Learning to drive

[Bitter Ashes]

Yes, cars are bad. I know. I hate the bloody things, but this small evil could possibly help bring change to the lives of cleaners in Huddersfield. Basicly, I'm considering helping with setting up a cleaners' co-operative, but to do that we've got to have transport available to us to reach the sites, especially domestic sites. Depending on how we do, I might switch to electric seeing as though we'll only be cleaning in the local area.

Anyway, the thing I want to ask is whether anyone has any tips about learning to drive. I know that I'll have to scrape together the cash to buy a provisonal driving license, but after that is it acceptable/advisable to use a skillsshare to learn to drive? Is it a good idea for my first car to be a banger with only two months before the MOT's (invariably) failed and use the money made from cleaning on a better one, or save up from the get go to buy a good car first time?

Basicly, how big a budget should I be looking at to start driving as cheaply as possible?

[Mendax]

Judging by all the people I know who are doing this recently a fair bit - Liam paid £250 for his car and the insurance cost him £1400 it'll be cheaper for you because 1. your female and 2. I think your over 18 (?) but it's still gonna cost more for your first years insurance then anywhere near what the cars worth. Might be worth just getting the old banger to scrape the MOT and use it for your first year (The price of insurance slopes down fast as).

If you apy for lessons most people I know had to pay about £20 an hour with them doing anything from 10 to 60 lessons (largely depending on how shite there co-prdination is). I can't remember how much but the theory test and actuall test aren't cheap especially if you have any failures.

So budget kinda depends on age/ability to walk without falling flat on your face.

Not really sure how helpful this :p

[Bitter Ashes]

To be honest, I wouldnt bother with insurance on the banger. It'd be too high. After a few months and it fails the MOT I'd get insurance on the one that I'd actualy be able to afford to insurance.

Or maybe I should pass my test in somebody else's car and wait a year. Maybe the insurance assumes that you've been driving for the year afterwards and you're not going to cause them a claim. I dunno.

[Mendax]

To be honest, I wouldnt bother with insurance on the banger. It'd be too high. After a few months and it fails the MOT I'd get insurance on the one that I'd actualy be able to afford to insurance.

Or maybe I should pass my test in somebody else's car and wait a year. Maybe the insurance assumes that you've been driving for the year afterwards and you're not going to cause them a claim. I dunno.

Some people get a motorcycle license and just leave it in the drive for a few years so the insurance people think they've been on the road for X amount of time so I guess that'd work. If you get caught in the first few months without insurance its gonna push yo insurance up a hella lot, so depends if you can not get caught really.

[Fullmetal Anarchist]

To be honest, I wouldnt bother with insurance on the banger.

But what if you hit some one? Believe me people get pretty pissed when they find out you don't have insurance plus it's really expensive to pay fo the repair (in some cases more expensive than the insurance in the first place):(.


It'd be too high.

Very true. Just go third party its as cheap as insurance gets. Plus if ya get caught on an ANPR camera you can wave your freedom to drive bye-bye. Or do what I did have your Mum or Dad as the named driver technically fraud but does make your insurance loads cheaper.


After a few months and it fails the MOT I'd get insurance on the one that I'd actualy be able to afford to insurance.

In the first place I'd say don't get a banger get the best that you can afford to insure. Driving bangers is more expensive in the long run due to high running costs.



Or maybe I should pass my test in somebody else's car and wait a year. Maybe the insurance assumes that you've been driving for the year afterwards and you're not going to cause them a claim. I dunno.

Don't quite work like that I think but its worth a shot.

Hope this helps.

[Rjevan]

Yes, cars are bad.
No, cars are great! :p


Anyway, the thing I want to ask is whether anyone has any tips about learning to drive.
If it's possible I'd recommend you to practice a bit with a friends car at an empty place, first some fields or huge parking lots at Sunday, later some country roads with little traffic. Take your friend with you so that you have an advisor and somebody who can interfere if something doesn't work as planned. This would help a lot, you get a basic feeling how to drive and you won't stall your car each time you use the clutch when you have your first driving lesson.
Also: step on the gas pedal slowly and carefully the first time you do so... I mean it. ;)


Is it a good idea for my first car to be a banger with only two months before the MOT's (invariably) failed and use the money made from cleaning on a better one, or save up from the get go to buy a good car first time?
Generally I'd say go for the banger and see how it works this way. The good car should definitely follow but without insurance I wouldn't really invest too much. But make sure that it is not complete scrap, otherwise the costs for repairing it will be more than for buying a newer one.


Basicly, how big a budget should I be looking at to start driving as cheaply as possible?
I have no idea about the costs for getting your driving licence in the UK but here you are already pretty lucky if you get away with 1,500 €...
But I think the procedure is the same in Europe so you need to do a first aid course and a recent eyesight test is required. Then you have to pay basic fee for signing up to your driving school as well as to the theory tests and the practice test once you're ready. Especially the latter is expensive, I think it was a bit over 100 € here. You also need to buy the learning materials (a pack of questionnaires is sufficient imo) for the theoretical test from your driving school and then of course the theory and drvining lessons themselves come in.

Basically it's as Cheese Demon said, it largely depends on your learning abilities. Theory isn't really hard to learn, the required basic lessons plus the questionnaries should do the job and if you fail at theory you either had bad luck and got totally stupid questions or you haven't really learned. Practice is a lot harder, your drining teacher usually decides when you "are ready" for the tests so if you have problems and require loads of lessons the practical part might get really expensive. A friend of mine had that problem, he already payed over 2,000 € till he was ready for the tests...
The practical test is also tricky, it depends often more on your luck than on your skills. Let it rain, get an examiner who is in a really bad mood and asks you to drive difficult routes, get an ambulance you don't see where its coming from and thus fail to make room or some other brainless idiots driving in a way which makes you do mistakes very easily and swoop, you're out. Get an examiner who's the best friend of your driving teacher, is in anwesome mood today and just makes you drive on some straight and empty country roads and you already made it.

[Bitter Ashes]

I should probably point out that I've had some experiance driving in my teens, although I think I need to learn how to drive properly and legaly.

[ellipsis]

To learn to drive, find a mate to teach you in a parking lots, then rural driving and work your way up to city driving. Practice makes perfect. Also reading the driving manual thoroughly.

[El Rojo]

your budget is pretty hard to calculate. a decent old car (and they do exist, it just takes time to find them!) will be something around the region of £500. Provisional license will be £60ish. Driving lessons vary depending on whether its private or not, but tend to be about £20 an hour, so id say £100 for them MINIMUM. £70ish road tax. Insurance varies depending on age and sex, but if you are young and a new driver , would porbably stretch to over a grand, £1000. (don't not get insurance, every pig car automatically runs your license each time yr near one, and alerts the pig if you have no insurance.) I think that the driving test costs about £60, but i dunno about that one.

sooo a very,very ballpark figure of £2000 grand, before you factor running costs. yup, it hurts for a prole to have a car. :(