I took driving lessons as an adult and I think I have a pretty good grasp on etiquette when driving. But I am looking for tips I may not have heard. Examples I have seen here and there include:
If your car is overheating, turn on the heat to pull the hot air away from the engine.
If you see standing or rushing water across the road, don’t try to cross it.
These are the kinds things I’m talking about: tips that may be general knowledge but may not ever have come up.
I myself once got stuck when I tried to cross a big puddle during a flood. Sigh.
My tips:
Check your oil and your tire pressure regularly.
Try to drive in the center lane on multi-lane roads–you have more options, should something sudden and bad happen ahead.
Here’s one:
If you see a car on the right shoulder of the road on an interstate, move out of the right lane to the left if you safely can, just in case someone suddenly opens a door or walks around the car. Of course, move to the right if it’s on the left.
Reminds me of driving lessons…I thought my teacher was being excessive when he said (safely) give wide berth to runners, in the event that they trip and fall. But then I was driving and someone using those cross-country skis on wheels wiped out and I happy to be well out of his way.
There is always a car in your blind spot.
My first husband insisted that there was no such thing as a blind spot. He said if your mirrors are adjusted correctly, no blind spot.
He was in charge of driving with the kids when they got their permits, and I couldn’t let him pass this nonsense on to them. So one day we sat in the car while one of the kids walked up beside the car. “Can you see Barry in either of the mirrors?” “Um, no.” “That’s because he’s in the blind spot!” “Nah, people are just smaller than cars.” :smack:
My advice would be to leave more than “two seconds” space between you and the car ahead of you. I can’t believe that’s the recommended distance. I prefer the old way – one car length for every 10 mph. I can do that, since I drive mostly on rural roads. 
Let’s see - always shouldercheck, because the one time you don’t, there WILL be a car in your blind spot. The blind spot is not a myth. Shouldercheck even when making a right turn, because bikers have been know to do stupid things like try to run past a car with its right turn signal on, or pedestrians running to cross at a crosswalk from behind you.
Don’t run over things in the road if you can help it, because you don’t know if it’s got a hidden nail or something in it.
If you drive through a deep puddle, use your brakes afterwards to dry them out. This happened to me once - I went through a deep puddle, and my brakes didn’t work for a short time afterwards.
Steer into a skid, and keep your feet off the brakes. Don’t over-correct.
If you can’t get your lug nuts off while trying to change a flat, use your feet on the tire wrench. Women (heck, a whole bunch of men, too) don’t have strong enough arms to get the nuts off, especially if they’ve been air-wrenched on.
Starting fast off the stop line wastes a lot of gas (I know this, and still do it. I have to work on that one.)
Don’t forget how dangerous driving is. It’s easy to take it for granted if you do it every day, but it can kill you or someone else.
Make all your habits good habits.
Keep a wire coat-hanger in the trunk, in the spare-tire well maybe. If your car is like mine, you can use it to hang up the exhaust if it falls down in the back. (Not that I actually had one in the trunk before this.)
There are a million of these things, but that’s mine that I’ve never heard anywhere before. Check out http://www.goss-garage.com/ and http://www.cartalk.com/, both websites for people with radio shows about cars. Pat Goss also has some stuff at motorweek.org. You should have a few emergency items in the trunk, such as flares, a flashlight, and maybe some basic tools.
On the highway I don’t drive alongside another car if I don’t have to. You aim for a checkerboard pattern of traffic so nobody gets hit if someone else changes lanes. In particular I don’t pass a tractor-trailer until I have room to go all the way past.
I second the thing about runners, also bikers. You don’t split a lane with a bicyclist, you move well over to pass and until you can do that you stay behind them.
How about this obscure one:
If you are stopped waiting to make a left turn, keep your wheels pointed straight ahead until you actually hit the gas to go. Why? If you are rear ended with your wheels cocked to the left, your car may be pushed into oncoming traffic.
Heh. This happened to me once. I was actually jumping up and down on the tire wrench, balancing with one hand on the roof trying to get the frikin’ lug nuts off when a nice young man happened by and decided to help me change my tire rather than going to work. Thank god - I felt like a tool.
My advice is even though it sounds dumb, always do a quick pass around your car to make sure nothing is in your way even if you’ve only been away for a moment or two.
How about this one? My friend told me not to turn the wheel while I have the brake pressed, but sometimes I feel I need to when angling in a smaller space. Is it terribly bad for the car?
Never trust anyone else’s turn signal.
I guess this is a corollary of “Assume everyone else on the road is an idiot.”
Never heard of this, and it makes no sense to me. But I could be wrong, and maybe that would be a good tip if somebody else can provide a reason I can buy into.
On a similar vein – Assume no one on the road can see you, and no one will make any changes to their path or speed to accomodate you.
This idea fails when you’re in the middle of a long line of cars slowing down, as there’s really not much you can to to prevent being rear-ended. But for almost any other driving situation, and especially for pulling out of a side road or parking lot onto a busy street, it’s gold.
Carry basic tools and spares. Belts, jumper cables, etc. Even if you don’t know how to use them, somebody else will.
I’ve never heard it put that way, but it’s hard on the tires to turn the wheel when they’re stopped, causes a scrubbing action on the tire tread and also puts more stress on the entire steering mechanism. Even if the tires are barely moving, it avoids this. This has more impact in larger, heavier vehicles, but it’s a good practice on any vehicle.
Better to put it inside the bumper, on the frame rails, or somewhere else where you can still get to it when you lock your keys in the car.
Speaking of which, keeping a spare key in your wallet makes the above situation even easier to solve.
I’ve heard THAT – don’t crank your wheels when the car is stopped. I never heard it had anything to do with brakes. You would be very hard-pressed never to turn your wheels while braking.
Always have a usable spare in the trunk. Emphasis on “usable” - one time I found myself in a jam and when I pulled the spare out, it was completely rotted and crumbling. No fun.
Always carry jumper cables, though don’t be surprised when other people are assholes and don’t want to help you out with a quick jump (I’m thinking of the kindly-looking, grandfatherly man driving a brand-new truck when my wife and I found ourselves stranded with a dead battery on our honeymoon who “Didn’t want to get involved.”) One of those portable jumper boxes is only about $50 or so, and you could do a lot worse than to have one in your trunk.
Carry a disposeable camera for accidents (getting less and less relevant in the age of cell phone cameras and such).
Always report accidents, period. You’re leaving yourself wide open to being taken advantage of or scammed if you don’t.
Before you consider yourself a competent driver, make sure you can paralell park and that you can turn 3 consecutive corners in reverse.
Have a can of Fix-a-flat in the trunk. And a tyre pressure gauge in the glove compartment.
One of these lazy days, change a tyre of your car. For practice. If you can’t do it in flat, in daylight, dry, with lemonade in the fridge, you need to practice before you need to do it on a hill, at night, raining, 4 miles away from civilization.
Even if just once in your lifetime, rent a convertible.
Always buckle up. Always keep small children in their car seats.
Learn to drive a stick (standard). Even if you don’t plan to own one, ever.