What did you have your lessons / take your test in?

[Albert Ross]

Took official lessons in a 1980 1.6 GL Mk Escort in Terracotta with vinyl roof and a dent in every vertical panel, practiced in a 1979 Volvo 343 DL 3 Door, KGK 148T, passed my test in it, January 1984, snow on the ground, new traffic lights on a roundabout, still passed! Drove from Slough to Bristol and then to Central London and back again, just for fun,, the same day before picking my Mother up from work in Hammersmith.... Oh the Joy of London driving...!

[whitevanman]

Once upon a time in a Galaxy...far, far away....oh feckfirst car was a 1976 Clubman in Inca Yellow, the instructor changed that for a pagent Blue 1978 1000......I went with him as I loved Mini's....I then bought a 1973 Civic with my mother as I couldn't stand driving Mini's and carried on learning and passing my test in it...I still hate Mini's to this day...spitefull little things but I'd have a first generation civic again ps sorry if I have incorrectly used ' in Mini's

[Pillock]

Rover 114 Kensington, courtesy of the AA Driving School. It was rubbish, 5th gear was behind my knee so I got a minor on my test for staying in 4th too long. It also had horribly unbalanced wheels thanks to learners kerbing the alloys - the instructors had been told not to rotate the wheels under any circumstance as it was cheaper to replace 2 wheels than 4 when it went to auction.It also struggled to get over 85mph, but then my instructor tutted at me and I slowed down. That was a motorway lesson after I passed, I figured I'd give the outside lane a go and got carried away

[gearoil]

My Dads 1988 Honda Ballade, which prompted a mahoosive barmy. I thought he was being stoney silent because I was cack and his rage was building, he didn't say anything as I'd taken to driving like a duck to water. Sorry Dad... (We had a similar fall out when he was trying to teach me wallpapering, except this time I was shite... ) This led to take two - a block booking piloting a 1992 Toyota Starlet, my instructor was a total perv and had me drive him past most high schools, the local college, town centre...

[Richard]

Is there any truth in the rumour that people who passed second time are better drivers than those who passed first time? I think there is, but I would say that.

[Pillock]

There's some truth to it, but TBH if you don't pass by 6 or 7 goes you're probably not going to be the best driver. One fail can be bad luck, a handful and you've got to question your ability. It's like that Maureen woman who was a minor 'celeb' after failing her test on Driving School on telly. If you take your test enough times, you might just pass through the laws of averages. She was a terrible driver even after she passed!I wanted to take my test after 10 lessons, but my instructor told me that it would be touch and go because of my confidence. I could drive, heck I got it into 3rd and did a few junctions on my first lesson! But I had no confidence, having had only ten hours on the road. He suggested I take another ten and just use the lessons to cruise around and get used to being on the road, it was bloody good advice. Didn't learn much in those but they made all the difference.

[trigger]

I learned to drive back in 1997, I had the same instructor as my mum had 12 years earlier, Really nice old chap, he made me do 80 mph on day on the A12 because "When i pass my test that will be how i drive so i might as well get some experience doing it!".He also called a bus driver a wanker once when he cut me me.His car was a K reg Astra Saloon 1.7TD in red, It was a nice car and had already cover nearly 300k by the time i had learned to drive in it.I had the same car for my test which i past first time.

[wuvvum]

I learned to drive (properly) at age 11 in my mum's 205 GLD (E827UNF, now sadly deceased) - I was in the Under 17 Car Club. Prior to that my only experience behind the wheel was driving my dad's car round the garden of our house in France - starting with the Renault 6 and moving up through Mk1 Astra, Renault Savanna and Montego TD. We also had a little green Citroën LN (602cc) which we kept there for local running about and I got to drive that a few times - taught me about clutch control...My driving lessons once I started driving on the road were in a 205 diesel again. It was 1995 but the driving school I used carried on buying 205s long after most had switched to 106/Clio/Punto as the boss reckoned they were more reliable. The remainder of my driving whilst on a provisional license was in my dad's 240 estate.

