AIBU to think I could learn to drive in a week?

[HamJam1]

Passed my theory but I still cant drive, dont have access to a car and cant afford lessons, practical js booked. Wooo!
A friend has suggested i go spend a week at her place where she can teach me, how possible do you think it is to learn to drive a manual car in a week? Is that insane? I dont even know how to turn an engine on

You don’t have to believe me! But I think when you do four hours a day you learn much quicker as it’s more intensive.

No I actually drove to visit my sister that weekend 😂😂

How much experience do you have?

I passed my test very quickly because I had a mum and dad that both drove plus I am a gamer and so has lots of gaming driving experience as well as good hand/eye coordination, reflexes etc

My friend on the other hand didn’t have patents that’s drove, nor was she a gamer etc and so her only experience of the roads were buses which isn’t really helpful.

I think you’d get loads of experience and it will be amazing but whether you’re ready to take your test would completely depend on you as a learner.

Why not have a couple of proper lessons, go to hers for the week to gain confidence and more experience and then perhaps have another proper lesson to make sure that you are doing the things examiners want to see.

😂😂😂👏👏👏

This is how I learned. It's been 40 years now and I've driven all kinds q vehicles all over the world. BUT as soon as I passed my test, I was driving every day. If you don't, you'll struggle.

Nor now it was for me. I had lived in a city and didn't have anyone in the family who drove. Got a job, wanted a promotion but had to be able to drive to get it. So booked one of these courses. However it was a proper one. What made a difference was that I had cycled all over the city I lived in, and the instructor told me I had excellent road sense as a result. Passed me test on Friday of the week of the course, was in a pool car on a site visit the week after. I also had bought a car and drove to work with a colleague who lived close to me for a while for moral support.

Hi OP - there certainly are intensive courses where you can learn to drive in 5 days - my DD went in one.

be sure to check if they actually guarantee a practical test at the end of the week - my DD’s did not, it was about 6 weeks after the actual course.

the website was very woolly on this and I did not think to check.

there is whole issue with getting tests these days which was not the case years ago.

I did 6 lessons (can't remember how long - 30 or 60 minutes?) over the space of a few weeks then passed my test.

No practice in between, we only had XH's work car which wasn't insured with me as a learner.

I only learned in an automatic though, and with a professional instructor.

I will say I was always a very interested and alert passenger, so I felt I already had good road/traffic sense and just needed to master control of the car.

That was decades ago and I have an unblemished driving record.

Have you actually booked your practical test without having driven?

If you get in plenty of driving every day, I think you'd be ready if you're good at it. Some people learn quickly, some take longer, but a week of driving a couple hours a day and unless you were still jerking and hitting curbs and stuff, you'd probably pass.

A standard shift will be harder though.

See how you do at your friend's. Make signalling automatic. Leave good following distance. Don't scream at dumb people doing dumb things on the road.

DC did an intensive course over 6 days and passed first time. It was 34 hours of instruction with a very experienced instructor. They had previously only driven a few times around car parks at night with DH. I think my advice would be to go with your friend for the week, but then book a few professional lessons (unless your friend is an actual instructor). I’ve been driving for many years, but wouldn’t suggest I could teach someone from scratch in a week. It can be done though, if you have a natural aptitude and a good instructor.

Is your friends car automatic?

I learned as an adult so I did automatic lessons because I wanted to buy an EV when I passed. DH has a manual licence but the second car he owned was an auto and he's had autos ever since.

Manual licences are useful if you think you'll be buying a manual car or if you're a teen whose mum and dad are buying them a cheap first car. Everyone else just go auto from the start, less faff.

My friends tended to have longer lessons, an hour and a half or two hours. Many of them were driving after 12-15 lessons, but that would have been 18-30 hours of lessons. DD’s friends all seem to have needed more lessons than that before they pass. I think the test is harder than it used to be, and building experience over time, letting it embed, having lessons through different seasons, all that helps people be better drivers.
Op you could learn the basics, especially if you learn this sort of thing quickly or you cycle everywhere at the moment, but it’s unlikely you would get anywhere near enough experience to be safe on the road. You could learn how to set off, drive, when to change gear, hill starts. You would then need to have some professional lessons as you need to follow sat nav, do manoeuvres , it takes time relax into it. How old are you ?

This happened to me. A belt broke in the engine (cam? timing? Car was ruined). Thankfully I'd been driving a long time AND there was a hard shoulder.

Most of that stuff you learn after you pass though. Intensive courses aren't for everyone but they can work.

Having said that, just going out with your friend everyday for a week is unlikely to work

It's theoretically possible yeah. But I did an intensive course over 4 days and failed, and that was having had (a few years earlier, granted) quite a few lessons already. When I re-did it 'properly' I passed with 1 minor.

yeah, it doesn't make any sense!

I could hazard a guess about what to do if the poster had said 'when your engine cuts out' (hazards on, try and get to the hard shoulder with the speed you've built up) but if your engine wouldn't start at all how did you get to the motorway in the first place?

The only scenario I can think of if there was an accident and the whole motorway came to a standstill, you turned your engine off while you were waiting and when the crash cleared it wouldn't start - but in that scenario all you could do is ask people to help push it to the hard shoulder, and you don't need a driving license to do that because you won't be driving!

100%. You'll be a danger to yourself and the rest of us

I did it in July 1999.

You can learn how to operate a car in no time, yes.
but learning how to drive takes weeks of practice