How to pick a driving instuctor

Zascar

My girlfriend is learning to drive. She lives in the swords area. She has had a few recommendations of driving instructors where the prices vary hugely! What should you be paying and what would be considered expensive etc?

Since I will be giving her a lot of instruction once she gets going, but need someone to teach her the basics for now.

Any recommendations?

Mimikyu

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Jenna69

Hi Zascar, i was in the same boat as your GF, i live in Swords and i wanted to start Driving Lessons but there are dozens of instructors and you need to choose the right one. I went for <SNIP>, they were the cheapest. I did 5 one hour lessons for €160. I found <SNIP> to be really patient, very informative and really easy to understand his instructions. My brother and his wife learned with <SNIP> as well and were very happy with them and both of them passed their tests. I have to wait till September till i can go for my test but hopefully i will pass as well. Best of luck.

Permabear

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Jenna69

Sorry i didn't realise that i couldn't specify a Driving School, that's what i get for not reading up on the T&C's. If Zascar wants to pm me i'll let him know who i did my lessons with. I'm a newbie after all :):)

Stercus Accidit

Is there any sort of certs or anything to consider when getting an instructor?

Like, are some certified in some way while others aren't, and if so, can it affect insurance premiums if I did 10 lessons with X rather than Y instructor if they have certain qualifications?

Any info appreciated

Pandoras Twist

Very few places take your instructor into account when looking at your premiums. However there are sometimes promotions with the larger driving schools such as ISM and others. You're better off looking at the insurers first.

There is on certification, look in the golden pages and you'll see the ones that advertise it.

Zascar, its usally 35-40 with a small personal ad instructor, and more expensive for the big driving schools. Im paying 43 with student discount for the <SNIP> which is one of the bigger ones. I found the bigger ones to be better... ive had 5 instructors so far

If you bring her out yourself though you can save a lot of time wasted behind an instructors wheel. Show her the pedals, what each one does and how to get the biting point and youve saved about 2 lessons. Bear in mind though...you will end up fighting. Its impossible to keep things friendly when youre teaching someone how to drive. Im sure your relationship is strong enough to handle it though

cruizer101

I'll second pandora's suggestion of bringing here out herself.

Get up early Sunday, get yourself a paper, bring here to Airside and sit there letting here get the feel of the clutch and that. There is no point in wasting money on this as it just takes a while to learn and get used to yourself, and there isn't a whole lot anyone else can do, you just have to kinda figure it out yourself, obviously give some instruction and encouragment.

Once you have good clutch control the rest is a lot easier as you are not stressing about cutting out and that.

35 is about what you expect to pay, most important thing is she is comfortable with instructor. Don't book a block of lessons until you have had at least one with instructor as you don't want 10 lessons with someone you don't like.

Permabear

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Reloc8

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Is there any sort of certs or anything to consider when getting an instructor?

Like, are some certified in some way while others aren't, and if so, can it affect insurance premiums if I did 10 lessons with X rather than Y instructor if they have certain qualifications?

Any info appreciated

Anybody who charges money for driving tuition must be registered with the RSA as an Authorised Driving Instructor. They maintain a list on their website of all ADI's which you can check.

Giving driving lessons for reward without being registered as an ADI is a criminal offence. Don't be shy for a moment in asking a person you are considering as a driving instructor to show you their license. In fact from memory I believe it is supposed to be displayed during lessons in the vehicle which they use for lessons.

I agree about 35 euros for an hour seems to be about average for Dublin with discounts available for paying in advance for a block of lessons.