Car Cockpit Drill

When entering your car it is important to set yourself up in a way where you can reach all the controls without being too close or overstretching. You may need to perform this procedure at the start of your driving test unless you have had a lesson in the car beforehand.

The first thing you should do after you’ve entered the car and closed the door is to check that all doors are secure. You can do this by tugging on your door handle, using the door mirrors to check that the doors are in line with the body of the car and ensuring that the interior light doesn’t stay on.

Next is to adjust the seat so that you can reach all the pedals comfortably. The best pedal to use to test in this situation is the clutch. Once you feel you’ve adjusted the seat, depress the clutch all the way to the bottom and you should feel a slight bend in your knee. If you are stretching then the seat is too far but if the bend is too large your knee may be hitting the bottom of the steering wheel and so the seat will need to be moved back. Once your seat feels comfortable adjust the head restraint. Ideally you would want the centre or rigid part of the head restraint to be in line with the top of your ears/eyes.

Next put on your seat belt. After putting on your seatbelt run your thumb and your fingers through the top part of the seatbelt that runs over your shoulder and the lap part and ensure there are no twists in the seatbelt. If there are any twists in the seat belt and an accident happened then you are more likely to suffer extra bruising.

Finally its time to adjust the mirrors. Start with the interior mirror by using your left hand only. Try not to move your body too much as you don’t want the mirror to change when you sit back in the seat. Avoid touching the glass and move the interior mirror so you can see as much of the rear window as possible (all four corners) noting that there may be some head restraints too in view.

Once adjusted move to the door mirrors. When adjusting the mirrors try to make sure that you can see half road, half houses and sky. It is important that you can see a little bit of your car in the mirror but not too much as it’s the road and its road users that you want to see more of and not your car.

Ok, now that you are set up you are now ready to go.