driving help

puppypants

My Mum, who is the least co-ordinated person i know, passed her test at the even grander old age of 67!!

nearlysorted

FireyFaerie wrote: »

Have started a new thread instead of taking over this one.

Just to give you a little hope!!!!
I started my driving lessons on my 17th birthday done the theory test and passed took 3....... Yes 3 driving tests (instructor told me on first driving lesson to book test!) and failed all 3, gave up and decided i much preferred drinking anyway:rotfl:
Anyway fast forward 15 years as a bus user in the cold snow and my 17 year old neice passes her driving test! Suddenly i decided she will not be ferrying me around. As i couldn't even find my provisional licence, sent off for a new one and when it arrived rebooked my theory test, i done the theory on the 10th June, as soon as i had passed that i booked a driving instructor (he is fab!) had my "first" lesson on the 12th of June and booked a driving test (next available date was the 14th Sep) Anyway had the lesson and instructor said try and get a cancellation earlier got a cancellation and on the 13th July at the grand old age of 32 passed my driving test!:T
So with the determination and just one month i now have a full driving licence and a lovely shiny new red peugeot sitting outside. I am still a bit scared being on my own though!! And now he is going to take me on the motorway:eek:
Good luck, you can do it:money:

Savvy_Sue

cprtknight4 wrote: »

Not sure if this is on the right board or not, but here goes -

I would love to learn how to drive, so that my little family can go out for day trips, visit family more etc. But my problem is I tried few years ago and gave up, but wondered which is better to learn in a manual or automatic?

Am I cheating by learning in an automatic?? As it is suppost to be easier to drive. My main concern is that I couldnt get the jist of changing gear, got myself all muddled. Do you reckon this would be different this time (age, instructor, wanting to do it, etc)

Thoughts would be much appreciated.

I passed in a manual, many years ago, so many that I had begun to think that when we replaced the car (which we don't do very often) it would make sense to look at automatics.

Then I clobbered my left shoulder, and couldn't drive for months. And the car needed some work. And it was clear that if we had an automatic, I'd be able to drive a lot sooner than if we carried on with a manual.

So we bought an automatic, before I could drive. And when I felt ready, I had a lesson in an automatic. And the instructor said "I don't know why people bother to learn in a manual these days, it's so much easier in an automatic." Which indeed it is ... your left hand only has to steer and signal, your left foot does nothing.

Sure, hiring a car offers less choice, but it's not impossible to get what you want: we had a large people carrier at the end of June for moving boys (students / recent graduate) around. We need to move them again in a month or so: that one's not available so we've gone to a different company.

Only thing is that when we go to Europe we'll hire a manual, which I hope I'll be OK with as it won't involve my left arm!

caledonian_princess wrote: »

You could always learn with an auto and if you find that limiting at some point then go back and learn to drive a manual - the other thing about that is that you will already be comfortable on the road so you will be able to give the gears a little more attention than when you're learning everything at the same time.

I think that if you're lacking confidence about trying again, that's better advice than "try again in a manual, you might be OK this time."

Let's face it, most of us don't HAVE to drive company cars / vans / hire cars regularly, so facing that problem when it arises makes more sense than pre-planning for something that may never arise.

Only 'problem' for us is that DS2 hasn't driven since passing his test a couple of years ago. And next year at Uni he wants to drive the student minibuses for one of his societies. So he'd like to be insured on ours so he's got his roadsense back before taking a 'test' in the minibus. And I'm not sure driving our automatic is going to be a lot of help!

cprtknight4

Hi there, just wanted to update on my thread and thank you all agian for your advice.

I started my driving lessong at the end of july, only do 2 hours every other week with a driving school. I took people advice and went manual drive, really not sure why I was so scared, I love it lol. Well today I've been told that I am test ready and to put my test in for mid October so just enough time to polish up so im above test ready.

Thank you all again xxxx

Percy1983

Good to hear all is going well.

Hermia

cprtknight4 wrote: »

Hi there, just wanted to update on my thread and thank you all agian for your advice.

I started my driving lessong at the end of july, only do 2 hours every other week with a driving school. I took people advice and went manual drive, really not sure why I was so scared, I love it lol. Well today I've been told that I am test ready and to put my test in for mid October so just enough time to polish up so im above test ready.

Thank you all again xxxx

Well done! My mum didn't learn to drive till her 50s and is now always wizzing around the place.