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Best place for driving lessons?

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  • 23-06-2005 4:20pm
    #1
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭


    Not sure if this is the right forum, but it's the best one I could find to suit. Please feel free to move it if it's not.


    I've just got my provisional license and I need to get some driving lessons. I've never driven a car before, I've never even sat in the drivers seat if I'm honest, so I'm a complete beginner. I'd imagine I'd pick things up quite fast (after all, my mam can bloody well drive! ;) ), but wanna start off with the basics.

    Can anyone suggest the best place for lessons around Dublin? I'm in Castleknock myself but I guess once the location is reachable and worthwhile then I can do them ...


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    #2
    murphaph
    Registered Users Posts: 19,018 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    Dollymount Strand for the basics of vehicle controls.


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    #3
    a_ominous
    Registered Users Posts: 795 ✭✭✭a_ominous


    Any driving instructors I've seen about my area will pick you up at your home, which saves you the hassle of trying to get to a driving school. The small schools, the one instructor type, should offer this service.

    Don't know what the going rate is, but for bikes, the rate is about 30 per hour. You should expect to take 10 hours of good instruction to become reasonably competent. I wouldn't block book 10 lessons with one instructor in case your not happy with instruction and want to change.

    As a complete beginner, I'd suggest you go to local library and get one or two books on driving. This should help you to remember or cover all the things you'll be told during the course of a lesson which are very easy to miss when you're concentrating on not hitting anything.

    As Murphaph said, you can learn basic controls somewhere like Dollymount or the Phoenix Park. But these are public places, so you need insurance. I learnt the basics over 20 years ago in a shopping centre car park in the days before shops opened on Sundays. It's a pity driving schools don't have a chassis and engine on blocks so ppl can learn this fundamental step. Maybe it's so the student can feel all the jerks associated with bad clutch control.


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    #4
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    I was looking at www.ism.ie (Irish School Motoring) and they suggest they cover it all, even those who've never sat in a car before, right up to those who are about to sit a test and beyond.

    Does anybody have any experience with them ?


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    #5
    koneko
    Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭koneko


    I had my first lesson with them, and it was fine. If you're in Castleknock, it's likely they'll take you to the business park area near Mulhuddart. It's very quiet there during the day.

    In the UK I believe they have virtual driving machines (probably only in a handful of locations, I saw a picture before of one) that teach you the basic mechanics of driving. It's a much better idea than actually going out in a car (for the first lesson anyway).


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    #6
    Healio
    Registered Users Posts: 2,825 ✭✭✭Healio


    koneko wrote:
    In the UK I believe they have virtual driving machines (probably only in a handful of locations, I saw a picture before of one) that teach you the basic mechanics of driving. It's a much better idea than actually going out in a car (for the first lesson anyway).

    The rac have a simulator in their rathmines office.


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    #7
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    koneko wrote:
    I had my first lesson with them, and it was fine. If you're in Castleknock, it's likely they'll take you to the business park area near Mulhuddart. It's very quiet there during the day.

    In the UK I believe they have virtual driving machines (probably only in a handful of locations, I saw a picture before of one) that teach you the basic mechanics of driving. It's a much better idea than actually going out in a car (for the first lesson anyway).
    Up by Ballycoolin, up past the IT ?


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    #8
    koneko
    Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭koneko


    No, not in Ballycoolin, though there might be suitable areas round there. It's more near Mulhuddart, on the way to the backroads that lead to Clonnee. I think the business-y area itself is called Damastown.

    At least, that's where the ISM took me, they might have found a better location (it's near a rough area, but it is quiet most of the time and has roundabouts to practice on too).


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    #9
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    Ah, right. You'd recommend them ?


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    #10
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,246 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Healio wrote:
    The rac have a simulator in their rathmines office.
    They have them in the Leisureplex also :D


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    #11
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    LOLs Victor :)


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    #12
    koneko
    Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭koneko


    ciaranfo wrote:
    Ah, right. You'd recommend them ?

    Overall? No. It's a very mixed bag. They have a lot of instructors. The guy I had on the first 2 lessons was good (ish) as far as the lessons went, but he bumped into a friend of his when I was practicing reversing and spent the next 5 minutes talking to him instead. The next guy was a diamond. Absolutely great instructor. But he said he was starting off his own driving lesson school, so it's doubtful he's still with them. The next guy was horrible. Angry, complaining, discouraging. Not a supportive environment at all, and it actually made me drive worse than on the other lessons, which made him complain more. It really depends on the instructor, but you're better off with an individual imho, ISM aren't all that good, and it's very likely you'll end up with different people each time ("oh Bob isn't working today, I'll book you in with Joe instead").

    I see a guy driving around Blanch in a (new) mini, with driving school information written all over it. It's usually the same guy aswell, he might be good.


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    #13
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    koneko - you don't have any of the details of that guy do you ?


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    #14
    Bluetonic
    Registered Users Posts: 7,588 ✭✭✭Bluetonic


    ciaranfo wrote:
    I've just got my provisional license and I need to get some driving lessons. I've never driven a car before, I've never even sat in the drivers seat if I'm honest, so I'm a complete beginner.

    Sure your right beside the M50, just get someone to drive the car to the top of the north bound slip road on the Blanch interchange and then swap places with the driver and away you go....handbrake off and down onto the m50.....sure everyone else is doing it, you may as well join the circus.


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    #15
    Random
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,082 ✭✭✭✭Random


    Wonderful idea Bluetonic ... ;)

    Anyhows, I had a 2hour lesson with a guy from ISM today (in the absense of all others I decided to bite the bullet). It was my first time out and I'm well happy with it.


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