The Drive to Rehab: For the fourth time in seven seasons, the journey to the Driver Rehabilitation Centre starts from Niagara Falls, this time from the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens parking lot, with the seven drivers having to make their way there via GPS, something that had never been done before. Most of the drivers make a large number of moving violations on the way to rehab, however Ryan and Darris drive perfectly and do not commit any moving violations. Brandon had to be driven in a van due to falling off a skateboard the week before filming began, resulting in a broken arm and Karlene went off-course (mainly due to Darrell mistakenly setting their GPS for Toronto Pearson International Airport instead of Dunnville Airport, 70 km (43 mi) from the starting point), stopped on a highway and broke down in tears.
Mustang Challenge: Basic Assessment: As with the previous few seasons, the show's production team have purchased a brand new Ford Mustang GT, to be used in one challenge per episode. This year, however, the drivers are afforded the use of the Mustang's reversing camera, something only the 2017 model Camaro featured last year. Alexis is first to take the challenge and forgets to set her mirrors, causing several hits while reversing through the wheel rims while erratically stepping on both pedals simultaneously, but her overly hasty driving causes her to dent the car noticeably in the barriers, nearly ripping off the front bumper before hitting two foam people and clipping a third in the slalom.
Descy, who doesn't want to use the backup camera, but choosing to speed through the rims, fares a little better while reversing, with only a few hits early on, but she doesn't cause too much more damage to the car in the barriers than Alexis did, but, despite only steering with one hand, manages to make it through most of the slalom before clipping the last foam person, nearly bringing Descy to tears, as the challenge reminds her of an accident she had while pregnant. Darris' run is one of the better ones, passing the reversing section with no trouble at all and then only having two hits while turning the car around, before executing the slalom flawlessly despite speeding up to 60 km/h early on (something Andrew also did in his demonstration), becoming the first driver to pass at least one segment, convincing Andrew that Darris' only issue is dealing with the guilt of having survived the 2008 crash that killed his cousin. Ryan has clearly the best run of the day, executing a rare perfect run on the assessment challenge, becoming the first driver to pass all three segments, but also the first flawlessly. Brandon, who is prohibited from attempting any driving challenge unless he gets medically cleared by a doctor, which he does when he and Sarah travel to Haldimand War Memorial Hospital to get a doctor's note, gets a public driving lesson from Tim on how to drive with a spinner knob. However, despite driving with the spinner knob, he does poorly in the reversing section. His run then completely falls apart in the slalom, as he speeds up to over 90 km/h, hits the last three foam people and skids off the course, nearly reducing Sarah to tears when she asks him afterwards if he was going the speed limit. Karlene's run turns out to be particularly poor; forced to take the reversing section without Darrell, she proves incredibly slow and takes a long time just to get through the reversing section, causes more damage to the car in the concrete blocks than Alexis, Descyara or Brandon did, before taking the slalom at 40 km/h, hitting the second-to-last foam person in the slalom. Brittany fares no better than Brandon in the reversing section, getting wedged on a rim and hitting the middle foam person in the slalom, leading her to realize that she simply shouldn't have a license at all.
Best Performer: Darris and Ryan were the only two people who passed at least one segment of this challenge, but Ryan doing slightly better.
Worst Performer: Brandon did the worst, accelerating up to over 90 km/h after hitting the last three foam people and skidding off the course.
In their first meeting with the experts, Darris states that he wants to improve his driving skills and learn the rules of the road, but after further questioning from Andrew, he finally admits the real reason he's in rehab-- Jen wouldn't insure another vehicle for Darris until he came to rehab, having caused at least $20,000-$30,000 in damages, while Descy admits to causing "probably hundreds of thousands" in damages, Alexis admits to causing $80,000 in damages, Brandon admits well over $40,000 in damages, Brittany admits to causing $80,000-$100,000 in damages and Ryan admits to causing $50,000-$100,000 in damages (all of which due to having a cell phone in hand). Due to the exceptionally awful performances by most of the drivers, Shyamala suggests something that happened only once, on Canada's Worst Driver Ever-- graduate one person immediately so as to give the remainder their full attention-- and very quickly decides on Ryan, citing his flawless driving both to rehab and in the assessment challenge. However, Phillipe raises the issue that, in the 14 years Canada's Worst Driver has been on the air, they have never graduated someone in the first episode (the only exception being Chris Ferguson in Canada's Worst Driver Ever so that the experts could give the other returning drivers their full attention) and, despite this being the season where the focus is on the Evolution of Driving, wants to follow the tradition of not graduating anyone in the first episode. In the end, the experts agree that the decision facing them is obvious and no discussion is needed: Ryan, clearly the most skilled of the group, is the panel's unanimous choice to make history as the first new contestant ever to graduate in the first episode.
