Driving lessons or parent to teach?

Yorky

In the case of a twenty year old with no driving experience, would it be advisable to insure them on the parent's car or to pay for driving lessons up to test level or a combination of both?

The reason they need to learn now is to be able to drive the parent's van in connection with their business.

They live in town and there would be very few opportunities for 'A to B' driving experience at the moment so if the learner was to be insured on the parent's car, it would be for lessons from the parent only.

There is a concern about the cost of lessons and the number of them - does anyone know approximately how many would be needed and how much they are?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

thebman

When I was learning to drive, my mother taught me the basics (much of which I already knew) and then I got about 4-5 lessons afterwards and passed first time, no bother.

I imagine it depends a lot on the bad habits/knowledge of rules of the road of the parents and whether you get a good instructor or not.

I found the test to be very easy but I had a good instructor.

Holsten

Get driving lessons.

Driving instructors know what is needed to pass the test, most people would pick up bad driving habits after years of driving that would probably get you a fail.

5 Lessons at around about €30 a pop should do the trick.

Saruman

Get lessons, hell it should be the law to have at least 10 lessons with a reputable instructor.

pandamoanium

I'd do a combination of both tbh.

I'm 25 and I just started learning 4 weeks ago. I'm getting private lessons and I'm also getting practice in between with my parents - I'm insured on my parents car.

I've only had two lessons so far - however I found the practice I got inbetween from my parents to be invaluable, dare I say I learnt more with them than I did with my instructor...

Anyways, if you can afford to pay for lessons and insurance on your parents car that's what I'd do

Permabear

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seanybiker

never got lessons meself. Just the mother and father bringing me down to industrial estate when i was younger for a go of the car. Then the usual little spin around when they went out for the night lol.

matrim

I used a mix of both and it worked well for me.

My father went through the basics with me and then I had some lessons to make sure I was doing things correctly and give me extra pointers that my dad would have missed.

brian076

Holsten wrote: »

Get driving lessons.

Driving instructors know what is needed to pass the test, most people would pick up bad driving habits after years of driving that would probably get you a fail.

5 Lessons at around about €30 a pop should do the trick.

There's a lot more to learning to drive than passing the driving test. A combination of both formal lessons and instruction from a parent is a good way to go, but if the pupil has never driven before they would probably need 6-8 lessons before going out on the road without dual controls.
Later this year or early next year it'll be compulsory to take at least this amount of lessons before getting a learner permit, from this June onwards its going to be compulsory to take 16 hours of tuition if you want to ride a motor bike.
Lessons cost about €40 per hour but you should be able to negotiate a good reduction for 10 lessons

dudara

Go for a mix of both.

The driving lessons will teach you the correct rules etc, but they just cannot give you enough experience or time behind the wheel. The person will need to practice lots with the gears, accelerator, brakes etc and 5-10 hours with an instructor will just not offer enough time.