Is learning to drive worth it?

[hypephesia]

I live in inner London. Can’t really get a car here. But would be useful to drive when visiting areas outside of London or abroad. Plus I may one day move out of London.

The problem is that learning to drive is so expensive. No one I know has a car to teach me. So I’ve estimated it will cost about £1,500 to learn to drive. That would be a big chunk of my savings too.

Is it worth it?

How old are you? Do you have kids? What do you do for work, is it ever likely that not being able to drive would limit roles?

I think learning to drive is a great skill and one vital for most people to have.

However,if you are currently living in London , managing to travel to and from work etc and no current plans to move away then learning to drive is not an urgent need.
Possible future hire cars or living far from public transport isnt a good excuse to spend so much right now. But you have raised the question now which makes me think that you really do want to learn quite soon . Therefore I would say go for it while you want to and have the means to do so. far better to do wit while you can than have to do it when it is imperative and maybe with lower savings.

Absolutely yes

Put it this way - it will only get more expensive. You can learn and pass now, it will likely come in useful at some point.

YES

Definitely!

Depends where you live. In inner London it’s entirely unessential.

But it’s a very useful life skill, and if you move out from there becomes more and more necessary.

Omg yes absolutely. Even if it's an automatic def do it

Hell yes - gives you such flexibility and independence. Well worth it.

I only learnt and passed last year and it’s been so worth it, even if you won’t drive immediately the option to hire a van, drive in another area etc is all useful.

I put off learning to drive for ages but if you can afford it then it is absolutely worth it, especially with the state of trains nowadays. Ultimately it is a skill for life and it’s unlikely to get less expensive but the longer you’ve been driving the cheaper insurance etc is. Even if you don’t need a car now it would be worth learning now even if you won’t use it for another 5 years. I also think it gets harder to learn the older you are.

Do you have other more pressing things to spend the money on?

I learnt at 30, I enjoyed learning later as it gave me something different to do outside of being 'mum'.

The only journey I really make that I couldn't manage on public transport is to take DD to her sports and around the county for matches. However the general convenience of nipping in the car to go to X, Y,Z is pretty life-changing.

I wouldn't bet on learning to drive and then only using it occasionally drive overseas possibly in the wrong side of the road, you'll likely not feel experienced enough to just do that.

I passed my driving test age 18... and didn't do any driving until age 24 when I moved to the outskirts of a small town & needed a car to get to work.

So yes, definitely worth it, if you can afford it. You never know what is around the corner.

Yes

DH grew up in inner London (and we still live there). He learnt at 35, it's useful but we so rarely drive that it's not at all essential.
I grew up rurally and passed my test as soon as I could at 17 - I was fed up of cycling up and down hills when I wanted to go anywhere!

If moving out of central London is currently more of a theoretical possibility than an active plan, and you have no pressing reason to learn right now, I would say learning to drive is probably not worth it for you at the moment.

I'd probably wait until you are closer to wanting to drive regularly. If you are not going to drive much for a while after passing your test then I think you might lose the skills/confidence.

YES!

I learned quite late and while it was expensive, I am so pleased I did it. The freedom to go where you want, when you want is amazing. I get in, turn the music up and live my life.

Being able to take your kids around is so special and I wish I had done it sooner.

Absolutely worth the cost. Independence is priceless.

Absolutely essential I would have said.

i did the same as you. I calculated how much learning to drive would cost. Plus the cost of buying a car and insurance. I couldn't afford it so i didn't learn. Now im early 30s and i still don't know. Im used to public transport. The only issue I had was doing a big shop (had to order online).

If you can afford it, have time and think you might buy a car in the future, then learn. If not then who cares. Driving is not an essential skill.

100% it's worth it.

Is learning to drive worth it?

Absolutely.
I can't think of a single disadvantage of having a driver's licence.
Even if your lifestyle/job doesn't currently require you to need one, that may change in the future so it is better for you to learn now, rather than having to learn and pass your test under pressure.
Plus it will only get more expensive!
Go for it and good luck.

Oh it’s definitely worth it! I passed at 40 while pregnant with my daughter. I wish I’d done it sooner. I’m not a confident driver and don’t do motorways but I’d struggle without my car. I’m in small town in Scotland. So quite rural

I live in London zone 2 and I dont drive, but I would like to learn when I have more time. Personally I find that it's not at all essential, but there are certain things I could do with a car which I can't do/are harder with public transport:

Certain holidays, eg Cornwall and other parts of the UK are hard to do without a car. We've done it but not been able to do certain excursions.

Big shops, especially to places like Ikea as their delivery costs are high (we just pay for delivery)

Some day trips eg NT properties and even places in outer London are hard to get to

Extracurriculars for dcs - would be quicker with a car and easier for them to rest in a car than a bus then tube

Picking up secondhand items eg from Ebay - I just don't buy certain things that are collection only, although I've managed to buy some large items and bring them home on the tube.

So mostly it would help with leisure activities or discretionary purchases, and so far I've managed without driving for important things (work is a 20 min walk and school is 5 mins). But I plan to learn once my youngest is in school so I'll have some free time.

I did try to learn to drive a couple of times in the past, and each time I spent well over £1.5k, because I'm dyspraxic and find it hard (and that was more than a decade ago so prices will be higher now), and I ended up failing both times. So I'd expect it to cost far more than that for me to learn to drive, although you may be much quicker. Like you I didn't have anyone to help me practice, so all my practice time was through paying for lessons, and it does add up. Insurance will be very expensive too for a new driver. So I'd make sure you can set aside a decent chunk to pay for lessons and all the other costs, because once you've started you have to keep going or you'll forget it all.