Intensive driving courses

jeanhampton

Hiya all!

I was just wondering if anyone can offer any advice or information about Intensive driving courses (Crash courses) as i am going to take 1 but not sure whats the best way to go about it.

I live in Cumbria..and have done about 10-15 lessons about 5 years ago but i stopped as i had to pay money for my holiday at the time and somehow never got back round to doing it.

I know Crash courses get very bad reputation, but as i dont have time to do it over a long period of time due to family and work ties i just want to get it out the way over a week or 2 or something.

What should i be looking to pay for IDC as i want 1 that includes theory and driving test as well?

Any help would be appreciated!

TY xxx

jessicamb

Individual driving lessons cost around £20 an hour so you could probably negotiate a reasonable discount off that.

jeanhampton

I've had a look around a few websites but im still not really clear as to what would be the best deal to get..its all a bit confusing! Lol

aqueoushumour01

I was in a similar situation to you. I had had around 15 hrs worth of lessons and stopped as I didn't really have the time. I did an intensive course of around 20hrs with LDC (http://www.learnerdriving.com/) around 3 yrs later. I found the basics came back to me pretty quickly. I can't remember how much I paid now tbh - I seem to remember it being around £18 for each lesson - but this was 5 yrs ago.

DaveF327

Assuming that you'll need about 40 hours of lessons condensed into 2 weeks (5 day weeks) at 4 hours per day, you should get a little discount off the "average" hourly rate for your area. By average, I'm talking about the standard rate advertised by various private instructors' websites for Cumbria, which works out around £20 per hour.

So £800-ish should bag you the tuition, but of course you'll still have to pay for the theory and practical tests. Theory test costs £31 now, the practical costs £62 per attempt. Even though the driving school may offer to book for you, you'll still have to pay the fee so any "all-in-one" courses you pay for will have this included as a disbursement in their fee. Assuming you pass each test first attempt (which nobody can guarantee, despite optimistically worded ads), expect to part with around £900.

Just make sure the person teaching you has a green ADI badge (avoid BSM, Red and others using pink badge trainees like the plague), a high check test grade and reasonable pass rate (ask him or her for details).

There are residential courses run in Blackpool for this kind of thing. Do be aware that you are still subject to test time waiting lists like everyone else, so I'd get the theory test passed and out of the way first if I were you. You cannot even apply for the practical test without having passed the theory.

jeanhampton

Thanks for that info.

How do i know which ones have the green ADI badge you are referring to? I have took a lot of lessons in the past and consider myself an intermediate driver i'd say, would you still think 40 hours over 2 weeks is necessary? Also 2 weeks in blackpool would cost me a lot of money in hotels as well.

Who would you recommend to do this?

TY X

aqueoushumour01

you don't need a residential course. just find someome near you that offers these courses. I needed around 20 hrs to pass mine after having had some lessons previously. I did a couple of hours every day for 2 weeks.

jeanhampton

Ok great i'll check online for local ones then and see what i can get

DaveF327

jeanhampton wrote: »

How do i know which ones have the green ADI badge you are referring to?

By law, they must display it on the windscreen. Look near the tax disc.

would you still think 40 hours over 2 weeks is necessary?

Only your instructor can answer that once he's seen what you can (or cannot) do. Some find that old skills come back really quickly. Some totally forget everything they learned and have to start again from scratch. Everybody's different.

Also 2 weeks in blackpool would cost me a lot of money in hotels as well.

A residential course was only one option, you can take a non-residential course instead if you prefer. Residential courses usually include the accommodation as part of the package.

Who would you recommend to do this?

Best avenue there is to ask local friends / family in your area to recommend good instructors then approach each one to enquire whether they do intensive courses. Quite a lot do.

MUMMYTO2BOYS

Unless you're confident that you just need 'polishing up' then intensive courses can be money wasted.

People who have lots of driving experience, such as farmers kids who have driven tractors and landrovers from as soon as their feet could reach the pedals do well on these courses, your average joe doesn't.

RobotBlue

I've no experience of the intensive courses, but choosing the correct instructor can make all the difference. You need someone who you can get on with and recognises how to bring YOU up to test standard - not just someone following a standard routine. Might be worth taking a single lesson/drive check with any potential instructor prior to splashing out a few hundred pounds!