Preparing to Drive: Maintenance, Seats and Mirrors, Driver-Assistance Systems, Blind Spots, Seat Belts and Child Restraints, Loose Objects, Distractions, Alcohol and Drugs, and Drowsy Driving: Two Braking Systems, Lights Visible 500 Feet and Dirt That Halves Them, Turn Signals on Anything Wider Than 40 Inches, 70 Percent Window Tint, the Penny Test, Exhaust That Kills, Seeing 200 Feet Behind, Sitting 10 Inches From the Air Bag, Mirror Settings, Which Technologies Are Allowed on the Driving Test, Forward Collision Warnings at Three to Five Seconds, Your Blind Spots and Others', Front-Seat Belts for All and Back-Seat Belts Under 18, $50 and $100 Fines, Rear-Facing Under One Year and 20 Pounds, Restraints Under Six, No Pickup Beds Under 18, Belt Myths, a 20-Pound Object at 60 mph, Visual, Manual and Cognitive Distraction, the Hands-Free Law, No Calls Under 18, OWI at 0.08, 180-Day Revocations, Implied Consent and the $1,250 Refusal, 0.02 Under 21, Open Containers, Drowsy Driving Signs and 18 Hours Awake

Written for aiforu2 as the source for a practice-test bank and the on-device tutor for the Iowa driver's license knowledge test. The facts follow the official manual; the wording is ours.

Source: Iowa Driver's License Manual (Iowa DOT, July 2026), Chapter 3 "Preparing to Drive" (pages 23–38).

Maintaining your vehicle

Safe travel depends on decisions made before the engine starts; maintenance saves money and helps in emergencies, so follow the owner's manual schedule. Cars, trucks and ATVs/UTVs need two separate braking systems, a foot brake and a parking brake, and motorcycles and mopeds at least one; noise, an unusual odor or a pedal that sinks to the floor means a mechanic's check. Check signals, brake lights, taillights and headlights from outside: cars, trucks and ATVs/UTVs need two front headlights, at least one red rear light visible 500 feet and a white light on the rear plate; turn signals, if fitted, must work and are required on all cars, trucks and trailers wider than 40 inches; a misaligned headlight blinds others, so trouble seeing at night or constant flashing from other drivers means a check; and dirt on lenses cuts a light's effectiveness by 50 percent. Replace damaged glass, which breaks easily and obscures vision; keep the windshield clean inside and out, the washer full with antifreeze wash in freezing weather, and every window clear of snow, ice and frost; keep the required wipers in good condition; avoid heavy tint, since the windshield and the windows beside the driver must pass at least 70 percent of light and Iowa allows no medical exemption; and hang nothing from the mirror or clutter the windshield with decals. Worn, bald or unbalanced tires lengthen stops, cause hydroplaning, wear faster, waste fuel and hurt steering; bouncing, a shaking wheel or pulling means a check; inflate to the pressure on the driver's door sticker or in the manual, measured cold; and check tread with a penny inserted head first, since tread that does not reach the top of Lincoln's head makes the tire unsafe. Hard or delayed steering, a suspension that keeps bouncing, and an exhaust system that leaks fumes able to kill in a very short time all need attention, so never run the engine in a garage or sit in a running vehicle without a window open; a poorly tuned engine loses power, may not start, wastes fuel, pollutes and can stall in traffic; the horn is a warning device only; you must see at least 200 feet behind in the rearview mirror, with an outside mirror if a load blocks the view, and vans need both left and right outside mirrors.

Seats, mirrors and driver-assistance systems

Sit with your back firmly against the seat, at least 10 inches between the steering wheel and your chest with the air bag aimed at your chest, the top of the wheel no higher than your shoulders, the seat placed so your heel touches the floor and pivots quickly between brake and accelerator (shorter drivers may need a cushion or pedal extenders), and the head restraint at the center of your head. Set the inside mirror, the main rear view, to frame the entire rear window; lean toward the left window and set the left mirror so you can barely see the car's side, so that it disappears when you sit up; and lean right over the console to set the right mirror the same way. Advanced driver-assistance systems such as automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and forward collision warning make driving safer only when used correctly and within their limits. On the driving test you may be helped by safety technologies but not convenience technologies: permitted are backup warning, blind spot monitor, rear, sideview and surround-view cameras, curve speed warning, bicycle, pedestrian and obstacle detection, forward collision warning, high speed alert, lane departure warning, parking sensors, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic emergency braking or brake assist, automatic reverse braking, lane keeping assist and left turn crash avoidance; adaptive cruise control and automatic parallel parking are not. You must still show you can drive without them, since they may need disengaging, may fail, or may be absent in another vehicle. Warning systems alert by sound, light or vibration and are mostly passive: backup warning scans behind you in reverse, but you still check the side and rearview mirrors, over the shoulders and any cameras; blind spot monitors help with lane changes but never replace mirror scans and head checks; rear cameras show a wide view behind in reverse but must not create dependence; sideview cameras, triggered by the signal or a button, sometimes replace mirrors but work with mirrors and head checks; surround-view monitors compose four cameras into a bird's-eye view for parking; detection systems warn of bicycles, pedestrians and obstacles at low speeds around 25 mph with beeps that quicken and become continuous as a crash nears, sometimes braking automatically, and their sensors must be kept clean; curve speed warning uses GPS to warn of too much speed for a curve or exit; forward collision warning scans ahead 20 times a second up to 500 feet and warns about 3 seconds before a collision at 15 to 18 mph, 4 seconds at 18 to 50 mph and 5 seconds above 50 mph, but never brakes for you; high speed alert beeps or flashes when you exceed a posted limit it knows from up-to-date maps, so ease off or brake lightly rather than slamming; lane departure warning relies on lane markings; parking sensors beep faster as you near an object and go constant when close, but miss objects flat on the ground, below the bumper, too close or too far; and rear cross-traffic alert warns of vehicles entering your backing path. Assist systems perform part of the driving: automatic emergency braking slows or stops the vehicle when you fail to respond to a hazard ahead; automatic reverse braking stops you for an object behind; lane keeping assist nudges you back into the lane, cancels with a nudge of the wheel and fails on faint or snow-covered lines; and left turn crash avoidance stops a low-speed left turn into oncoming traffic. Never depend on any of them; keep scanning and following at a safe distance. Adaptive cruise control holds a chosen gap and should not be used in bad weather, and automatic parallel parking guides you into a space while you remain responsible for braking and watching. Read the owner's manual for any new feature.

