Latest news with #learntodrive
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Aussie ‘rite of passage' dying out
Learning how to drive a manual used to be a badge of honour but is now becoming an old-school skill. According to new research from EzLicence, nationally the average price of manual driving lessons has climbed to $83.87 compared to $80.61 for automatic. In comparison to last year, it was the other way around with manual costing less at $77.61 and automatic at $80.16. Some cities, such as Adelaide, are seeing staggering prices with manual lessons costing $271.20 per session. Yet in Wollongong, drivers are getting the best deal at $75.90 per hour. Part of the reason for the rising lesson costs is due to a nationwide shortage of driving instructors, particularly those who teach manual. According to EzLicence and ABS data, instructor numbers have dropped by 3.2 per cent over the past year. There's still a steady demand for manual lessons, especially from people who need to drive manual vehicles for work, or want to have the flexibility, such as driving overseas or hiring manual cars. However, there is a clear shift in consumer preferences. Fewer inner city learners are choosing to go manual. So with a decline in demand, many driving schools are scaling back, ditching manual vehicles altogether due to longer teaching times, limited bookings and higher vehicle maintenance. So the few instructors that remain are more valuable and expensive. Manual instructors are especially scare with an average of just 10.7 manual instructors per 100 learners nationwide, and cities like Brisbane offering 7.1 manual instructors per 100 learners. EzLicence's Tobi Pearce said the shortage, particularly of manual and female instructors, is making it harder for learners to find the right match. 'Finding a driving instructor can be challenging, especially with growing demand and ongoing shortages,' he said. Add to that the pressure of getting licensed quickly and affordably, automatic seems like the right choice. Most states also legislate that drivers who get their license in an automatic, can't legally drive a manual car until they get their full license. MORE AUTOMATIC OPTIONS There's also more automatic options in the new car market, despite manual cars being typically cheaper to purchase. For instance, according to the in Victoria (drive-away prices), the most affordable manual options are the Kia Picanto Spor t priced at $21,340 and the Suzuki Swift Hybrid priced at $24,490 drive-away. In comparison to the automatic variant, the Kia Picanto is $1,000 more ($22,340) and the Suzuki Swift is $2,500 more ($26,990). But manuals are becoming hard to find, which is making the decision a no-brainer for new drivers. According to the there's currently 61 manual variants out of a total of 1,347 (4.5 per cent) vehicles available in the Australian market. Automatic versions are now priced equally or even more affordably, thanks to consumer demand, large production and dealer incentives. Manual driving isn't dead yet but it's on its way out. With fewer instructors, rising lesson costs, and limited availability on new car lots, the stick is no longer a practical choice. What was once a rite of passage, a bragging tool, a skill passed on from generation to generation is now becoming a niche hobby. Unless something changes, the next generation of drivers will never understand the satisfaction of the perfect gear change or the control that comes from driving the old-school way.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
How much does it cost to become a driver in the UK?
It's 90 years since the driving test became compulsory in the UK. Back then it cost just 37.5p to sit the test, and around two thirds of people passed. Now it costs £23 for the theory test, £62 for a practical test on a weekday and £75 at the weekend — and fewer than half of people pass. But the cost of multiple tests is far from the only cost of getting on the road. It starts pretty cheaply, with £34 for the provisional licence, but then the costs start mounting. On average you need 45 hours of driving lessons and 22 hours of practice before you're prepared for your practical test. Assuming you know somebody who is prepared to take you out, 45 hours of lessons at a typical cost of £45 will set you back £2,025. If you need more lessons or they're pricier in your area, it'll cost even more than that. Once you've passed, you need to buy the car. On average people's first cars cost £5,500. Then there's insurance — the cheapest models can be covered for about £1,500, but beware, because you can easily find yourself facing a bill of around £2,500 for something that doesn't feel particularly fast or risky. Read more: How getting ahead on your tax return can help cut your tax bill Add on £195 for the standard rate of car tax, and before you've driven a single mile — and accounted for petrol, servicing and the MOT — it will have set you back £10,352. It means you need to consider how to cut the costs. These are in such high demand that there's not much haggling to be had, but check whether you can get a discount for block bookings. It's also worth considering the balance of official lessons and private practice. If you have a friend or relative who is a calm and confident driver, they may be prepared to take you out more in order to save on lessons. There are a variety of techniques that can help you negotiate a good deal when buying a second-hand car. Research the going rate before you start, so you know what's reasonable. Check the car's condition — if there are dings and scratches you can use this as leverage for a lower cost. Consider the deal you'll accept, and be prepared to walk away if they won't go low enough. If you get within touching distance of what you consider to be fair, you can ask for them to throw in a service or MOT to make up the difference. Picking the right car is key, so take the time to check what it'll cost to insure before you buy. There's no point picking up a bargain that costs thousands of pounds extra every year in insurance. Check if you can save money by adding a second named driver. This is very different from insuring it in someone else's name and adding yourself second — that's called fronting and is illegal. Putting an older and more experienced person on the insurance as a second driver can still shave hundreds or even thousands of pounds off the cost. Including it in a multi-car policy with other reliable drivers in the same household can also help. You could also consider a telematics policy, where you have a "black box" in the car monitoring your driving. If you drive carefully at safer times of day this can lower your costs — although riskier driving could see your premiums rise significantly — and you could even have the policy more: Real cost of a 2025 summer holiday as families priced out or fined How to tell if you're rich Who wears the financial trousers in your relationship?Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Driving instructors say rising prices are fair - but learners can't keep up
