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Danny Hopkins on why kids learning to drive is a great idea

Getting your kids involved in cars can be a challenge. There are so many other calls on them. From social media to gaming to other screen-based activities and, of course, a sports centre full of opportunity. It’s all out there, available for kids to enjoy and explore. Which means that the ‘call of the shed’ is not as attractive as it was when it was the portal through which freedom (a car) and status (a cool car) could be accessed.

So how can we develop the petrolheads of tomorrow? Obviously, the best way is to get them behind the wheel. The first vehicle I ever drove was my uncle’s miniature tractor. It was great fun for 12-year-old me and I soon progressed getting my hands on a wider variety of steering wheels: I was hooked.

Recently, I gave both my daughters their own experience by enrolling them on a Young Drivers course.

It’s a nationwide scheme, supported by Vauxhall, aimed at getting kids behind the wheel well in advance of their seventeenth birthday and making sure that when they do start lessons, they will be learning to drive, not learning how to ‘operate a car’.

It’s all very laudable, sensible and safe… but it is also (of course) really good fun. Both my daughters were pretty much hooked from the moment they sat down next to their instructor.

Whatever the future holds for car ownership and use, it can never be a bad idea to get experience like this. If it means that by learning young and getting enthused (bragging about it to their mates), my girls will still be looking after the Triumph and the Jensen when I am not around anymore, and driving them proudly every now and then, all the better. Visit youngdriver. eu for more information.

‘A miniature tractor was the first thing I ever drove’