How much to budget for driving lessons?

[piknmix]

Would love to get my dd some driving lessons for her 17th birthday. How much, generally, am I looking at here (I know it's 'how long is a piece of string' but overall, in general, what's the cost lessons these days plus exam plus everything else including learner insurance)?

[poisonedbypen]

Dad's instructor said to budget for 40 lessons (at £20-£25 each). DD took more, DS fewer. Insurance about £80/month from Marmalade (gives them a separate policy to yours). I'm not sure how much the theory & practical tests cost these days.

[Pebbles574]

Yes, I've heard about 35-40 hours of lessons, although DS probably only had 25-30 as DH and I took him out to practice a lot. Ours were £25 an hour.

[Pebbles574]

Exam was about £70 iirc? And Theory test a bit less.

Exam costs more if a weekend, and plan for them not to pass first time!

[lljkk]

40-50 lessons is pretty typical, so 50 x £30 = £1500.

A lot of instructors offer some kind of multi-buy deal, so book 4 in advance for £100, etc.

[NeganLovesLucille]

DD1 (17) is currently learning to drive.her instructor offered a package. We paid £650 for 30 hours of lessons, the price also includes one attempt at both theory and practical tests. Hopefully DD will pass beofre we need to spend more. Car insurance went up by £200 for the year so that she can drive DH's car to practise in between lessons.

[BackforGood]

If she doesn't need to wait until she has earned the money to pay for a lesson each week, then she'd probably need fewer overall if she either booked 2 lessons a week, or a 2 hour lesson each week. She'll make faster progress and be ready for her test sooner.
If you have a 2 hour lesson, you can also travel further, so get the chance to practice on different types of roads that might not be local to you..... country roads / busy High Street / dual carriageway roads / roads with filter lanes to get on them and several lanes (like motorways) / etc.

[AndNoneForGretchenWieners]

We paid for 25 lessons for DS and it cost £500 upfront. He is about 15 lessons in now and has just passed his theory test; his instructor says he may need another 15 lessons to be ready for his practical.

[IHaveBrilloHair]

Dd is 17 later this year and I'll be paying for her to learn to drive.
It's around £25 an hour, so basically that much a week.
I can't afford a big up front cost but can do the weekly cost.

[gillybeanz]

We could only afford to pay for 12 lessons and family and friends paid for the theory and exam.
The kids had to work to pay for the rest as we couldn't afford anymore.

If you can take them out this helps.
Driving round a roundabout at a supermarket car park when it's closed is good for this, steering is sorted as really tight circles, along with helping with parking.
Industrial estates are good and if you know anyone with private land that's a huge bonus.
The more they practice the fewer lessons they need, generally.

[MadisonAvenue]

We're currently in the midst of paying for lessons for our 17 year old. The first four lessons were £35 so he had those and he's now on his third block of ten, each block costs £215.

I need to buy another ten soon as he's now had a total of 30 lessons, so has just four more left that have been paid for, and he's got a test date but we booked it in early December and the first available date was at the end of March. The theory test cost £23 and the practical test is £62.

[piknmix]

Thanks all. Pretty flabbergasted at how expensive it is, though. Best start saving.,,

[Plummer88]

I’m currently learning to drive and even at nearly 30 my mum is paying - bless her.

I had an assessment lesson which was £20 (I’ve learnt in the past but not driven for 8 years) then she’s just paid £220 for a block of 5 2 hour lessons. Instructor doesn’t think I’ll need more than the 10 hours.

Theory test is £23 and practical test is £62. Ouch!

[Sparklingbrook]

DS1 had about ten two hour lessons when he was 17. And lots of practice in my car.

[gillybeanz]

it's really not expensive though, most private tutors charge £30 an hour for anything, a driving instructor has to pay insurance, fuel, maybe personal liability too.

[NapQueen]

Itd cost the same just taking them out and about as you would need to have them on your insurance which isnt cheap. At least with lessons theres insurance included.

[Fad]

It matters how good the instructor is. Don't just get the cheapest, ask around for recommendations. I used a local one man firm who seems to have taught most of DC's friends. Both DC had about 25 lessons at about £23 a go. Theory test and practical test prob another £100 on top. I also put them on my car and did a lot of practice with them, the insurance was another £800.

[Fad]

Also avoid the crash course (no pun intended). They need to drive often and in lots of different conditions over a period of time, in rain, ice, dark, fog heavy traffic and country roads. Not one nice week in May.

[Tippexy]

Are learners allowed on motorways @BackforGood?!

[FrivolouslyFancifulFannie]

took me 6 months with 2 tests and lessons it came to about £1100 paying as i went in blocks of 20hrs

[FrivolouslyFancifulFannie]

that was 1 2hr lesson a week up until 1st test then between 1st and 2nd test i was doing 2x2hr lessons per week, 1hr is not enough and anything over 2hrs you loose concentration imo

[FrivolouslyFancifulFannie]

sorry meant blocks of 10 not 20, that also included 1 theory test

[Fad]

I'm not sure whether there are plans to allow learners on motorway but after DC passed their test I paid for one more lesson on motorway driving too scared to do it myself.
Agree about off road practice. We found an empty car park on a Sunday and spent ages doing various parking techniques.

[BackforGood]

No Tippexy, that's why it is useful to practice on those A roads that have a similar set up..... 2 or even 3 lanes to move across, and a slip road to get on and filter into traffic.
Because my dc had done all that with their instructor during lessons, it was no big deal going on an actual motorway once they passed their tests.

[Etymology23]

I had 7 two hour lessons and a 3 hour lesson, plus lots of practice on an old airfield before I learnt. £45 for 2 hrs, £60 for three. I was also practicing privately as well.

[TeenTimesTwo]

Number of lessons depends on how much you can take her out to practice in between (and how patient you are).

DD took 2 goes at the theory because we let her revise on her own for the first one. For the second one DH sat her down with a book of 900+ questions and went through each one with her ...

DD with dyspraxia did about 80hours of driving in total before taking and passing first time in an automatic. However she only had 4 actual paid for lessons (with DH in the back seat). But we had sort of accidentally found/bought a car with dual controls to practice in so DH was able to do much more teaching than otherwise would have been possible.

We have since looked and seen that there are dual control kits for modifying normal cars. We will seriously consider this when DD2 is old enough in 4 years time.