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Driving through Stuttgart yesterday I overtook a driving school car. Nothing unusual in that except it was a Mercedes CL500 complete with the driving school sign on the roof, stickers on the doors, and all the little additional mirrors that commonly adorn driving school cars. I've no idea whether it had dual controls or not, but it certainly puts the Fiesta 1.1L that I learned to drive in to shame. Anyone top that?
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nowt shameful about a fiesta 1.1L or LX, for that matter , flash motor duth not a driver make
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I remember the MK2 Escort being very poular as a driving school car from the days when i was a learner, lovely positive rifle bolt like gearchange, smooth clutch, great visibility and light positive controls. But that was a long long time ago !!!!
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Back in the mid eighties there was a guy in central London who taught in a Porsche. Lessons were about £8 an hour at the time and he was charging £25, most of his custom coming from the offspring of the rich and famous.
In the late eighties economic boom XR3i's and XR2s were not uncommon. The most exotic cars I see now in this part of the world are MINIs, much regretted by many who bought them as the dual controls help destroy the clutch in no time and I have heard of £1600 for a replacement.
Any instructor with an ounce of economic nous will teach in a base model runaround with steel wheels.
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I remember that Triumph Heralds were very popular with driving schools in the sixties. No doubt this was down to the 25 foot turning circle.
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Mk 1 Escort. Trouble with all the superminis used now is that new drivers are not aware of the extra room of a Focus or Golf or size and can not park them.
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I learned in the early 90's in a mk1 Micra 1.2.
I remember even as a complete novice the thing seemed to all but drive itself. Don't think I've ever driven a car since that was so utterly vice free. Gentle clutch, knife through butter gearbox, light steering. No foibles whatsoever. The definition of the car as an appliance.
One of my mates learning at the same time had his lessons, and test in an MG Maestro 2.0 EFI!!
Edited by DP on 29/05/2009 at 20:27
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Mk 1 Escort. Trouble with all the superminis used now is that new drivers are not aware of the extra room of a Focus or Golf or size and can not park them.
Second the choice; I learned in the Army in an Escort estate. Straightforward, no nonsense, everything where it should be and I do agree with the above poster, lovely forgiving gearbox.
As to modern cars, am I the only one who finds them increasingly difficult to see out of due to the vagaries of modern styling? My Hyundai coupe was a revelation in this department, not only good visibility but excellent mirrors too.
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Its not to do with styling, safety demands have influenced the styling. Its rather like British Leyland did (but for reasons of cost) oh damn we have started out with this pig ugly box and designed engines for it too, we cannot possible redesign it now.
I do find modern cars very hard to see out of though.
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>>>I learned in the Army in an Escort estate. Straightforward no nonsense
Leconfield by any chance?
I was there, around and around that airfield in one of those Escorts too. Then the Bedford TM, passed my test (dual car/HGV3) and was put straight in to my HGV2 training on a Foden (sided) flat bed.
8 weeks from being unable to drive to HGV2.
13 months later (in Germany) I passed my HGV1 in one of these:
tinyurl.com/kmhpyv
Happy days!
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Passed my test in a BSM Triumph Herald in 1965.
alfalfa
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Passed my test in my mum's Herald in 1974.
My wife passed her test in a 1966 Ford Anglia 105E in 1982.
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that merc was probably doing instructor training,. see a few bmw 1 series about
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Nicest driving school car in my part of the world is my friends '06 Golf GT Tdi. With heated black leather seats! In a previous post, I was tempted to buy it, but he has decided to pass it on to his wife...now with just over 150k on the clock and still in immaculate condition. It will shortly be replaced by an A3 Tdi Sport.
I passed my test in the early '70s in a Triumph Toledo, and then hankered after a Dolomite Sprint which a lucky friend owned.
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Worst one was a 1.0 3pot Corsa B with no PAS. Why put a learner under so much torture?
By far the best ADI car I had was a Mark 2 Phase 2 clio, prefered it to the MK3 which felt far too heavy with its 1.2 16v engine.
Seen a Honda Civic Type R ADI car near me. Most of them these days are Minis though.
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Worst one was a 1.0 3pot Corsa B with no PAS. Why put a learner under so much torture?
Because anything they drive afterwards will feel easy in comparison. Try doing your HGV 3 (as it then was) in a Bedford MK, then you'll know what heavy steering is!
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good points Harleyman however i put my d series forward for no power steering as the worst truck ever known
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Hehe, the torture was no torque in the engine, I don't know if it was faulty but unless you put the clutch down at the exact right moment it would stall. That said my 1.2 16v B is a little too easy to stall.
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Back in the 1960's and early 70's the Austin/Morris 1100/1300 was a popular choice as a driving school car and being an early FWD, they could be very unforgiving if you got the clutch/throttle balance wrong !
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A year or three back, I watched a TV program about the German autobahns. One segment was about the driving requirements, and it said that, for a full licence, the student has to demonstrate safe driving at 200 km/hr. Maybe that was why a decent Merc was in evidence.
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Don't think I can top a CL500 but have seen some very impressive Mercedes and BMW cars being used in NRW. I often wonder how much a refresher course would cost ?
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manufactories dont make cars for learners.If they did it would have an engine with lots of low end torque, easy gears, lots of glass , less blind spots, smooth drive over rough surfaces, not alot of top speed, simple ancillary controls, spaced out pedals, good seat hieght, easy to see all four corners, big mirrors
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I did the last and best of my learning in Birmingham in a 1986 Escort 1.1 3-door. That wasn't available on the day of my test, so I did that in a new (1988) 1.3. I liked that so much that when I started work a year later, I bought one.
Thought it was a great car to learn in - lots of glass and straight sides, which made it easy to position in traffic. Also, as others have said, not so tiny that the transition to a normal-size car came as a shock.
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