Learning to Drive

I'm not too sure how it was for anyone else, but I rather enjoyed my driving lessons. Don't get me wrong, those first couple of lessons were pretty damned nerve racking, and of course there's the odd moment like first time you arrive at a busy roundabout. that all being said and done however, I realised very quickly how to relax into the drive and just enjoy the sensation of driving. Really I'm a firm believer that the teacher makes the pupil. I actually had 2 different instructors while I was learning to drive. the first one, I would get in her car and would say absolutely nothing to each other after the first 30 seconds of awkward small-talk. the only sounds in the cabin would be the occasional direction change we would make and the sound of crunching gears from a very tired gearbox. the second one however was a world apart and if you are  ever looking for a driving instructor in the Moray area of Scotland then Learn with Lilian is who I would always recommend.

Another thing I would recommend is try and stick to a decent sized car, it worries me when I see a massive big 4x4 or people carrier with L plates on. I know running a second car can be expensive but, with a little bit of research there are 1000's of cheap runabout that you can pick up for a couple of hundred pounds just to see you through the test. If it fails its MOT, no problem. it will have done its job anyway. If you are teaching a reverse park and the clutch slips and you end up pranging it off the wall, no worries - it was £200. If you nudge someone else's car then its just their car you need to worry about because yours ain't worth the trouble. Also, learning to drive is a daunting prospect. i would have hated to do my lessons in my dads X3 or Renault Espace. In fact the first lesson he ever gave me was in his Ford Galaxy where, as soon as i started moving my foot slipped and I went straight over a rock, bending the side sill in the process. £300 later, my dad had learnt his lesson and bought a little ford fiesta.

That Ford Fiesta is still going strong to this day, now being run about by my little sister who also passed her test in it. i would say it probably still has at least another 30-40 thousand miles left before she gives up the ghost but my point stands. a little runabout is always better to learn in. I remember learning to reverse round a corner in that car. it took me 2 or 3 tries to work out exactly where my points of reference were and once I had that I could race round. To this day I still find that car the easiest to back into my parents driveway. The rear visibility was just spectacular, to be fair, the all round visibility was great in that car. in fact i think the only 2 things i didn't like about the car was the seats which were about as supportive as a picnic bench and the dash, which was as exciting as wallpaper paste. thankfully when i went to test drive the new fiesta those 2 issues had been well and truly addressed.

What are you experiences on learning to drive?  I would love to hear some views and experiences.

Thanks for reading.