First Drive in USA

Over the weekend, I drove for the first time in the US. Anil was generous enough to allow me to drive his car for a while, and we basically went out for lunch, and some more shopping (whew!! I wonder when all the shopping will end!!). Anyhow, to cut a long story short, it was a interesting experience. He has a black Toyota Camry, and believe me, it's once of the best colors, but a nightmare to maintain!!

Anyhow, at the outset, I sat on the left hand side of the car, and cursed the number of times that I had an opportunity to drive a left-hand drive vehicle in India, and didn't. The first instinct is for the left leg to depress the clutch prior to starting the vehicle, and that's when you realize that it's an automatic without a floor clutch!!!

Once I got it started, the next step was moving it from P (parking) to D(Drive). One needs to keep the brakes depressed, as otherwise the vehicle will roll forwards. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. Driving was easy, also I didn't hit any of the freeways as that will take some more time.

Once we stopped, I carried out the same sequence, but in reverse - move from D to P, pull the handbrake, turn of ignition. The best part was that after all this, the left hand instinctively looks for a handbrake to pull, as the body is conditioned to do so, in India.

It was fun. We hope to purchase the car (the honda civic) probably within the next two weeks - so then I'll be sure to give more updates. Also we move into our apartment this weekend - so looking forward to that.