Teaching partner to drive?
Discussion
Hi All, I am about to embark on the probably very painful process of teaching my girlfriend to drive. We are just in the process of buying a house so by selling my car we free up some cash for improvements and can find something i dont mind letting her get behind the wheel of.
So any ideas for a cheap(less than £2k), good learner car but still mildly interesting car for myself that can handle the odd motorway journey. So far I've checked insurance on a 1.1 106 and a slow 2.0 golf gti 8v and there seems very little in it probably due to our ages 26 & 25.
Secondly any advice on getting her through the tests? My only plan is to borrow the highway code and start giving her some early morning lessons. Once shes got some confidence behind the wheel then get her in an instructors car for some final test prep to keep the costs below the £400 or so i spent back when i was 17.
Adam
So any ideas for a cheap(less than £2k), good learner car but still mildly interesting car for myself that can handle the odd motorway journey. So far I've checked insurance on a 1.1 106 and a slow 2.0 golf gti 8v and there seems very little in it probably due to our ages 26 & 25.
Secondly any advice on getting her through the tests? My only plan is to borrow the highway code and start giving her some early morning lessons. Once shes got some confidence behind the wheel then get her in an instructors car for some final test prep to keep the costs below the £400 or so i spent back when i was 17.
Adam
I appreciate you're looking to get on the housing ladder but learning to drive really isn't something you should look to do on the cheap, under-prepared people can fluke tests and then they're out there with pink cards and I'd rather they werent. Teaching somebody to drive isn't easy even if they're a natural, theres a reason driving instructors go through more training than astronauts for the job. Does she have any driving experience at all by the way?
If you do decide to go ahead with it, get the theory out of the way before you even set foot in the car because theres nothing worse than trying to teach someone what all the signs mean AND how to drive at the same time. The only way to essentially guarantee a pass is to get her so used to driving generally that she can handle whatever she's given. There are no published test routes anymore and the examiner can take you anywhere.
General things to remember for the test is to keep left unless told otherwise - this applies to all situations including one way systems and the like. The examiner will get her to pull over at the side of the road and set off again usually 3-4 times throughout the test, in various situations such as to see how she joins 40mph traffic etc. If the examiner says 'pull up in a convenient place' that means any normal parking place but sometimes they will say 'pull over ignoring the lines' or ignoring driveways etc if there is nowhere else to stop. They will do one reversing manouvere (parallel park, reverse round a corner etc) throughout the test and an emergency stop if possible. If you're back at the test centre without having done a manouvere then it will be to reverse into a parking space.
There is the 'independant driving' section which you won't have done, where she will be either shown a diagram of a route to take or told a series of directions, even if she goes the wrong way it doesnt matter so long as she does it properly but the examiner may then give a new route. Also important is to be aware of speed limits, you can fail if you do 20mph in a 40 unless theres a good reason - ie following a slow vehicle.
I'm sure theres more we could all add if you decide to be stupid and go ahead with this plan.
If you do decide to go ahead with it, get the theory out of the way before you even set foot in the car because theres nothing worse than trying to teach someone what all the signs mean AND how to drive at the same time. The only way to essentially guarantee a pass is to get her so used to driving generally that she can handle whatever she's given. There are no published test routes anymore and the examiner can take you anywhere.
General things to remember for the test is to keep left unless told otherwise - this applies to all situations including one way systems and the like. The examiner will get her to pull over at the side of the road and set off again usually 3-4 times throughout the test, in various situations such as to see how she joins 40mph traffic etc. If the examiner says 'pull up in a convenient place' that means any normal parking place but sometimes they will say 'pull over ignoring the lines' or ignoring driveways etc if there is nowhere else to stop. They will do one reversing manouvere (parallel park, reverse round a corner etc) throughout the test and an emergency stop if possible. If you're back at the test centre without having done a manouvere then it will be to reverse into a parking space.
There is the 'independant driving' section which you won't have done, where she will be either shown a diagram of a route to take or told a series of directions, even if she goes the wrong way it doesnt matter so long as she does it properly but the examiner may then give a new route. Also important is to be aware of speed limits, you can fail if you do 20mph in a 40 unless theres a good reason - ie following a slow vehicle.
I'm sure theres more we could all add if you decide to be stupid and go ahead with this plan.
My parents gave me and my sister some lessons outside of instructor tuition isnt that what most do so partners arent much differe? I just need to boost her confidence before a instructor takes over or she will never even start so i was thinking very early quiet road practice to teach her the basics.
My wife failed 3 tests having been trained by various "profesional" driving instructors.
