Driving lessons - instructor taking the rise?

That sounds about right OP.

My sons , 24 and 26 both had driving lessons as presents for their 17th birthdays . They had 20 and 22 lessons respectively and both passed first time . I think the lessons were £30 .

I'm sure the guide used to be you needed a lesson for your age so age 40 would be 40 lessons but at 2 hours per lesson that should be less if you know what I mean!

I doubt a driving instructor would try to 'take a rise' out of you. His business is based on recommendation and if he was suspected of doing anything like that, he would soon lose business and apart from the 'why not?' answer, why should he pick on your son?

Some people take more time to learn than others. My instructor, who ended up teaching almost everyone in the road I lived in, said the more intelligent the person, the more difficult they were to teach because they kept asking questions and needed to understand why they were doing things before they could do them

Just as a PS, my own children learned to drive at 17, back in 1991 and 1993.

They were each given £250 for their 17th birthdays, for lessons, and they both managed to pass first time, the money was enough for all lessons and test.

Of course, no theory test back then, and they knew that when the cash ran out, they would be paying the rest themselves out of their Saturday job wages.

Hope that spurred them on.

And yes, I realise I am talking about a long time ago.

It’s a long time since my children were learning to drive, but I imagine the AA School of Motoring would be more expensive than an independent instructor?

Plus, with not working through Covid, I expect driving lessons have rocketed in price, with pent up demand for lessons and tests.

BTW her charges are around £35 per hour.

I think that your son should be able to see his driving ‘log book’ so that he can see his progress, he needs to chat with his Instructor and find out why he hasn’t done these things yet.

Does his Instructor think he isn’t ready ? Maybe a 40yr old takes more lessons than a teenager?

I only ask this as I had a long chat with someone who is training to be a Driving Instructor yesterday and she was telling me how different the lessons are today, but that there is more transparency regarding the progress that the pupil is making.

I would say they should cover everything in 20 hours instruction. I just looked up a driving school, and the beginner course was 20 hours which included 17 hours instruction and 2.5 hours test practice.

Did you check on the driver instruction course beforehand?

Depends on your son’s progress, perhaps he is taking time to learn.