axia steering wheel

What's your first driving lesson like?

So my first lesson was rather uneventful by any means, however it was both stressful and fun. Being in Malaysia, driving lessons are conducted in tiny hatchback cars with gutless 900cc 3-cylinder engines. I took mine in a Perodua Axia (see picture) that was supplied by the driving school. It was in white with driving school stickers plastered all over it, and a chicken pedal in the passenger’s seat for the proctor to stomp on should you cock up. Most malaysians would probably agree and say I got the more luxurious of the cars, since most would get the much older and even more gutless Perodua Kancil (again, see picture) which, according to my friend, has no aircon or power steering to help with moving the car in our sweltering climate. Anyways, I digress. The car was much too small for my massive 6′2″ self, and even with the seat pushed all the way back my knees would still rub against the steering wheel. That made it rather uncomfortable to sit in. The clutch pedal had no feedback or feeling, so within 10 minutes of climbing into the seat I had stalled 5 times. Very embarrassing for someone that is a car nut to stall so many times in rapid succession. After getting used to the cramped layout I headed onto the main road, stalling another 3 times in the process of going from carpark to main road. Now prior to coming of age to get my driver’s license, I’ve cycled for over 4 years, so the rules of the road and the spatial awareness was no issue for me. Not stalling/causing an accident by stalling however, was not. Thankfully, my proctor never had to touch the chicken pedal whilst I drove. I did notice him get a little uncomfortable when I was merging onto the freeway at speed, as I wrung all 64hp from the car’s paltry 3-cylinder to get me up to merging speed by rowing through the gears quite aggressively. Once up to speed however, it was all smooth sailing. Although the driving school doesn’t teach you to downshift a manual gearbox, only upshift (strange I know) I already knew how to rev-match and heel-toe from watching YouTube. Being the cocky bastard I was, I attempted to heel and toe a downshift while slowing for traffic, only to completely cock it up and have the car violently lurch forwards and traffic behind me to honk madly. That was probably the most embarrassing experience in driving school as the proctor just stared at me dead in the eyes while I tried to hide my embarrassment. Whoops. Thankfully though, I managed to pass my test first time lucky and never ever had to drive that cramped, hard-to-not-stall, and gutless box on wheels again.