Driving leassons!

[Megainstant]

dd will be 17 in a month. We'd like to give her some driving lessons - we aren't very well off so don't think I can afford a block of 10 at £25 a pop. I've applied for her provisonal licence - do you think four lessons is ok as a gift? I will add her to my car insurance so she can have the odd practice with me.

[Oblomov21]

In line with the government’s roadmap announcement, driving and theory tests will resume no earlier than 12 April

Now, it is less likely that lessons will resume before April 12, as far stricter restrictions will be in place until then..


I want to know, for Ds1, when driving lessons will start again.

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[swingofthings]

mmm, at £180, it seems a bit steep. You can get 10% off insurance, but it still seems a lot after you've paid for lessons, test and insurance.

[OCSockOrphanage]

DS tells me that his instructor reckons Pass Plus is best taken after about six weeks solo practice. I didn't even know it existed.

[swingofthings]

Good timing of a thread! DD is turning 17 next month and is keen on getting on with learning to drive. Although I don't want to spoil her with paying all lessons/car/insurance, I am also keen for her to get over with it asap. Realistically, she will struggle to get to help for anything. She is doing 4 A levels, and doing a lot of volunteering in preparation for an application to medical school. She has started to do some work, but it's only a few hours there and then, so nothing that is going to help much.

The other problem is that my car and DH's are company cars only a couple of years old and quite large cars, so not an option to have her added to our insurance.

The only alternative would be to get a small car, insure on my name, and then add her as a second driver, but that is not going to be cheap and she doesn't need a car at all, we live 10 mns away from the town centre and train station, and her 6th form. At the same time, I know that if she doesn't get used to driving regularly, she will most likely lose her confidence and have to start again in a few years time, which will be costly anyway.

I guess for now will focus on her getting her provisional licence and signing up for the theory test!

[poisonedbypen]

They can do Pass Plus straight away.

[OCSockOrphanage]

DS has been learning since early August and takes his test in three weeks. We are rural so it's vital that he learns if he is to have some freedom and to free me from the school runs. I think he will pass first time as he no longer drives like a learner. He has had about 14 hours instruction plus lots of practice going shopping and to and from school.

Insurance in his name, with a black box, was £1300 while learning, but the broker reckoned without claims, it would drop 25%, then 30% in third year and 40% after four years, but he will still only be 21 then. We are planning that he should do the advanced course after he's had his license a year, which should reduce the cost a bit further.

[Peaceandl0ve]

I know what you mean Lottie, I think I was trying to say that it may not be necc to provide loads of lessons, although it does depend on the individual situation.

[19lottie82]

Peaceandlove, that's great, well done for your daughter, but I don't think it's realistic for the OP to expect / hope her DD will be the same.

The problem is that instructors are teaching their pupils "how to pass the test", and you don't get that as much when out with a non professional instructor.

[Peaceandl0ve]

Sorry to go against the consensus but my DD had about 6 lessons, and lots of driving with us. As soon as she was safe she drove everywhere, in the end it took her 3.5 months to pass her test.

[KnightsOfCydonia]

It's unlikely that she will reach test standard from just 4 lessons and private practice.
Shop around many driving schools do deals on block bookings for example or tell her to get a weekend job and pay for her own lessons once she has used up the ones you are buying.

[BackforGood]

No idea why that went all into italics!

[BackforGood]

I would give her a "promise voucher" to be cashed in when she has saved up enough to have some further lessons. 4 lessons won't be enough, and adding her to your insurance will be a lot, particularly when you compare how many professional lessons she can get for that.
My dcs (for the previous Christmas and for their birthdays) asked all their relatives who would normally buy them a top or a CD or something, to not buy a gift, but to put the money into their driving lesson fund - that got another couple of lessons.
Then my advice would be to save up until she can buy a decent block of about 15 lessons, and have two hour lessons, or lessons two or three times a week. She will get on MUCH faster that way, than having 4 then not being able to have any more. I feel that 4 will be a bit wasted.

To whoever it was that asked ...... my 17 yr old dd passed this year - after a LOT of phoning around / internet searching, I was able to add her on to my car insurance for about £600 more than I'd normally pay across the year. However, when my 20 yr old ds passed about 4 months later, it would have cost us £1300 to add^ to the shared care, for the remaining 8 months of the policy.

