Driving
 

I'm 17 in january and was wondering,

how many driving lessons do i need to have legally by a qualified instructor ?

i'm not on about how many i should have or anything, i am just wanting to know the minimum legal amount.

cheers

you mean so you can accompany a driver on a provisional licence ?
you need to be 21 and held a full driving licence for 3 years

no i mean, can my dad teach me to drive,

then me take my test without having any lessons from an instructor ?

Sir paul worsley was telling me how he didnt have one lesson and passed his test first time :yawn: That was probably like 40 or 50 years ago though :woot:

didnt driving licences come free with packets of cornflakes 50/60 years ago ??:confused::confused:

sorry misread your post, your dad can teach you but i know of people who have done the same and when they went for there test the examiners were a even more strict due to fact they hadnt been tought by a qualified instructor and sadly they seem to fail them and they all ended up going through a instructor, its a sad fact i know but the tests are getting harder all the time, i myself looked into been a instructor but the cost was out of this world :thumbdown:.

Unless the law has changed since I took my test (possible, I am old) you are not required by law to take any lessons at all.
However, taking lessons from a proper driving instructor will get you to the required standard to pass the driving test and teach you the test routes.

Don't assume you will pass your driving test just because you possess the ability to drive. I started driving at 11 on army bases and my friend's farm but I still needed lessons to pass my test.

thanks for the replies :thumbsup:

i am planning on getting my dad to teach me to drive, then get an instructor to 'refine my skills' - so to speak

learn to drive with an instuctor not your dad as you will only learn all his bad habits(not saying he has some of course)+ if you crash your dads car he's off the road too.
plus insurance for learner drivers is costly

quincey,

only thing with instructors mate, they are bloody expensive :thumbdown::mad:

i'm gonna use my mams car :lol:

insurance is more for qualified drivers than for learners :thumbdown::(

I did a weeks intensive course started driving on the monday and passed on the friday that was nearly 20 years ago so I dont know how much it is now or if it is still done. There could be arguments if your Dad teaches you.

agreed its expensive but the instructors will teach you what the examiners are looking for . it will pay in the long run.

take your initial lessons with an instructor, then when you feel competent, let your folks drive their car for experience. As it is, the instructor will teach you how to pass your test, not actual real world driving.

Best thing to do...
get a banger and go to a local farmer. See if you can 'borrow' his field/land for the day/weekend to learn how to drive the car. Once you have mastered clutch control and changing gear, then get on the road. It is the easiest way tbh.

HTH
Mark

I had about 7 or so and passed first time :thumbsup:

i wouldnt advice learning with parents, all my mates did this they failed at least once, i did mine with instructer, and passed first time!

Plus for your test i beleive you have to provide a car with dual controls!

Paul

The car you do your test in must have dual controls... I do think instuctors are much better, they teach you to understand all the laws, regs manouvers etc properly and are up to date with everything and give you a much better understanding and depth of everything and take you round all the roads where you could be told to go to drive round or do manouvers in your final test which is very helpful. My instructor has been excellent i've only had 7 lessons and am confident with everything and just doing 2 or 3 mock tests to find if there are an weaknesses in my driving refining those then doing my test after christmas

My friend of mine passed his driving test on his 17th birthday in a standard Rav4 - no dual controls. He didnt have any lessons, his dad has a Toyota dealership so he just used to drive round the yard.. The story was even in our local paper :thumbsup:

This isnt true. The car just needs L plates and an extra rear view mirror.

I need to start thinking baout learning to drive but im a little unsure at the moment.

A

i was 17 in september and have been driving in fields and on car parks since i was 13 or so but i've had 14 lessons so far and go out on weekend with my dad and am only just ready for my test it could be done without an instructor but really it'll take longer and you might not be as safer driver without an instructor some schools can pass you in 10 hours but imo its better to do about 12 or more before u'll be ready.thats just me though you might pass after no lessons but everyone i know who has passed did similar amount of lessons before they were ready.

