Let down by driving instructor on test day

[Oakleypaul]

DS has his driving test this morning. His instructor has phoned 10 mins before he’s due to pick him up for his pre test lesson to say his car has a flat tyre so DS is to meet him at the test centre in his own car for the test.

Im furious but keeping calm for DS. Thankfully DH is off work today so he’s quickly going over the under the bonnet stuff with him.

This instructor has also been an hour late on 3 occasions for lessons.

Poor DS.

Who or what are you furious at?

The tyre for getting a puncture?

Life happens. You sound like an unnecessarily angry person.

Well that's a huge drip feed. There was no mention of the car being new or unfamiliar in your OP, just that it was your sons car (which suggests he is familiar with it).

Oh ffs! What is the pojnt of replies like this other than to sound like an arsehole?

OP, hood luck to your ds, mine passed a couple of weeks ago. He has his own car but chose to take the test in the instructor's car anyway. Hope your ds stays calm and isn't put off by the change of plan.

Well done to your DS for passing the test with less than an ideal morning! He's done really well to not let this phase him. 👏

You can tell the people on this thread who haven’t had to navigate the shitshow of trying to get a driving test these last few years.

Read the whole thread! I’m not going to write an essay in my first post!

I'll go against the grain here. Hopefully a responsible driving instructor would leave plenty of time to pick up a student for the test, bearing in mind how difficult it is to book them. I can change a wheel on my car within about 10 minutes, so I'm sure the instructor can do the same. So all they had to do was put the spare on and go get a new tyre after the test.

Yes it is rubbish. And you'd move heaven and earth to sort it out if you were an instructor. A friend of mine who's an instructor had a mechanical problem with his car when he had a test that morning (fortunately late morning). He rushed off to a garage and got it fixed and off to the test.

A flat tyre should be easy to sort out unless the test is at 7am.

Except that most cars don't have a spare anymore, just a space saver that you can't drive properly on. However, I agree that unless it's an early morning test, a flat tyre is the easiest thing to sort out, and actually, thinking about it, if you were an instructor you'd have a mobile tyre person on speed-dial for exactly this sort of scenario and so they could come early morning if they had to.

Congratulations to your ds - clearly he was more than ready for his test if he could manage on another car so effectively.

That is beyond rubbish from the instrtuctor, surely he could have got the tyre changed in time for the test at least, even if it meant skipping the lesson. Glad to see he passed though! Also can't believe how nasty some of the reponses have been. Seems you can't vent on MN about having an unecessarily stressful morning without getting attacked any more!

Much better to be able to make alternative arrangements in advance.

My brother was abandoned in East London during a driving test back in the day because the speedometer stopped working. The examiner made him pull to the kerb, declared it a "defective vehicle" and dashed off to catch a bus leaving him in the car ....

things happen unfortunetly...fingers crossed for your son passing x

If it’s any consolation way back in the day my driving instructor didn’t turn up at all for my test and it wasn’t until a few days later we found out he had collapsed and died of a heart attack on his way to actually come and get me. I later did pass.

I think if you knew how difficult tests were to get you would have a different attitude! You have to be online at 05:15 SIX MONTHS IN ADVANCE in most places to get a test, so you miss one you have to wait six months for another.

These things happen and at least it was a good outcome.👍

I remember when I did my test.
Owned a mini which allowed me to have lots of driving experience but prior to the test I had 3-lessons with an instructor in a Metro.
It was arranged that I would have a 4th lesson in the Metro and go straight to my test. Trouble is that on the day, the instructor turned up in a diesel Fiesta (only dual-control courtesy car available while the Metro was in the garage) which was a completely different animal.
Test did not go well as I didn't know how to start the fiesta (had to wait for the pre-heat light to go out) and apart from the controls being unfamiliar (lights & wipers were on opposite sides which required greater concentration) it drove differently and I stalled it repeatedly.
All good though, the examiner said that although I stalled, my actions to restart were correct and everything else was fine.😁

That’s awful!!

It’s just not practical for everyone to have a back up plan though and for the cost of a test and the lessons you really shouldn’t have to! £43 for the pre test lesson, £43 to hire the instructors car for the test, £60 for the test itself. You shouldn’t have to also have your own vehicle ‘just in case’!

Exactly! I think that’s what a lot of posters aren’t understanding. It’s much harder than it was when we were learning, the whole system is a mess!

No it's not - it was said on the first page of this thread - my word there's only four so not hard to keep abreast of it all.

OakleyPaul, can I please ask you ignore this poster now - as I shall x

A similar thing happened to me on the day of my test. Driving instructor crawled along in the mini and drew to a halt outside our house. The clutch had just gone. Luckily my dad had not left for work so I took my test in his car which I had been practicing on. His car was a lot bigger . I obviously had to drive to the test, instructor said examiner would enjoy a bit more space in this car. No power steering in those days ! I managed my turn between curbs in 5 moves and passed 1st time!

Well done to your DS @Oakleypaul
Not the best preparation for keeping calm but he’s shown he can drive well under pressure!

I know a driving instructor and these things happen. They go out in the morning to find a wing mirror has been broken off or a headlamp smashed. Hope DS passes.

Hurrah ! Well done your ds.

Well aren’t you speaking from a very privileged position! Learners should use their own car, the parents of learners should be their main tutors, instructors should only be there to confirm what parents have taught. You do know that a lot of people who learn either don’t have a car yet and certainly don’t have parents at their disposal to be their instructors.