I check my oil every time I fill my tank and I am surprised that most people don’t. I thought that was just basic taking care of your car knowledge. It is extremely easy, and I would be worried about someone if they couldn’t figure it out how to do it… I am still in shock at everyone’s responses.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>As a young woman, I had never had very good luck with this. I’d take it in, say, “I think there’s a leak in my exhaust system-- there’s a whistling that increases whenever I step on the gas, but when I take my foot off the gas, it stops.” They’d be like, “It’s your license plate rattling.” I’d say, “No, I know it’s not my license plate rattling, because that’s… really stupid, and I would not have brought it in for that. It’s an exhaust leak. I’d fix it myself but I don’t own welding equipment or a lift.” They’d say, “You can buy little shims to stick in behind your license plate. It’ll keep it from rattling.”</p>
<p>Finally took it to a different mechanic. This time, I said, “Let me start by saying I have a MASTERS DEGREE in engineering… I think there’s a leak in my exhaust system-- there’s a whistling that increases whenever I step on the gas, but when I take my foot off the gas, it stops.” They’re like, “Yep, sounds like you have an exhaust system leak. Let’s put it on the lift and find out where it is.” They put it on the lift, pointed to where the leak was, told me to take it down the street to the muffler store where they had welding equipment. THEY put it up on the lift, I pointed to where the leak was, and they spot-welded it right then and there. Three minutes of labor. No charge.</p>
<p>Another important life skill is finding a mechanic you can trust, and figuring out how to talk to mechanics, and learning to realize when they’re telling you that you need your headlamp fluid changed…! (Saying you have a masters in engineering helps, though I doubt that you actually have to have one in order to TELL a mechanic that you have a masters in engineering in order to sneakily influence them to give you the real dish on what’s going on with your car.)</p>
<p>Back in the 70’s took driver’s ed and was taught all those things. I have done everything since then except changing a tire. Really no need for it. My 18 yr old daughter took driver’s ed 2 years ago and was never taught anything but to drive on residential streets. I paid a lot of money for a lot of nothing, IMO. I guess they are only interested in making you know how to drive the car on a road so you can pass the test. Nothing more.</p>