I bought a £200 mazda 121 which I made road legal and insured myself and her on it as a learner I then told her that if she killed the car by cack handed learning or clobbering kerbs it didnt matter as it was a £200 beater.
300 miles and one very short argument ( which I won
) later she passed her test.
This was 2003.
After she passed her test I tought her all the real world driving skills the test didnt cover sutch as lane awareness on dual carigeways and motorways ( this was almost 10 years ago ) as well as some of my bad driving habbits.
If you truly know each other and can get allong then you should be able to at least teach her the baisics sutch as clutch controll and baisic driving, the abandond industrial estate on a sunday morning is good for this but please ensure that she is insured as a learner on the car.
Use the instructor money to get her a prep test ( some call this a mock driving test ).
If she is confident with the car, its capabilities and her ability to controll it then all the better.
One more thing I dont know if this has been adressed in the rfecent changes to the test but one of the things I had to teach swimbo was the presence of blind spots and how bikes and cars can hide in them.
oh and good luck
I bought a £200 mazda 121 which I made road legal and insured myself and her on it as a learner I then told her that if she killed the car by cack handed learning or clobbering kerbs it didnt matter as it was a £200 beater.
300 miles and one very short argument ( which I won
) later she passed her test.This was 2003.
After she passed her test I tought her all the real world driving skills the test didnt cover sutch as lane awareness on dual carigeways and motorways ( this was almost 10 years ago ) as well as some of my bad driving habbits.
If you truly know each other and can get allong then you should be able to at least teach her the baisics sutch as clutch controll and baisic driving, the abandond industrial estate on a sunday morning is good for this but please ensure that she is insured as a learner on the car.
Use the instructor money to get her a prep test ( some call this a mock driving test ).
If she is confident with the car, its capabilities and her ability to controll it then all the better.
One more thing I dont know if this has been adressed in the rfecent changes to the test but one of the things I had to teach swimbo was the presence of blind spots and how bikes and cars can hide in them.
oh and good luck
I taught my first wife to drive and learned very early on to lay groundrules that what went on during the lessons had nothing to do with the rest of our lives, and that if she wanted to learn to drive she needed to trust me and do exactly what I said. After that we got on fine. We paid for 4 lessons which were honestly an absolute waste of time and money.
Taught current wife to drive on a Volvo estate, but she also had ~15 lessons with a couple of different instructors who had very different styles and consequently between the 3 of us we managed to convince the examiner to let her through, eventually.
Having said that, it's not something I'd recommend unless you're pretty confident you can seperate relationship from teaching - you also need to accept that it's a lump of metal she's learning to drive and absolutely not your P&J.
Taught current wife to drive on a Volvo estate, but she also had ~15 lessons with a couple of different instructors who had very different styles and consequently between the 3 of us we managed to convince the examiner to let her through, eventually.
Having said that, it's not something I'd recommend unless you're pretty confident you can seperate relationship from teaching - you also need to accept that it's a lump of metal she's learning to drive and absolutely not your P&J.
bassett said:
My parents gave me and my sister some lessons outside of instructor tuition isnt that what most do so partners arent much differe? I just need to boost her confidence before a instructor takes over or she will never even start so i was thinking very early quiet road practice to teach her the basics.
See my post above get her confident then when she can drive reasonably hand her over to the instructior.bassett said:
My parents gave me and my sister some lessons outside of instructor tuition isnt that what most do so partners arent much differe? I just need to boost her confidence before a instructor takes over or she will never even start so i was thinking very early quiet road practice to teach her the basics.
Wrong approach. Give me a blank canvas to work with any day.Secret is to buy the same car as they'll be instructed in ...this is how i was taught (I bought car- Dad would sit in) & passed first time with 5-6 'top up' lessons.
A few years later & I did the same with my misses at the time- she had previously failed 3 tests (& gawd knows how many lessons)...so bought her the same car as her new (my old) instructor & took her out ...I was gob smacked about how little basic car control she actually had, couldn't even hold the car on the biting point of the clutch- after a week or so of getting her to the point where she didn't have to think about the basics we then began lessons 'proper' -8 lessons later, she passed
A few years later & I did the same with my misses at the time- she had previously failed 3 tests (& gawd knows how many lessons)...so bought her the same car as her new (my old) instructor & took her out ...I was gob smacked about how little basic car control she actually had, couldn't even hold the car on the biting point of the clutch- after a week or so of getting her to the point where she didn't have to think about the basics we then began lessons 'proper' -8 lessons later, she passed
Edited by angrymoby on Sunday 8th April 23:35
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