[Vin]

I passed in 1993 in the driving school Renault 5, GTL I think. It was E reg and beige to boot . Instructor was a local one man band outfit. Nice fella but going through a bit of a mid-life crisis and boy did I know about it. Being a captive audience I got to know about all his life troubles;- the wife, his kids, the fact the lasses he was fancying were all the same age as his 16 yr old daughter etc, etc.

 

He did have an annoying habit of reaching over and pressing the horn when I was driving past any loverley ladies in town......

 

As well as driving school lessons, Papa-Vin often took me out in Mutha-Vin's Panda, which I ended up buying off her...

 

Here's me on my 17th Birthday. Sunday 28th March 1993 going out for a drive....

 

EDIT - I actually learnt basics of clutch control, gearchanging and manouvering in the Summer of 1992 in this....

But the details of that might be more suited to another thread, on another day.....

[Albert Ross]

How did you kill a lovely maroon 5 door Renault with beige interior?

[Rogue trader]

My dad used to take me out in his 86 Sierra 1.6L but my instructor had an 86 Orion 1.4GL which I learned in this was about 1993 so quite old for a test car.

[andrew e]

This fella retired just before my 17th birthday - he was the local driving instructor using this traveller from new until 1991! As the picture below shows, he still is! Can you guess his other car behind?

 

 

So I learned to drive in a 1988 Sunny, then a 1992 Corrolla - my own car was a swallow tail Golf (it was a shitty old Golf then!) and I spent ages getting the wipers and indicators mixed up

[Volksy]

My instructors car was a Renault Clio Diesel, My own was a Mini 1100 Special, which I bought for £70

[Gompo]

First learnt to drive at 9-10 in a B-reg Nissan Patrol, a beast.I had lessons in 2000, in a Fiesta diesel, possibly X-reg so nothing exciting.When my Mum was ringing up about potential instructors my only rule was that I didnt want to learn in a Corsa, which omitted quite a lot out. She probably felt a bt silly asking each one what car you learnt in but it was important to me..

[VWPowered]

Micra for me :?own car was a 1983 VW Golf MK1 1.1C

[seth]

I think my first lesson was in a K10 Micra then moved on to a Sunny. First practice in my mum's car was when she still had the 1.3 Marina coupe but the clutch started slipping and it was scrapped. Replacement for that was a 1.3 Mk3 Escort. I don't remember what I took or passed my tests in but it was the instructors car. First test, I very nearly ran over two police horses on a dual carriageway.

[barrett]

I had lessons in a 2nd gen 1.2 Clio, which was perfectly fine. Instructor was a family friend who did me a deal on lessons, but he is a naturist so I didn't trust him at all.few drives after that in the step-dads 1.6 chav mk3. and thats my entire driving history.... I think the company i am going to do my refresher lessons with run Skoda Fabias, quite looking foward to getting behind the wheel of one of those monsters

[bigstraight6]

My first driving lesson was on my 17th birthday, 6th December 1984. The car was a MK3 Escort 1300 in chocolate brown, owned by my uncle that taught me to drive who indeed owned the driving school. The cambelt snapped on this when I was at the wheel some weeks later and he then had to use his gleaming red XR3I for a few weeks while repairs were completed on the brown 1300. I had a good few lessons in the XR, which I was very pleased about at the time, learning to drive in a XR3I in early '85 but it was still a horrible CVH engine!

[The Liberator]

This fella retired just before my 17th birthday - he was the local driving instructor using this traveller from new until 1991! As the picture below shows, he still is! Can you guess his other car behind?

andrew e, did you learn to drive in Billericay? Mrs_The Liberator remembers the Travellered-up driving instructor. She didn't use him either, learning in "some kind of Vauxhall" with an instructor who was a) in the desert with Monty; and a member of the Magic Circle.My driving instructor was much more standard instructor material, a chain smoker who would ask me to drive slowly past women in short skirts.

[brammy777]

I have only driven a 1.6 diesel Mini. I dont like them. Steering is too light. And its far too wide! I blame my college. When I would steer the knackered Escort van (unpowered) into the workshop, it was around 6 turns lock to lock. And it felt narrower! Suffice to say, I will be learning in another car when lesson times commence soon again.