:confused: i stand corrected, I though it was compulsary :eh?:

driving instructors teach you how to pass the test, so you'd need a few for things to learn tricks and tips etc.
when you pass, you teach yourself how to drive

My girlfriend failed 3 tests over a 8 yr period then I got her a bannger and tought her myself, this included me driving her banger as I normaly would drive a car and giving her a note book and pen so she could point out all the mistakes I had made ( deliberate or not ) and learn from the experiance, she also had a couple of mock tests with an instrcutior and finaly passed :)

The bannger was totaly road legal so before it died I tought her how to hand break turn and some other fun manouvers :)

we also did some motorway stuff lane dicipline blind spots getting on getting off aproach speed etc.


15 yrs ago I passed my test 1st time with only 7 lessons, how ?

I did realy well until the examiner forgot we were in a dual controll car streached out her legs and hit the brakes and clutch realy hard, I managed to indicate check mirrors and pull the car to the kerb in about 5 seconds, she was so flusterd she spent the remailder of the test chatting at me and missed a few mistakes I would have failed on.

Needless to say when she told me I'd passed I put all thoughts of taking the matter of the dual controlls and their impropper use any further out of my mind;)

Here are requirements of cars suitable for tests

I would recommend choosing an instructor who isn't in it for the money and not just to get you through the test. I would try a few different driving schools and pick the best one for you and one that takes you beyond test standard including hazard perception and blind spot checking!! Sometimes a more expensive instructor and longer time taken is better then a cheap and fast way to learn.
I started learning in september 07 and passed in june 08 after failing once for a test where i felt i was not ready to be on the road on my own.

That what i did when i learnt and so far touch wood it has helped me not to crash into anyone. I also did my pass plus with my instructor.

Chris

I would advise an instructor that comes well recommended locally. I would not however have lessons from the start, only when you have grasped the basics.

Basic clutch and car control, such as hill starts etc can be taught by family etc. You dont want to spend 15 quid and an hour learning to bunny hop in an instructors car!!!!
There are various locations such as old airports etc that allow you to use their site, set out with junctions etc so u are not on the road causing mayhem or having confidence knocked and being put off for life.

I had 6 lessons, drove family car whenever we all went out. I know this 17 years ago. I do cringe when i hear that people spend several hundred quid on lessons.
Hasnt done me any harm...have been advanced driver for years too.

Good luck, be careful, there are many idiots out there.

I had a huge number of lessons spaced out over a couple years, problems with time and money constraints meant I had a few long ish breaks and had to start back a bit from where I had got to each time. Anyway by the end of this I could get used to different car (I drove a total of 6 before i passed) in around 45minutes if that, and going to 3 different instructors gave me a pretty varied experience of the different ideas going around, surprising how different everyones opinions and methods of teaching are.

Anyway my main point was the best thing I ever did for learning was buy my own car, insure it (it's actually cheap as a learner just because there's always someone in the car with you, you're all labelled up with the overtake me plates etc) and start driving whenever me/my parents needed to go somewhere. By this time I had had a few lessons, but for the cost of 8 2 hour lessons i had unlimited driving time for petrol money, bargain! (yes my car was under £250 :thumbsup:)

I would say have a few lessons, get used to driving and make sure you know what you're doing, as I was quite often correcting my parents on lane discipline and the highway code :thumbsup: and then find your own car, you're going to buy one eventually anyway so why not get your moneys worth ! :)

It's good to drive a few different cars as well, as some instructors will teach you a one car technique for doing certain manoeuvres whereas it's far better to learn how to do it properly. My last instructor did this and I passed my test doing a reverse park and reverse around a corner for the first time in my own car, parents were usually busy so were fine with a drive there and back in my car but not sitting around for an hour or so while i practiced manoeuvres.

Think there should probably be a prize for getting through that wall of text :eh?:

10 Lessons for me in 9 weeks, nearly 10 years ago :o

You start to learn how to drive when you go out on your own, you have nobody to keep you away from the kerb or hit the brake.

If you get it wrong you die :lol:

or roll a fiat panda with 4 mates in it on a dis used airfield trying to do a J turn:thumbdown:

we were all fine and the car even passed its next mot:woot:

just pushed it back onto its wheels and away we went :woot:

OK... defo go with an instructor then :eh?:

that was after I passed my test :blush:

I was only 18 at the time though