Which verb would you use to describe driving a vehicle such as a car, bus or train???

araban sürüyorum
"I am driving your car"

otobüsü kullanıyorsun
"You are driving the bus"

well ifyou are driving the car you are driving the car and if you are using the car ,you are using the car
elbette? veya kuskusuz?

The average Turk, much like the average European (or average person anywhere outside of North America) does not own a car, hence they do not typically drive. I'm not sure about Turkey, but in some parts of the world learning to drive is often a reason young people choose military service over the alternative (public service).

Hence the need for another verb. A Turk would more typically "use a car" in the situations where that'd be necessary rather than "drive a car."

As a closer-to-home reference point, the average person in NYC doesn't drive a car, even though he might be able to afford it. It's not necessary, and it's rather inconvenient to keep a car there.

I think we just need to accept the verbs as they are. The nature of languages is a bit different. Some details in English look strange to us Turks as well. For instance expressions like "to have breakfast", "to have a shower", etc. Isn't it also strange why the English speakers "have" these things and why they not "do" these things? Smillarly with "making love", "giving birth to", etc.

There are a few these kind verbs in Turkish which are just as they are and we learn them and move on. Here are a few more examples:

sigara içmek (to smoke): maybe you know that we also say, su içmek, bira içmek, kola içmek etc.

ata binmek (at:horse) : but not at kullanmak or at sürmek.

bisiklete binmek : "bisiklet sürmek" is also very common. Bisiklet kullanmak not so common but acceptable.

otobüse binmek: this clearly indicates that the person is not the driver. Otobüs kullanmak and otobüs sürmek are both common and mean to drive the bus.

In these sentences where kullanmak is used with araba, otomobil, otobüs or bisiklet it means to have control over it. Notice the difference between these two:
We had to "use" lots of wood to build this thing.
Can you "use" this machine?

I think when learning a language the best thing is to be flexible. Interestingly democrats learn different structured foreign languages easier. The point is to accept that things can be different than we would like them to be.

To be perfectly honest, after I made that post I regretted having posted it. I'd intended to correct my error a few days ago.

The person who made the original inquiry was British, not American. I presumed that Bod was an American because of the confusion over "using a car" versus "driving a car." And then I took a look at the profile and noticed where Bod was from. Doh!

In the U.S., nearly everyone owns a car, you almost have to own one due to much of the nation being constructed in the auto era. Additionally, the American automobile industry actually bought out and sought to eliminate some effective mass-transit systems in the mid-1900s (in California). Outside of a few large cities with good mass-transit systems (basically New York, Boston, San Francisco) the only people who don't own cars are those who cannot afford them. It's my understanding that in Europe cars tend to be owned by the wealthy and by those who live in the outlying areas. The U.S. is one rather large outlying area...

I think the best English translation for the Turkish word for "to use a car" would probably be "to ride in a car." If you ride in a car you're the passenger. You are using the car but not actually DRIVING it.

Could someone more fluent in Turkish than I (basically any of you, heh) confirm or deny?