[UglyAmerican]

Mostly learned to drive in a 2001 Nissan Altima, an ugly turd of a car shown here:

 

First ever lesson though was in my dad's GMC Suburban in a deserted parking lot. I still almost killed us, I think.

 

And for Driver Ed, offered by my high school, I piloted one of these minter Chevy Malibus, specially detuned for student duty:

[Tayne]

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[wilko]

I drove some rated shite off the public roads in my early teens (Dad works for a place that owns 500 acres), namely a Lamborgini tractor, a column change Renault 4 freezer van(!) and a Talbot Horizon 1.1 series II.I then graduated onto my first driving lessons on the road with dad in a Peugeot 309 1.9GRD & mk2 Fiesta 1.6D Popular Plus (parents still have a different pug diesel and a different fiesta - they're not very daring!). Driving instructor had a K plate N14 Sunny 1.4 on the carb. I hated that car because the automatic choke started playing up on it, and he packed me off to do my test in it like that, which lead to my failure. Re-took my test in the Fiesta & passed.

[Captain Mainwaring]

A local driving instructor's Corsa. Urgh.

[Clevtrev]

Learnt and passed first time in my instructors 1985 BMW 316. I think he quite a bit of business purely because he used a BMW rather than the usual Metro's and Micra's that everybody else seemed to use at the time. That was in April 1989. I promptly commandeered my mum's B-reg Rover 213SE automatic to smoke around in. Used to think it was very cool revving it up to 4 or 5,000 rpm in neutral and then dropping it into drive. In reality and looking back now, I probably looked like quite a large knob!

[mnde]

I got my first taste of driving in my parents' B reg 3dr Escort 1.3 base model, driving up and down a deserted station carpark on a Sunday. Then later I had lessons with Dad in our G reg Escort 1.3 Bonus. Meantime I'd joined the AA driving school and started off with a white VW Polo Mk IIF "coupe". I failed the test. My instructor changed to a Rover 100 and I had some more lessons... then I failed the test. Then my instructor switched to McLaren and I followed. I had a few more lessons in his new car, a Peugeot 106 Phase 1, which I really liked. I passed the test in it in Sept 96. Mark.

[UglyAmerican]

Learnt and passed first time in my instructors 1985 BMW 316. I think he quite a bit of business purely because he used a BMW rather than the usual Metro's and Micra's that everybody else seemed to use at the time.

There's a driving school in Oxford that has a fleet of Fiat 500s. That would be enough to get my money!

[andrew e]

This fella retired just before my 17th birthday - he was the local driving instructor using this traveller from new until 1991! As the picture below shows, he still is! Can you guess his other car behind?

andrew e, did you learn to drive in Billericay? Mrs_The Liberator remembers the Travellered-up driving instructor. She didn't use him either, learning in "some kind of Vauxhall" with an instructor who was a) in the desert with Monty; and a member of the Magic Circle.

Yup still live there! As does he at the top of Norsey road, don't remember the other fella, I had ABLE SOM squire.

[Gompo]

Learnt and passed first time in my instructors 1985 BMW 316. I think he quite a bit of business purely because he used a BMW rather than the usual Metro's and Micra's that everybody else seemed to use at the time.

There's a driving school in Oxford that has a fleet of Fiat 500s. That would be enough to get my money!

That was probably BSM/British School of Motoring. Very large driving school who operate nationwide more-a-less. They used to use Corsas but have recently moved to Fiat 500s. Not sure that's a good move on Fiat's behalf.

[Timewaster]

That was probably BSM/British School of Motoring. Very large driving school who operate nationwide more-a-less. They used to use Corsas but have recently moved to Fiat 500s. Not sure that's a good move on Fiat's behalf.

I would say it's a stunning move by Fiat!I'm told that Vauxhall walked away from it's deal with BSM which sold them Corsas soooo cheaply, they could sell them on at a year old at virtually no cost to them. Vauxhall benefited from a steady stream of new drivers who liked Corsas and were comfortable driving them, and a fair few would have persuaded daddy to buy them one or signed up for a pay forever, own it never deal.Now Fiat have that steady customer base, and on sealing the deal told the press that BSM chose 500's because they were THE cool, desirable car of the moment that everyone wants to drive- or words to that effect.Therefore implying that Corsas are not!