From Four Fails to a Fresh Start
Pulling into the test centre on a beautiful July morning in 2017, Annette Kellow was brimming with confidence. She had just completed her first driving test, performing a three-point turn and demonstrating traffic awareness she felt would impress a Formula 1 professional. Yet, her assessor delivered a crushing blow: she had failed. The reason? She struggled with changing gears.
This was only the beginning of an eight-year ordeal. Annette would go on to fail the manual driving test a total of four times. Her initial failure was attributed to poor gear changing that nearly caused a collision with another vehicle. Devastated, she cried all the way home. Needing a licence for a work placement in America that November, she persisted with her instructor, Tim. However, a second test ended in failure within five minutes due to hesitation, a mistake compounded by having the same, unimpressed assessor.
An American Revelation: The Ease of Automatic
Feeling like a total failure, Annette moved to the US without a licence. A surprising turn of events occurred when she discovered her visa permitted her to take a driving test there. Reluctantly, she accompanied a friend to a theory test, guessed her way through the multiple-choice questions, and passed with flying colours. What followed was a stark contrast to her UK experience.
After a single one-hour driving lesson in an automatic car, she took a 15-minute test. To her astonishment, she passed immediately. The entire process, including instruction and the test, cost less than $200 (£146). Back in the UK, she had spent approximately £1,200 on lessons alone. When she queried the absence of a formal three-point turn or parallel park, her American assessor simply laughed and directed her to collect her new licence.
Driving an automatic on US roads felt liberating. "I felt free," she recalls, emphasising how much easier it was without the constant need to coordinate gears.
The UK Stumbling Block and a New Resolve
Her triumph was short-lived. Returning to Britain, her US licence was only valid for one year, forcing her to face the UK test system again. Despite her positive automatic experience, her instructor insisted she continue with manual. The result was two more test failures, both for hesitation at roundabouts. To this day, Annette still does not hold a UK driving licence.
Her determination to drive remains, fuelled by the desire for freedom, easier UK holidays with her son, and work utility. However, she has made a firm decision: manual is out of the question. "It's too clunky, and the hand-foot coordination is clearly way too challenging for me," she states.
This personal conclusion is bolstered by a national shift. With the UK's ban on new petrol and diesel car sales coming in 2030, and the rise of electric vehicles which don't use manual gearboxes, the practical need for learning manual is diminishing. This is reflected in the statistic that one in four driving tests in Great Britain are now taken in automatic cars. For Annette, and many others, the path forward is clear: embrace the automatic.
