Peter Lyon
November 12, 2025
Did your parents teach you about proper car maintenance and safety? Or have you taught your kids about these crucial motoring customs? Can you change a tyre? Or can you do an oil change?
As Road Safety Week in the UK approaches (16-22nd November), with the theme of Safe Vehicles Save Lives, one driver education programme is urging parents to make sure their children know how to properly maintain a vehicle.
Young Driver, the UK’s largest pre-17 driving school, questioned more than 2,200 parents to find out what car care-related skills they planned to pass on to the young people in their lives – despite many of them not being taught themselves.
Day-to-day skills such as refuelling and topping up windscreen washer were most likely to be handed down to the next generation, with nine out of 10 parents planning to show their child how to do it. Tyre-related safety, such as topping up pressure and checking treads, were also must-teach lessons for eight out of 10 parents – although only one in two said they would teach their child how to change a tyre (52%).
Overall, today’s parents feel they’re much more likely to teach their children car-maintenance skills than their parents were to teach them. A third (33%) said they were never taught any such skills by their family when they learnt to drive, compared to just 4% who said they wouldn’t or couldn’t teach their child now.
Young Driver aims to instill good motoring habits long before teens get their provisional license. Youngsters aged 9 to 17 learn the basics of safe, responsible driving in dual-controlled Suzuki Swifts or similar cars, under the supervision of fully qualified instructors. Ian Mulingani, managing director at Young Driver, commented: “Being a good and safe driver extends beyond the things you do behind the wheel, it’s also about being a responsible car owner and making sure your vehicle is always in a road-worthy condition. It’s really encouraging to see families today plan on passing on their knowledge and experience, even if they didn’t have that when they first got on the road. Tyres in poor condition, windscreens you can’t properly see through, lights not working – all these things are not just minor inconveniences, they can cost lives.”
Shockingly, one in five newly qualified drivers crashes within six months of passing their driving test. But for Young Driver’s past pupils, the rate of accidents in that worrying first six months drops dramatically, to fewer than four per cent – a reduction of more than 80 per cent.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
As someone who has conducted advanced safety driving lessons for friends over the years, I know the value of putting drivers in extreme or unfamiliar situations that demand they make the extra effort to stop their car from crashing when they slide, or must brake heavily, or are forced to dodge a car ahead of them. Amazingly, more than 80 percent of drivers have never engaged their ABS in anger — braking as hard as possible to stop their car as quickly as they can. Young Driver does this — and has delivered more than 1.5 million driving lessons at private venues across the country. A road system is created, with traffic signs, roundabouts and junctions, along with special areas to practice manoeuvres such as steering control and parking. The emphasis of the lessons is on safety and fun and encouraging youngsters to consider how to drive responsibly, giving them time to perfect driving skills such as gear changes, braking and steering without the pressures of public roads.