Paige Williams is desperate to pass her driving test. Her three-year-old son sometimes has "meltdowns" on public transport, where he might scream, cry or throw himself on the floor, she says. She just wants to be able to visit family and go on day trips more easily. But the 28-year-old single mum, from Barnsley, is having to drastically cut back on how much she spends on food, gas and electricity to be able to afford her £35-an-hour lessons, which she's been having since September. "It's literally scrimping and scraping to be able to manage to get one lesson a week," she says. As the cost of driving lessons continues to rise alongside an already high cost of living, experiences like Paige's may be becoming increasingly common. The BBC has spoken to more than a dozen learners and parents of learners who say they're frustrated by how much they have to pay - and also to instructors who argue that the prices are justified. Driving instructors can charge what they like, and the DVSA does not release official statistics on average lesson costs. But a DVSA survey completed by more than 5,000 approved driving instructors (ADIs) in September shows how prices have shot up in recent years. In the survey, the most common price bracket for an hour lesson was £36 to £40 per hour. Just 31.5% of driving instructors said they charged £35 or less per hour - that number had halved since the DVSA's June 2023 survey. While 20.8% said they charged more than £40 an hour - nearly triple as many as in June 2023. For many people, driving is essential for taking their kids to school, going to work or carrying out caring responsibilities. Public transport might be unaffordable, inaccessible or simply not available for some people. Two-thirds of people in Great Britain who commute to work drive in, and 45% of five-to-10 year olds are taken to school by car, Department for Transport figures from 2023 show. Faustina Kamara, a 23-year-old in Birmingham, needs a licence for her dream job - being a runner in the media industry. But the £60 cost of her two-hour driving lessons means she's only having them once a fortnight, which isn't as frequently as she'd like, and means it will delay when she can take her test. She says she'd love to have lessons weekly but it would mean she'd have to cut back on spending money seeing her friends. Other people also say that the high cost of driving lessons means it's taking them longer to learn to drive. Rather than having the two lessons a week she would have liked, Sandra Onuora, a 30-year-old civil servant in Newcastle, had three per month until she passed her test in March. "That was all I could afford," she says. And even then, "I had to take a lot of money from my savings" for her £39-an-hour lessons, she adds. Because she had to space out her lessons more, she had to wait longer until she felt ready to take her test. She'd spend hours every week travelling between her home, her son's childminder's and her office, taking six buses every weekday. "It was a rough year," says Sandra. She would return home "so exhausted". And just as driving lessons become more expensive, some learners are also finding they're having to take more of them. That's because of a huge practical test backlog, which means learners are having to take lessons for longer to keep up their skills. Keith Rose hasn't been able to book a driving test near where he lives in Bridgwater, Somerset, for his 17-year-old son, Brandon. The best option he could find is an hour's drive away in Newport, Wales, and isn't until September. Keith says that his son is ready to take his test, but will need to keep taking lessons at a cost of £76 for a two-hour session to maintain his skills. "We're being forced into spending money that we don't need to," Keith says. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has acknowledged that waiting times for tests are too long and pledged to reduce the average waiting time for a driving test to no more than seven weeks by summer 2026. Instructors say that they have little choice but to charge these kind of rates if they want to make a profit. "Prices for driving lessons are where they should be, having been probably under-priced for many years," says Stewart Lochrie, the owner of a driving school in Glasgow and chair of the Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council (ADINJ). "I think the price was overdue a reset." Stewart notes that the UK's more than 41,000 approved driving instructors are having to pay more for the expenses associated with their jobs like buying or leasing a car, fuel, insurance and maintenance. "We have costs to cover as well and if the things that we need to run our business go up, then our prices will have to go up as well," he says. The rising price of lessons "isn't really translating to a pay increase in our pockets," adds Terry Edwards, a driving instructor in Ashford, Kent. His expenses include around £280 a month on fuel, £135 on insurance and £440 on car payments. Other costs include servicing, repairing and cleaning his car. Terry charges £39 an hour, but offers a discount for buying in bulk. While customers "don't generally push back" against his prices, some "try and be a bit cheeky" and ask for discounts, he says. For Amy Burnett, a pharmacy advisor in Glasgow, the prices are so high that she's avoiding learning for the time being. The only instructors she'd found with availability charge between £50 and £60 an hour, she says. "I'm living pay cheque to pay cheque as it is," the 22-year-old says. But she sees being able to drive as an investment in her future - she'd have more freedom and she's had to limit her previous job searches to roles accessible by public transport, she says. Amy hopes to pass her test by the time she's 24 - if she can find a more affordable instructor with availability in her area, she says. Paige, the mum in Barnsley, is sure her frugality will be worth it in the end. Being able to drive would make it much easier for her to return to work, she says. And it would make journeys with her son much less stressful, she says. Most of all, she wants to take her two children to the seaside. "It'd be so good for my son Ronald, with his sensory needs," Paige says. "Getting to go on the little arcade rides and seeing his little face would be lovely." 'I was 11,000th in the queue': Learner drivers struggle with test backlog 'I passed my driving test at 74 - it was now or never' Driving instructor gives car to pupil with new son
