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[bucko]

Ya got ma first lesson in 25 minutes, can't wait little bit nervous but it's an hour and 45 minutes think they just go over how the car works the first lesson maybe drive a little bit.

Anyway I had all ma money saved already from work so nice to just get it out and not think have I got enough. With my 5 months of Uni hopefully ill have enough time to learn. Gonna start with 1 lesson a week then when I feel confident enough 2 lessons a week I think.

[Dano2k0]

Good luck bucko, yeah for a while i guess they'll probably keep you at the side of the road talking about the car, but if you get someone quite decent i'd guess they won't keep you at the side of the road all too long just talking, theres not really all that much to go over to be fair.

Clutch control might take abit of learning if youve never gained that skill before, but on average i'd have said after 40mins to an hour most people start to get the hang of it quite well.

If you can afford 2 lessons a week, i'd say go for it from the start, you'll progress much better, doing just 1 a week has big gaps, and when your first starting, if you can fit 2 or 3 hours in a week you'll probably progress on the first stage much better and faster, thats just my opinion though.

I guess i was lucky, when i first started driving i drove my dads car and he added me on his insurance as a learner driver, so i got a good bit of practice and knowledge before i took a few professional lessons to finish up.

Good luck anyway mate, i'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[grim_d]

driving is easy peasy just pay attention to your instructor and keep a clear mind, dont worry about it too much as remember he has a set of pedals too. So just keep building confidence over your lessons.

do AT LEAST 2 hours of lessons a week, any less and you don't get the benefit of a lesson and end up taking ages to get to your test.

try and get out between lessons, now i know insurance is expensive so if cant get insured on a car then get someone to take you out to a retail park or an industrail estate at night when it's quiet, just to practice moving the vehicle around and parking etc.  I never had the benefit of getting out between lessons but just driving around a bit in a retail park helps.

also remember if your insured on the car then you can get out with anyone who has held a licence for over 4 years, it needent be a parent or anything.  So if you pop up here i'll take ya out

[bucko]

Oh my god how amazing that was spent like 40 mins or so she going over the car and then I was driving up and down the main road just outside my house didn't stall it! It was one of the new Mini Coopers it was such a nice car, was a bit scared of the oncoming traffic but didn't crash wow what an amazing experience!

[Dano2k0]

Great to hear you didn't stall    If your on a flat piece of road that will be the easy bit, it'll be when you come to little hills and big hills it'll be much harder, but your deffinatly off to a great start. I remember back when i first started driving it took me a while to get the hand of setting off on a slight hill, but it just comes with practice, i guess if youve also got someone who is a proper teacher showing you aswell that might help, i kind of went for the illegal approach to my first bit of driving, didn't even have a provisional obviously i tried to keep it off road in quiet places.

Good to hear you enjoyed it aswell, thats one of the best things about driving in general, in particular when your new to driving you'll probably love it.

As Grim also said, driving is pretty easy when you get the basics, it just takes abit of time to adjust to the car, and learning road positions and junctions / round abouts etc, all in all its not too hard at all, you'll soon build up some good confidence in yourself.

As me and grim said before though (he posted seconds after me   ) you really could do with trying to get yourself at least 2 lessons a week, and if you do try and space them out like Tuesday and Thursday etc, its always good to have a break between lessons with your tutor, i always found that anyway, it gives time for things to sink in, and you kind of go over it in your head and figgure alot of it out for yourself.

Oh and yeah, if you can get insured on another car, or get out of the way in one, as your so new to driving, any driving at all will be a huge bonus to yourself and will help you get through the first stages very quickly.

Good luck with your other lessons, and let us know how it goes.

EDIT: its only just occoured to me, you'll be more than likely learning in a diesel, so you'll probably be fine when it comes to stalling etc, they are great for learning in as they have so much torq they are hard to stall. Once youve learned all the clutch control in a diesel, you'll probably find it quite easy to adjust straight to a petrol, but petrol cars for learning in can be hard when learning how to control a clutch, you can stall them so much easier than a diesel, infact ive never stalled a diesel once come to think of it

[twistedsymphony]

I don't know about where you are but in my state here in the US we're allowed to start driving when we turn 15... no permit or license or anything. simply carry a proof of your age and as long as there is a licensed adult in the front with you, you're free to drive wherever  

my father used to race motorcycles as well as teach racing courses and safety courses so he was quite a good instructor for me during that time.

I eventually took a "real" driving course because insurance is much much lower if you've passed an official driving course.

the more experience you have the better you'll get.

also making sure it's a GOOD experience is important you want to learn from someone who REALLY knows what they're doing, not someone who is going to teach you their own bad habits.

Good to know you're learning on a stick-shift too, in the states that's a rare skill... cars with manual transmissions typically have to be special ordered because most people are f-ing lazy    it also means it's near impossible to find used cars with stick shifts.

[bucko]

All cars here are Manual well there's some automatic but rare, I had to learn to listen how high the revs go so I can pull of without stalling or giving to much juice then I would jump. But I got it right she was happy with me since I wasn't looking at the rev counter  

I got a provisional license but my parents are not to keen on me maybe when I've had a few lessons, they have to insure and insurance costs a load here,

(IMG:http://www.motiontrends.com/2006/m11/Mini/2007_Mini_Cooper_S_dash.jpg)

The dash was like this (but right hand drive since we drive on the left)  the speedo was digital she said don't look at the middle one it's just to look good, but she said if I had the indicator wrong I might change it to Miles Per Gallon instead of Miles Per Hour so she said don't worry if you think your doing 47MPH (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

This post has been edited by bucko: May 1 2008, 05:20 PM

[grim_d]

i learned to drive in a new mini, not bad at all for learning in.

also good advice from twisted, dont let anyone tech you bad habits, they only cause problems.

by all means when you have your full licence pick some up but whilst learning do everything by the book.

