Driving instructor charging for scrape on car

markudman

Cash-Strapped.T32 wrote: »

Nobody is "defending a scammer" (rather emotive, manipulative language there) -

OK so the instructor is not being emotive, manipulative, lets look at the facts.
£400 for a wheel, has he had a quote? it would cost about £60-£70 to get the refurbished, FACT
6 lessons before he would let this poor girl take her test, Sorry was that emotive language?
the fact is that he is scamming a vulnerable person, A driving test is a traumatic time for most people, so a perfect time for a scammer to take advantage. so what if she hit the wheel this is part and parcel of the trade, that's why they are insured, if the instructor chose to have a high excess how is this the students fault,

Maybe he should have brought a car more fit for purpose, instead of feeding his ego and buying a car not fit for purpose with big alloy wheels for example, when steels wheels would be a better choice.

would you for example would you buy a big business printer if you only printed one letter a day.

so I feel my language is appropriate, also this is not about me, but about the situation this family are in.

markudman

Car_54 wrote: »

He can be, with the candidate's permission, but he's not supervising or taking any part in the test.

OK so the question is, Was he in the car during the test?

Car_54

markudman wrote: »

OK so the question is, Was he in the car during the test?

We don't know. Would it make a difference?

interstellaflyer

If He!!!8217;s that concerned about his wheels getting curbed then perhaps he should have invested £30 in some rim blades

AndyMc.....

glentoran99 wrote: »

She isn't claiming though she doesn't have insurance and she isn't at fault


Whilst supervising a learner driver, supervisors are considered to be the person in control of the vehicle

You’ve already been told she was on test.

However I’ll readily accept some evidence of a learner crashing a car not needing to declare the accident to an insurance company.

markudman

Car_54 wrote: »

We don't know. Would it make a difference?

He would see her damage the wheel,
if he was not in the car, did check it right after the test or later? and of course before.

arcon5

This is a business risk. There is always the risk of accident or damage, it's the nature of his job.

System

If I was a driving instructor, kerbing wheels, burning out clutches, walloping through brake pads and discs, whacking door mirrors would all be within what I would expect to happen to a car I was teaching new drivers in.

lister

Tarambor wrote: »

If I was a driving instructor, kerbing wheels, burning out clutches, walloping through brake pads and discs, whacking door mirrors would all be within what I would expect to happen to a car I was teaching new drivers in.

The first one happens more easily than the others, but even then should be very infrequent. In the last year I have had two small marks on the rims, and one of those happened on test so I couldn't prevent it. So one mark in a year and around 30k learner driver miles. There were a few more tyre rubs which didn't hit hard enough to mark the alloys...

No excuse for a driving instructor going through clutches - just teach them to drive properly. Have done 150k on a single clutch as my best with learners.

Brakes, again no excuse really. Just teach them to brake properly from day 1 and they'll be no worse off than any other driver on the road (in fact probably better as they don't tend to race around as much or brake as late as most of the spuds I see on the road).

Door mirrors - wouldn't be doing my job properly if people kept banging door mirrors. The only situation a learner could manage it in should be when they are already close and without warning make a sudden and violent move towards another vehicle (which they do sometimes) - it might happen too fast for me to react but it should be a very rare thing.

lister

In terms of the OP, then frankly the behaviour of the ADI re the alloy sucks and in terms of the cost they are suggesting, borderline fraudulent.

Personally I would tell him to roll it up and put it where the sun don't shine. A more pragmatic option is to contact the DVSA and ask their advice.

There are several routes you could take. If it was at a test centre which does ADI tests as well, it would be well worth your while trying to have an informal chat with one of the more senior examiners - that way it is off the record to begin with. They might offer some advice about how you could proceed.

Or more formally there are two DVSA email addresses:
adireg@dvsa.gov.uk to raise concerns about an ADI's service
cfi@dvsa.gov.uk to raise concerns about their behaviour

Not sure which category this might fall into, but the second one is the more serious bunch of folks at the DVSA who tend to wear slightly larger and heavier boots.