Eyerseyette Driving Shenanigans and assorted shite

[Eyersey1234]

This thread is to record my stepdaughter's driving lessons and eventually the piece of automotive tat we buy for her, partly as a record for myself but for the 2 and a half of you who might be interested as well. She has had 6 lessons so far bit we are on the lookout for another instructor as we aren't impressed with the one she has, she still isn't driving for the full hour and the instructor is still in charge of the brakes even under normal driving. 

[New POD]

Check out marmalade learner insurance.

It's not as cheap as it used to be, but if the parent has a suitable car, they will add cover for the learner at about 12 quid per week (if you buy 4 weeks at a time) 

Once she's had 6 lessons*** she should be ready for practice with mum or dad.

Some kids have zero experience of being in the road, have never cycled, and have zero road sense, and brakes are alien, so it actually might take longer.

We took our kids down to the beach car park, in the evenings when its just a few dog walkers, where there's a circular road connecting 3 parking areas, and got them to go up and down the gears, and try pressing the brake hard and soft, in relative safety.   Did that probably 15 times, 3 or 4 times a week. before we then ventured on the road proper, but they were having 1 lesson a week, so by the time they went on the road with mum or dad they had had 5 lessons with the instructor, but 3 times that around the beach car park. Probably 20 hours in total. 

Once they were driving on the road, we got them to drive us everywhere.  Daughter drove us the Lake District up the A6, for a weekend away. About 60 miles each way. 

Son  shared the Driving to Oxford For a wedding.  He did about 80 miles of the 140 mile journey each way. 

 

[AnnoyingPentium]

I found it was cheaper to insure a car in my own name than it was for my Mum to get a policy on her car with her as the main driver. Collingwood offered me a good rate at £261 on just about any car and I snapped it up at the time, no black box either. Once I passed it was AXA through My Policy that I went with, and still am with, even if the company they use for fitting the black box don't like me for reasons beyond my understanding.

I got 16+ off-road lessons supplied by a local driving school in Irvine courtesy of a voucher my Gran and Grampa gave me for my 16th birthday, then moved onto on-the-road in Ayr lessons with the same instructor, who I was with until I passed. I got use of various cars in the family on private ground and the Fabia and the Duster on the road with the 'L' plates donned front and back.

[Eyersey1234]

We have found another instructor for her, hopefully this one will be better.

[RoverFolkUs]

How much do they charge these days? I've heard noises from various people of it being about £45 an hour!

[AnnoyingPentium]

Just now, RoverFolkUs said:

How much do they charge these days? I've heard noises from various people of it being about £45 an hour!

I was £30 an hour, but £28 if I booked a block of ten.

[RoverFolkUs]

Just now, AnnoyingPentium said:

I was £30 an hour, but £28 if I booked a block of ten.

That's Highland prices though 😉

[RoverFolkUs]

Just now, RoverFolkUs said:

That's Highland prices though 😉

....come darn 'sarf and then South East Tax ® is automatically applied!

[Eyersey1234]

13 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

How much do they charge these days? I've heard noises from various people of it being about £45 an hour!

Round here it is from £25-30 an hour

[RoverFolkUs]

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Round here it is from £25-30 an hour

Not so bad then. Kids are only paid about £5 an hour these days so was struggling to imagine how they'd afford as much as £45 an hour for driving lessons if that was the case!

[Eyersey1234]

It was £20 an hour when I was learning in 2004-5

[AnnoyingPentium]

My Mum was £12 (mates rates) but would have been £15 per hour. That would have been c.1998/99.

[Eyersey1234]

Fred update for anyone interested. She starts her lessons with the new instructor a bit later this month, hopefully this one is better than her previous one. We have also been offered a car for her from the owners of the garage we use, a Suzuki Ignis, though she at first rejected it out of hand and said she didn't like it and won't drive it 

[Asimo]

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

though she at first rejected it out of hand and said she didn't like it and won't drive it 

Walk then.

[Wibble]

£45 per hour not uncommon round here. I regret giving my son any choice in the car @Eyersey1234. Didn’t like most of the sensible suggestions and now really not getting on with the Bini.

[AnnoyingPentium]

Get the lass a K11 Micra. If she doesn't like it, she walks. Simples.

[Crackers]

On 03/04/2022 at 19:24, New POD said:

Once she's had 6 lessons*** she should be ready for practice with mum or dad.

Humour me, where'd the 6 come from?

[New POD]

4 minutes ago, Crackers said:

Humour me, where'd the 6 come from?

Random number generator. 

Although, basically if you've never really rode a bicycle on the road, never ridden a motorbike, or moped, you probably have zero road sense. I'd say 6 hours is the minimum, before you can be trusted enough to operate without dual controls. 

What we did was drive them to the beach car park in the evenings or early morning and have them.drive around and around. With the odd emergency stop, and a few reversing and u turn exercises thrown in, before they went on the road for real (they were insured because it's a public area) 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, New POD said:

Random number generator. 

Although, basically if you've never really rode a bicycle on the road, never ridden a motorbike, or moped, you probably have zero road sense. I'd say 6 hours is the minimum, before you can be trusted enough to operate without dual controls. 

What we did was drive them to the beach car park in the evenings or early morning and have them.drive around and around. With the odd emergency stop, and a few reversing and u turn exercises thrown in, before they went on the road for real (they were insured because it's a public area) 

This is basically what I did, along with the off-road lessons.