QUOTE(twistedsymphony @ May 1 2008, 04:48 PM)

I don't know about where you are but in my state here in the US we're allowed to start driving when we turn 15... no permit or license or anything. simply carry a proof of your age and as long as there is a licensed adult in the front with you, you're free to drive wherever  

that would be nice, you may not drive a car here until you are 17 and have a provisional drivers licence, you MUST also be insured on the vehicle, it MUST display L plates and it MUST have a person in the front that has held a full licence for over 4 years.

they are also trying to increase the age to 18.

[twistedsymphony]

Interesting that she told you not to look at the center gauges...

My 4th year in College I did a sponsored project with General Motors working on a new design of the Saturn Ion. If you've never seen one of those tragically ugly cars, it's got center mounted gauges... ALL OF THEM, there is no mini-pod in front of the driver.... The Scion xA and xB are like this too (not sure what these are called in Europe).

Anyway according to GM the center is actually a more natural location for the gauges, because with the gauges in front of you, you have to look down and sometimes even tilt your head to see them. With the gauges in the center, they're far enough away that they can be read through your peripheral vision while you're eyes are performing their normal scan of the road.

Personally I thought it was complete BS, but GM was convinced that it was a "safer" location for the gauges and that experienced driver didn't like it because it was so drastically different, but NEW drivers would be a lot more accepting which is why GM and Toyota started putting them in cars that are designed to appeal to new drivers...

Oh and good job shifting by engine sound... that's exactly how I drive... though whenever I get into a really quiet car I have to drive by "feel" which means I give it more gass when it feels like it's going to stall  

[hamwbone]

how cute, scared of driving... lol  

you should try come driving in texas. its like nascar, a monster truck rally and a drunken riding lawn mower race all one road.

[sabbath_dude]

My advice is to book your theory test as soon as possible. Get that out the way so as soon as you feel ready for the practical you can get it booked. Just remember there is usually a big waiting list for practical tests and you could be waiting a couple of months before you get to sit it. Also try and do all your lessons quite close to each other so you're used to driving exactly how the instructor wants you to and it becomes second nature (kind of robotic). Driving to pass your test is nothing like how you drive in the real world so its important to get all the small details that the examiner looks for down to a T. Small things like always having two hands on the wheel, checking mirrors before changing gear, maneuvering, keeping a safe distance etc etc are the small things that will catch you out in your final test (I should know, I didn't pass until my 3rd or 4th attempt because of stupid little details ). I'd been driving from a very early age, 11 years old was the first time I think I was let loose in the family car (we lived in the middle of nowhere so that kind of thing was ok). Never had any fear of driving or problems handling a car but the practical test can be an absolute bitch and the examiners are usually grumpy old bastards. Just make sure you're ready before sitting the test because its damn expensive and extremely disappointing if you mess it up. On a lighter note, once you pass its the best feeling ever!. Having the freedom to drive yourself wherever you want whenever you want is great   .

[bucko]

I just wanna say thanks for all the advice I'm just looking forward to wednesday now, ill probably have 3 lessons then after that go up to 2 a week. I will be doing a Pass+ if I pass the main test, I'm not booking theory just yet, maybe in a month or so, I need to read the highway code handbook since everyone tells me the theory is easy but I don't wanna waste money on the theory either.

I wanna do a Pass+ since I seem to fall a sleep easily at night in a car and on the bus home from uni (I know I'm not driving) but I think it would be good to make sure I'm ok and everything it will also help with insurance costs. And no I wont be one of them bitches that think pass+ make you a better driver. I've been told it takes a year after your test to get the best of all condition experiences.

'm sort of looking at cars now, I'm thinking of buying a car (I got the money for my 21st bday to buy a car it's building interest now) and my mate well he will soon pass 4 years on driving so I could learn from that point of view while driving and I would get used to my own car.

Anyway ill keep this thread like a blog each week of how I'm feeling about it, any problems I have you can help me out. Once again thanks for the advice.

[grim_d]

QUOTE(bucko @ May 3 2008, 11:42 PM)

I wanna do a Pass+  

somethings about pass plus, make sure that your insurance will honour it and make sure that any saving you make on insurance with it is more than what it costs to do the pass plus itself otherwise it's worthless.  Also remember that it is only honoured for a year so it's not like ncb where it rolls over year to year.

If your instructor is pushing it on you it's probably so they can get that extra bit of cash from you.

as far as im concerned pass plus is an absolute waste of time and teaches you nothing that that you wouldnt learn from experience alone.

my opinion obviously but see how you feel once you have that pink licence

[commandersafi]

QUOTE(sabbath_dude @ May 3 2008, 11:33 AM)

 checking mirrors before changing gear

Hmm....I never knew i was supposed to check my mirrors before i shift  

[sabbath_dude]

QUOTE(commandersafi @ May 4 2008, 01:02 AM)

Hmm....I never knew i was supposed to check my mirrors before i shift  

When I was doing my driving lessons I didn't think it was something I needed to do either but apparently it can be classed as a maneuver and any time you change speed (which will include shifting gear) you must recheck your mirrors. It's probably just a UK thing as the driving tests over here are pretty strict. I found the way they taught me to drive for passing the test totally unrealistic to how you drive in real life. It seemed I was looking in the mirrors and at the speedometer more than I was watching what was actually happening in front of me on the road. You really have to drive by the book to pass here which can be a really frustrating. For example while sitting the practical test (lasts about 50min) you will be given three maneuvers to perform. One of which will be reverse parking between two parked cars. If one of your tyres so much as touches the kerb its an instant fail.