instructors instructions

cantdecide

my mums driving instructor told her that she must be in fourth gear when at 30mph on the day of the test otherwise she'll fail. she has a tdi passat that means 1200rpm @30mph in 4th.

is this true?

peasant

I imagine that would be a bit on the chuggy end of the rev band.

Fine (possibly...never driven a Passat like that) on a level surface if your just rolling along, but you would have very little engine breaking, never mind acceleration

TwoShedsJackson

No it's not. She should be in whatever gear is appropriate for the speed she's doing and the road and traffic conditions.

Not having driven a Passat I'm open to correction here but I assume at 1200 rpm in 4th that she'd be fairly close to stalling. Why would her instructor think that she should be near stalling speed in a high gear and a fairly low speed?

Pherekydes

You must be fully in control of the vehicle whilst driving. You pick the right gear for the speed and conditions. You pick this up with practice and experience. The specific example depends on the conditions. Just cruising along for a considerable distance at 50km/hr might merit 4th gear, but if there was a lot of changing and chopping and accelerating and slowing then no, it would be better to be in a lower gear; it improves the responsiveness of the car. Control is the key. And you shouldn't be watching the speedo or the rev counter whilst driving, especially in heavy traffic.

mikemac

I'd be worried about the instructor talking in mph. What's that about?

Then your mum has to convert that and see what the speed limit is.
If your mum is learning now, then it's the ideal time to start thinking in km per hour.

maidhc

Dunno about the passat, but my diesel cars pull comfortably in 4th at 30mph. Not up a steep hill mind, but no trouble in ordinary flat sort of suburban driving.

Seth Brundle

micmclo wrote:

I'd be worried about the instructor talking in mph. What's that about?

Maybe he meant 30km/h.

Is it even possible to be in 4th @30/km/h comfortably?

patrickc

maidhc wrote:

Dunno about the passat, but my diesel cars pull comfortably in 4th at 30mph. Not up a steep hill mind, but no trouble in ordinary flat sort of suburban driving.

mine would be the same

wet-paint

What car was she getting the instruction in, probably a fiesta or Micra or something? THe instructor tells me to change up at 2000rpm, which in a fiesta means changing from third up around twenty seven miles an hour. If she's doing the test in the passat, adjust for that car I'd presume.

peasant

wet-paint wrote:

THe instructor tells me to change up at 2000rpm, which in a fiesta means changing from third up around twenty seven miles an hour.

So what does clever instructor say about changing gears in cars that have no rev counter?

Pherekydes

peasant wrote:

So what does clever instructor say about changing gears in cars that have no rev counter?

True. What about cars with a rev counter in heavy traffic? Not good instruction, IMO.

cantdecide

She's not 'learning' actually. She's been driving for 10 years but never learned to drive properly and i'm the one who's teaching her about gear changes and consult the rev counter etc.

The instructor is teaching her in her passat and she'll do the test in the it and trust me, the car does not like revving so low in any conditions. It's chuggy and barely accelerates on flat and straight roads. He insisted on this specifically and he seems to have a lot of these hard and fast, all-encompassing rules which seem wrong if you're not im a micra.

The car had some work recently and a hose clip or something like that blew off and poured the coolant onto the ground. The temp. symbol came up on the dash in the middle of a lesson and he didn't know what it was. He had her to drive on and he didn't have her stop until the lesson was over. I'm starting to think he's not up to much.

Esel

Starting to think?

Altreab

kbannon wrote:

Maybe he meant 30km/h.

Is it even possible to be in 4th @30/km/h comfortably?

Eh no it wouldnt be possible. Even at 40MPH and 1200RPM a VAG diesel is just above stalling point. I know i checked it in my trusty octavia (you know the car with the huge boot) today

unkel

cantdecide wrote:

She's not 'learning' actually. She's been driving for 10 years but never learned to drive properly and i'm the one who's teaching her about gear changes and consult the rev counter etc

So why pay a clearly incompetent person for a job you are happy to do yourself? Continue your training and let us know what happened when your mother takes the driving test

FuzzyWuzzyWazza

I have heard a lot of completly wrong instruction from driving instructors. I think some of them can barley drive themselves.

GB15

One of the reasons I failed my test first time around (over ten years ago at this stage) was that I only went into 4th gear once.

I think a common misconception is that because the engine might struggle to accelerate from 30mph in 4th that you should be in 3rd. This doesn't mean the car cannot comfortably cruise at 30mph in 4th.

My understanding is that the reason to be in 4th doing 30mph is for fuel economy and since the test currently revolves around urban driving then its deemed worthwhile to enforce this - some testers might be more strict on it than others.

I'd be very surprised if any car cannot handle 30mph in 4th once the accelerator is kept at an appropriate point (sports cars aside). I'd imagine most cars are geared specifically for this the same way they are geared for maximum fuel economy at 56mph.

J_R

Hi,

Forget about make, model, size of engine, rev counter readings, petrol, diesel, what gear - whatever, it is all immaterial.

If in the test a person drives in a gear whereby the engine is under strain and labouring, they will receive a Grade 2 fault.

They will of course also receive a grade 2 fault if they drive with the engine screaming, - due to being in too low a gear.

The engine must simply be happily singing at all times.

My advice, if you have a car that can not be driven comfortably in 4th gear at 50Km/h, momentarily go into 4th, let the examiner see the engine is not happy, then back to 3rd.

Sack the useless sod