On 4/3/2022 at 7:45 PM, AnnoyingPentium said:

I got 16+ off-road lessons supplied by a local driving school in Irvine courtesy of a voucher my Gran and Grampa gave me for my 16th birthday, then moved onto on-the-road in Ayr lessons with the same instructor, who I was with until I passed. I got use of various cars in the family on private ground and the Fabia and the Duster on the road with the 'L' plates donned front and back.

 

[LightBulbFun]

On 07/04/2022 at 22:16, RoverFolkUs said:

....come darn 'sarf and then South East Tax ® is automatically applied!

Driving lessons for me where about £28 an hour, but because Central London, they where always 2 hour lessons, as you couldn't actually go anywhere in an hour, so swings and roundabouts and all that!

 

@Eyersey1234 glad to see your changing instructor without too much hesitation

one of the "bad" things I did was stick with an instructor who's methods did not get on with me, as I was thinking of the mind set of a bad workman blames his tools, but when I switched instructors things improved quite a bit!

 

another thing I find helps, is if you can take your daughter to the FoD or such location where she can drive some actual autoshite cars

I learnt Clutch control in a Lada Riva which meant for me when I started proper driving school lessons, clutch control was about the one issue I never had on my road to learning how to drive LOL

and then later on I drove quite a few cars round the FoD, and the 2CV especially, boosted my confidence enormously, such a lovely car to drive and bomb around in, it was pretty much the only car beside my own that I felt relaxed driving in at the time

I found doing that, going around the FoD, with no instructors or other external traffic, road rules or where your going to worry about, helped me a lot, as I was able to just focus on having a good time and getting an actual feel for this whole driving malarky  

and by working on getting the actual driving aspects into muscle memory so to speak, freed up brain space for focusing on all the other stuff that comes with driving on the public highway, like roundabouts LOL

although I imagine a lot of this probably helped me, because of my actual *want* to drive, where as a lot of people only drive as a means to get from A to B and im not sure how much it would help them!

[Wibble]

Absolutely agree with this @LightBulbFun. All I ever wanted was to be able to drive. When I was 14 and we were on holiday in Ireland, dad pulled over on a remote country road and offered me a shot of his 1983 Carlton. I jumped in and drove off, much to my mother’s annoyance, as she really struggled to learn in a manual.

Back to the present and wibblet senior doesn’t have that same natural instinct and despite all my hopes, just hasn’t got the same natural ability, or maybe desire, to master it 🙁

[goosey]

Adrian Flux offer good leaner driver insurance we pay £285 fully comp 

for my daughter (the learner) myself and my wife on a 99 1.0 Seat Arosa 

 

[Wibble]

Yep, not too bad whilst they’re learners. Ours is £300 fully comp on 1.4 Mini One for him, wifey and myself. Doesn’t allow commuting though, hence flat battery due to his disinterest.

[Eyersey1234]

Theory test booked today

[Eyersey1234]

Madam also had her first lesson with the new instructor a couple of days ago, seemed to go well.

[Eyersey1234]

On 5/10/2022 at 10:03 PM, Wibble said:

Absolutely agree with this @LightBulbFun. All I ever wanted was to be able to drive. When I was 14 and we were on holiday in Ireland, dad pulled over on a remote country road and offered me a shot of his 1983 Carlton. I jumped in and drove off, much to my mother’s annoyance, as she really struggled to learn in a manual.

Back to the present and wibblet senior doesn’t have that same natural instinct and despite all my hopes, just hasn’t got the same natural ability, or maybe desire, to master it 🙁

I couldn't wait to learn to drive either, passed my car test October 05, bus May 07 and class 2 lorry January 17.

[Eyersey1234]

On 5/10/2022 at 9:42 PM, LightBulbFun said:

Driving lessons for me where about £28 an hour, but because Central London, they where always 2 hour lessons, as you couldn't actually go anywhere in an hour, so swings and roundabouts and all that!

 

@Eyersey1234 glad to see your changing instructor without too much hesitation

one of the "bad" things I did was stick with an instructor who's methods did not get on with me, as I was thinking of the mind set of a bad workman blames his tools, but when I switched instructors things improved quite a bit!

 

another thing I find helps, is if you can take your daughter to the FoD or such location where she can drive some actual autoshite cars

I learnt Clutch control in a Lada Riva which meant for me when I started proper driving school lessons, clutch control was about the one issue I never had on my road to learning how to drive LOL

and then later on I drove quite a few cars round the FoD, and the 2CV especially, boosted my confidence enormously, such a lovely car to drive and bomb around in, it was pretty much the only car beside my own that I felt relaxed driving in at the time

I found doing that, going around the FoD, with no instructors or other external traffic, road rules or where your going to worry about, helped me a lot, as I was able to just focus on having a good time and getting an actual feel for this whole driving malarky  

and by working on getting the actual driving aspects into muscle memory so to speak, freed up brain space for focusing on all the other stuff that comes with driving on the public highway, like roundabouts LOL

although I imagine a lot of this probably helped me, because of my actual *want* to drive, where as a lot of people only drive as a means to get from A to B and im not sure how much it would help them!

Don't think madam would want to drive most of the cars on here to be honest she's a fussy bugger 🤣🤣

[DVee8]

1 hour ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Don't think madam would want to drive most of the cars on here to be honest she's a fussy bugger 🤣🤣

What car does madam desire?

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Don't think madam would want to drive most of the cars on here to be honest she's a fussy bugger 🤣🤣

Nice* wee Fabia suit her? 😂😂

[Eyersey1234]

30 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

What car does madam desire?

A black Corsa, Golf or Fiesta ST at the moment, good luck on getting insured on a ST at 17 🤣🤣