Driving Lessons - Advice needed please

Tulip09

Hiya

My daughter is 17 and i want to surprise her with some driving lessons for a Christmas gift. Now as a non driver i really dont know where to start for the best chance of her passing or the pitfalls i should be looking out for when picking an instructor.

Prices range in the area from £12 - £28 per lesson, should we avoid the cheaper ones etc? What should i be looking out for?

Another question i wondered is - Would weekly lessons or intensive courses be better.

Your experiences & advice is appreciated.

skint-student-nurse

I was going to try these : http://www.billplant.co.uk/ as they have 5 lessons for £56 but then it jumps upto £21 a lesson after. From my experience though, i found that an independent instructor was a lot better than someone who was part of a franchise. HTH

wallbash

The best person to ask would be your daughter , but that would spoil the surprise.
Her friends will be learning , or have older siblings and its personal recommendations that are required.

Tulip09

We have recently moved to a new area and she really hasnt got many friends at all yet, hence the reason i want to give her some independance, however i have been trying to make discreet enquires from a few people.

I am a little torn between the big companies being a little inpersonal etc or the smaller/cheaper ones not being as good?

dithedancer

think carefully tulipo9. my son who is 19 as just past is driving test. i bought him an old small car for his birthday for £600 but we cannot find any insurance for less than £3200 and thats very cheap compared to a lot of insurances. so make sure to ask her to put a little of her wages to one side for when she does pass and get a car.

wallbash

When you get down to it big or small makes no difference , its a one to one sitting in that car.
The AA have a very hard learning curve for their instructors, this costs money and costs have to be recouped from the pupils. But they will be taught correctly .
No one can tell you who is best , keep making those enquiries

wallbash

Look on the bright side , girl insurance is much cheaper , my daughter paid just over £900 less than two years ago . this years renewal was just over £500.

Mojisola

If you can find someone local who is recommended by several people, I would go with them whether it's a one-person business or a large one.

My sons were taught by BSM. I know others on here have reported poor training but I think in any large organisation there will be a few weaker employees. We were very impressed with the instructors my sons had.

As an ex-teacher, I liked the method of training - all the skills needed to be a good driver have been listed and the skills covered in each lesson are checked off in a training book so they can see their progress and where their strengths and weaknesses are. This is useful if you are going to give extra driving practice in between lessons.

You are not stuck with the first instructor you are given. If there is any problem, you can move to someone else.

Arfa__

wallbash wrote: »

When you get down to it big or small makes no difference , its a one to one sitting in that car.
The AA have a very hard learning curve for their instructors, this costs money and costs have to be recouped from the pupils. But they will be taught correctly .
No one can tell you who is best , keep making those enquiries

When I learnt, I went with the AA, about 13 years ago, up in Shrewsbury and overall had a good experience with them.

However my wife is currently learning to drive and went with them last Autumn around East London area. Had a terrible time. Tried two of their chaps, both thoroughly crap: dirty cars, constant smoking breaking, babbling on mobile mid lesson, late turning up, cancelling. The one just spent one lesson teaching her to drive the A13 one handed! Neither did any manoeuvres/reversing over a 6 hour span of lessons. One one claimed her entire block of lessons from AA, before even giving them to her - just chopped and changed so much, we struggled to keep tally of what she had taken and what was owed. Obviously this caused a nightmare when trying to get a full refund from AA...

I've heard stories of Red ensuring all learners do at least 30 lessons regardless of ability and that one of their staff who protested was put down on the count he'd get given the same number of learners each year, and if he passed them too quickly, it'd be his fault he's short on money.

Currently my wife has found a good independent who was recommended by several friends. Ultimately, you need local recommendations, somehow who is more interested in passing quickly, first time, rather than fleecing you for loads of dough.

Also check the lead time on practical tests, round here it's 3 months. And do the theory test before anything else and get it out of way.

mikey72

Any good recommended instructor.
Don't be tempted to get an introductory package if you can avoid it. If the instructor is no good, or they just don't get on, you're stuck with them. Pay for the first lesson and see how it goes. Buy the highway code and theory test dvd as well, it'll save lesson time if she learns it at home.

RachVG

Tulip09 - Might I ask whereabouts in North Yorkshire you are? I live in North Yorks too and passed my test about 18 months ago - I would highly recommend my instructor if you happen to be in my general area.

I contacted Bill Plant at first, had one lesson with my instructor who told me he was leaving and if I stuck with him I would then be with UK Drive. While I was learning he left UK Drive and set up on his own - he's very good, reasonably priced, and if he can't fit your daughter in would recommend other independent instructors to you as he's friendly with a lot of them from the stories he told me!