[19lottie82]

Can your DD afford to keep on the lessons after she uses the 4 that you buy her for her birthday? She will need at least one a week after that.

If she can't (and you can't) afford to keep them going, is there much point in starting them? Sorry I don't mean to be blunt

TBH if it's going to cost, for example £75 a month to put her on your insurance to practise, you'd (IMO) be better putting the money towards 3 lessons a month instead.

Those learning to drive often need to be wary about picking up bad driving habits when under the supervision on a non professional instructor.

[bigbluebus]

Mgainstant I would say it all depends if she is going to be able to fund some more lessons herself eg from a part time job. 4 lessons plus a bit of driving around in your car isn't going to be enough in my opinion.

My DS had around 20 lessons with an instructor and was added to the insurance on our small car (1.3 Panda) after a few lessons. The insurance went up from £200pa to around £1000pa. He passed his test and the insurance was due for renewal a month later - it went down to around £900 and then £800 the following year. As a named driver on the policy he built up a no claims bonus (2 years) and has just bought a 3 year old 1.4 Fiat Punto which it has cost £420pa to insure with a black box. He is still only 19 but as we live in a rural area I think the insurance was probably cheap in comparison to many other areas.

[Violetcharlotte]

I meant to add, my insurance co ( Allianz) won't add him to my policy, there's quite a few companies that do leaner driver polices (Avila, Marmalade,etc) It's not cheap though

[Violetcharlotte]

My sons 17 and learning to drive. I've committed paying for his lessons, I can (just!) afford to do this and I want to as see driving as a life skill and my parents did for me.

I've told him if he wants to be insured on my car he'll need to contribute to the cost from the money he earns from his pt job.

I think unless you can commit to paying for enough lessons for them to pass their test, then it's not worth just paying for a few lessons, wait until they're working and can afford to pay for it themselves.

[Sparklingbrook]

I pay around £75 a month for DS to practice in my car. It has nothing to do with my insurance, we used Marmalade and it's in his name. That's the price of three/four 'proper' lessons. I signed up for a month to start with and will have to renew it soon.

[NicknameUsed]

"I will add her to my car insurance so she can have the odd practice with me."

I imagine that the cost of doing that will be far higher than the cost of 10 lessons.

[janinlondon]

Eva yes, postcode is a killer. And age of the family car.

[Evariste]

A lot depends on your postcode as well as the size of the car. When I insured DS1 for his own car the cost rocketed if I put down his uni address rather than our own tiny village in the sticks.

Also as a named driver they must NOT be the main driver. Some companies don't believe you when you say the DC is not the main driver and they will quote as if they are.

Mine were allowed to borrow my car once or twice a week, perhaps into town or to their part time job. Certainly not to travel to sixth form every day - that would seem to me to be in the realms of "main driver". WE have no public transport other than dedicated school buses.

[janinlondon]

Oh PPP cross posted there - that sounds closer. Thank you! I was starting to think I had an unknown black mark on my insurance as it was so far out of the ballpark people here are quoting.

[janinlondon]

Thanks for these replies. I think we must just accidentally have the worst combination of everything because ours is NOTHING like these! People comparing the cost with bus passes - are these kids taking the cars to school every day then? These are spare cars...? I don't imagine that if you have a spare car the cost of driving lessons would be too much of a problem. I have asked three insurers so far - two would not quote at all. One was seven times my current insurance....

[poisonedbypen]

This weekend we were quoted £1000 to add DS to the insurance as a learner. This is a very low value, low powered car. I believe it will double if/when he passes. It's horrific. DD disn't pass until just before she was 18 & it was worth waiting to insure her on her 18th birthday, it went down a huge amount. They really do need some lessons before you take them out (6 or so, our instructors have always let us know when they are ready - basically when they don't need to dual control any more).

[HSMMaCM]

Dh did lots of phoning round different insurance companies asking about all sorts of different cars, so we could get the cheapest insurance on the cheapest car. I can't remember what he got it for in the end, but it was less than her £800 / yr bus pass.

[SprogletsMum]

Sorry to keep posting but I just remembered as well that adding my mum, dad and sister to my policy brought the quotes down by around £600 it made a huge difference so could also be worth looking at.