Blind spots

Blind spots are areas the mirrors cannot show, and they are also created by mirrors, door posts, trees, the sun, hedges, hills and walls. Do not drive in another driver's blind spot; speed up or slow down so you can be seen, get through it quickly when passing, and never stay alongside a truck or bus, whose blind spots are large. Know your own vehicle's blind spots, take care when changing lanes or pulling into cross traffic, and remember weather and sunlight enlarge them, the windshield being the most common source of glare, which sunglasses and visors reduce.

Seat belts, child restraints and loose objects

Everyone buckles before the vehicle moves; crashes are the leading killer of teenagers, and buckling up is the easiest way to avoid becoming a statistic. Wear the lap belt snug across the hips, and when pregnant across the pelvis as low under the abdomen as possible. Belts are the single most effective way to prevent death and injury, and Iowa requires them for all front-seat occupants and for back-seat passengers under 18; not wearing one is a primary offense, so you can be stopped for it alone, with fines up to $50 per passenger and $100 per passenger under 18. A child under one year and under 20 pounds rides in a rear-facing restraint; a child under six rides in a child restraint system, a safety seat or booster, never a belt alone; a child from six to 18 rides in a restraint or belt in every seating position; no one under 18 may ride in the bed of a moving pickup; and adults 18 and older must belt up in the front seats, with medical exemptions listed online. Belt myths: being thrown clear is not survival, since staying inside gives far better odds and belts keep you out of another vehicle's path; belts are not just for long trips, since over half of deaths happen within 25 miles of home and many on roads under 45 mph; your choice affects others, because an unbuckled body becomes a projectile and an unbuckled driver can be thrown from the seat in a sudden swerve or stop; and belts do not trap you, since they release in under a second, fires and submersions are rare, and staying conscious helps you escape. Secure loose objects, because at 60 mph a 20-pound object can exert well over 1,000 pounds of force in a sudden stop, and keep the floor clear of anything that could roll under the brake pedal.

Distractions and the hands-free law

Distractions are visual (looking away, as at a GPS), manual (hands off the wheel, as when eating or applying makeup) and cognitive (a wandering mind, as with music or conversation), and many tasks fit more than one. Iowa's distracted driving law forbids using a phone or other hand-held device to write, send or view an electronic message while driving, and before writing, sending or reading a text, email or social media post the vehicle must be completely stopped off the traveled part of the road; public safety members on duty, health care professionals in emergencies and people receiving safety information such as emergency, traffic and weather alerts are excepted. Drivers under 18 with an instruction permit, intermediate license or special minor's restricted license may not make or receive calls or talk on the phone unless completely stopped off the road. Distracted driving is a primary offense, a conviction can bring fines and a suspension or revocation, and causing a death while distracted can bring more than $1,000 in fines, a suspension and possibly a vehicular homicide charge. The new hands-free law bans using electronic communication devices while driving unless hands-free: you may not hold the phone in any way, scroll, type or interact with it manually, enter a GPS address, stream video or make video calls even by voice, or view texts, videos or social media, and you may call, text or dial only hands-free or by voice activation; the devices covered include cell phones, laptops, PDAs, tablets and gaming devices.

Alcohol, drugs and drowsy driving

Driving under the influence is among the most enforced laws anywhere and Iowa punishes it heavily. Operating while intoxicated (OWI) means a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher or any amount of a controlled substance, measured by breath, urine or blood; even without a criminal conviction your privileges are revoked at least 180 days for operating intoxicated, and repeat offenses bring longer revocations and harsher penalties. By holding an Iowa license, and as any non-resident driving here, you have agreed under implied consent to submit to a field sobriety test on demand. Refusing a breath test does not prevent an OWI conviction and still revokes your license, with consequences worse than failing: an automatic one-year revocation and a minimum $1,250 fine, and a court may order a substance use disorder class and evaluation or an ignition interlock device at your expense. Under 21 you are intoxicated at 0.02 or more, with revocation for at least 60 days, or at least 180 days at 0.08 or more, and offenders under 18 get no temporary restricted license during the revocation. Transporting any open, unsealed container of alcohol, by driver or passenger, is illegal outside the trunk, a simple misdemeanor with a fine up to $200 for each driver and passenger. Drowsy driving is as dangerous as drunk driving, slowing reactions and causing swerving and running off the road; take a break, pull over or switch drivers when you daydream, cannot remember the last miles, yawn or rub your eyes, struggle to hold your head up, drift, tailgate or hit a rumble strip, or feel restless and irritable, since 18 hours awake impairs you like a BAC of 0.08. Before any trip check Iowa 511 online or in the free app for weather, construction and crashes.

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