Learner Driver

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Mon 26 Jun 2006 16:11
Learner Driver - 007
Following hot on the heels of recent thread about 17 year old car owners....apart from Pass Plus in due course....have Backroomers any suggestions to make as to *who* to approach for lessons?

Would you be recommending national schools such as BSM or AA...or would 'one-man-band' be preferable?

If the latter, the young man in question lives in Nottingham so any name of good instructor in that area would be appreciated.

Thanks, as ever.
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Mon 26 Jun 2006 16:32
Learner Driver - daveyjp
Personal recommendation is the best advertising for any instructor. BSM, AA, RAC will all get you through the test, but they are the priciest - all those TV ads and new cars have to be paid for and only one of them guarantees to only employ fully qualified instructors - look for the green ADI licence on the windscreen.

Young people generally have friends who are learning so the person in question should be aware of who others are using. In 20 years of doing the driving instructor job my dad has never advertised and he is still doing over 50 lessons a week. The majority of his work comes from word of mouth this is borne out by the fact that he gets calls from people who live 20+ miles away asking for lessons as they know someone he has taught. Unfortunately he has to turn these down, 40 mile round trip just for one lesson is a bit too far!

An alternative is to keep a note of those instructors which are seen in the local area often and see what cars they use - busy instructors are always on the road and drive newer cars. Any instructor who has a car over three yaars old is probably dabbling or only teaching part time - fine for the instructor, but will they be available when you want a lesson?
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Mon 26 Jun 2006 16:55
Learner Driver - local yokel
Word of mouth has to be the best. Our guy round here is on his second generation in some families. Apparantly some of the daughters he's now teaching are even more gorgeous than their mothers were twenty-five years ago!
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Mon 26 Jun 2006 16:57
Learner Driver - mss1tw
One man band definitely. Same guy taught me and now my brother.
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Mon 26 Jun 2006 19:20
Learner Driver - AlastairW
The only disadvantage to using a one man band is what happens if he is ill/on holiday? When I was learning my instructor had an arrangement with another local school, so for a period I had a different instructor and car every week.
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