Approved Driving Instructors

[peterdevo]

I am just wondering if you or or your son or daughter was embarking on driving lessons who they would entrust to help.

Would you go for the cheapest at say £19-00 as offered by Red or would you for a local independent? Would you ask if they were fully qualified or what grade they were?

In my area we have a lot of Red Driving School cars and they nearly all seem to have pink triangular badges indicating that they are trainees. I just wonder how informed the public are and how happy they would be if they found that they were being taught how to drive by someone with no real experience of instruction.

comments as ever would be appreciated

[Gavin Archery]

I would expect to be taught by a suitably qualified person, not just by experience, and it shows how old I am as I paid £7 an hour when I learned to drive. You don't get many female driving instructors do you.

[peterdevo]

There are not that many female instructors, just one in our business, six males and one female but she is very good and we are fully qualified.
Work is getting more difficult out there and the feedback I seem to be getting is that price is the bottom line. Trying to compete with instructors that are not fully qualified does not seem to be the way forward, but when I hear that parents are prepared to take a risk and let their sons and daughters go to Red because they are cheaper it does make me despair

[Agadoo]

From my experience, It's probably not cheaper if you are not getting taught as well because you may end up doing more lessons and more tests and therefore pay more overall. It can be a false economy. I would go for a reputable school, if you can get a word of mouth recomendation all the better

[grb]

I started my lessons with a independant female instructor and she wasn't great to be honest. She waited ages to put me in for my test even though I felt more than ready, so I stopped using her and went to a male instructor. He saw me on one lesson, agreed I was ready and put me straight up for my test and I passed. This isn't a dig at female instructors in general, just what I experienced.

Due to her messing me around a little, I had lots of lessons but I still say that some of the most important and useful advice came from my dad when I was driving with him and not from professional instructors. One bit of advice was basically, 'don't trust any other f**ker on the road'! ;D

[Dichio]

Jan 20, 2011 16:06:55 GMT grb said:

I started my lessons with a independant female instructor and she wasn't great to be honest. She waited ages to put me in for my test even though I felt more than ready, so I stopped using her and went to a male instructor. He saw me on one lesson, agreed I was ready and put me straight up for my test and I passed. This isn't a dig at female instructors in general, just what I experienced.

Due to her messing me around a little, I had lots of lessons but I still say that some of the most important and useful advice came from my dad when I was driving with him and not from professional instructors. One bit of advice was basically, 'don't trust any other f**ker on the road'! ;D

Amen to that !

My daughter is doing her driving lessons atm and that is pretty much word for word what i told her.

[Gavin Archery]

Jan 20, 2011 16:06:55 GMT grb said:

I started my lessons with a independant female instructor and she wasn't great to be honest. She waited ages to put me in for my test even though I felt more than ready, so I stopped using her and went to a male instructor. He saw me on one lesson, agreed I was ready and put me straight up for my test and I passed. This isn't a dig at female instructors in general, just what I experienced.

Due to her messing me around a little, I had lots of lessons but I still say that some of the most important and useful advice came from my dad when I was driving with him and not from professional instructors. One bit of advice was basically, 'don't trust any other f**ker on the road'! ;D

Maybe she just liked spending an hour in a car with you once a week. You didn't spot the signs?

[The Resurrection]

I just went with a local one that a couple of my friends had passed first time with. £25 an hour which seems pretty standard round here. It's a woman teacher and she's very good IMO.

[Agadoo]

MY first driving teacher was quite old, wore a sheepskin and smoked while I was driving, he even made me pull over so he could buy more fags, and he was chatting to the bloke behind the counter for ages, in MY Lesson time, the cheeky f#cker

[grb]

Jan 20, 2011 16:17:35 GMT Gavin Archery said:

Jan 20, 2011 16:06:55 GMT grb said:

I started my lessons with a independant female instructor and she wasn't great to be honest. She waited ages to put me in for my test even though I felt more than ready, so I stopped using her and went to a male instructor. He saw me on one lesson, agreed I was ready and put me straight up for my test and I passed. This isn't a dig at female instructors in general, just what I experienced.

Due to her messing me around a little, I had lots of lessons but I still say that some of the most important and useful advice came from my dad when I was driving with him and not from professional instructors. One bit of advice was basically, 'don't trust any other f**ker on the road'! ;D

Maybe she just liked spending an hour in a car with you once a week. You didn't spot the signs?

I think she just liked the cash I was handing over for each lesson.

['Beav']

I pay £27 per lesson or £260 for 10 lessons.

Instructor is great.... Well he's a part-time OUFC fan... So yeah he's great.


Experience.... Well he taught my mum about 35 years ago... So he has enough... ;D

[peterdevo]

Well worth paying more than Red instructors..they are mostly trainees who allow their pupils to do stupid things.
You must be nearly there Beav

['Beav']

Jan 20, 2011 18:23:28 GMT peterdevo said:

Well worth paying more than Red instructors..they are mostly trainees who allow their pupils to do stupid things.
You must be nearly there Beav

You'd think I've had loads of driving since early september.

But i've still only had 14 hours of driving time.

Drove to Oxford the other day. Great lesson that was


Going on Beav's (snr) insurance next week.

[fredwest]

Bsm seem to know what they're doing................

[fredwest]

Theres a driving school called.....Bill Plant (weird name i know) dunno if they are in this area but i did see one of their cars in Oxford a few months back,they offer the first 5 lessons for £56..............


www.billplant.co.uk/cheap_driving_lessons.html

[peterdevo]

I saw that with BSM, wasn't that near York Road.
Must have been a good instructor to have allowed the pupil to do that on the first lesson. Should have gone somewhere quiet to start.
Bill Plant use Hyundai i30 cars. They are coming in cheaper than others but the instructors won't be around at those rates when the overheads are deducted.
Local instructors are better. They know the area and are better at what they do. They may charge more but fewer lessons taken with them will usually get you through test sooner so money saved

[Padz]

Jan 20, 2011 23:14:41 GMT fredwest said:

Bsm seem to know what they're doing................

this was on Old road down nr rock edge on a sunday morning, was on my way to football when it'd happened, what a sight

[peterdevo]

They must have been practising handbrake turns.
Mind you I have heard that Fiat 500 are not the most stable.
Perhaps that is why BSM have gone for Punto's

[Gavin Archery]

Jan 20, 2011 16:57:56 GMT grb said:

Jan 20, 2011 16:17:35 GMT Gavin Archery said:

Maybe she just liked spending an hour in a car with you once a week. You didn't spot the signs?

I think she just liked the cash I was handing over for each lesson.

but that suggestive erotic gear change action of yours gets the ladies going.....

[peterdevo]

Clutching at straws there I would say