Parkway Maestro

[matthewsemple]

Stephen's Maestro

Well sorry if you took offence there. I was kind of being tongue in cheek but there isn't a smily to indicate that.

A lot of the problem has to do with driving instructors who take you out once a week for an hour and keep you on their books for ages. This sounds like what Graham's step-daughter is doing and why she still has no clutch control.

Half of them use diesels which you can't stall as easily so you never get to feel the bite. The other half are so scared that the learner will bump the car that they hover over the dual controls all the time which doesn't allow the driver to learn.

I would recommend taking an intensive course because you don't have to keep relearning every week and reacquainting yourself with the car. This is why I passed quickly, not because I was a better driver. If you had taken the course I did with my instructor, you would have passed in four days as well. He guaranteed it and if you failed, he gave free lessons until you passed.

I think you should keep your car, Stephen. The reason it accelerates quicker than the Polo is that you probably had a Polo 1.0 litre with about 40bhp whereas the Maestro is about 69bhp - so it's much more powerful. I love Maestros. I have had 1.3, 1.6, 2.0i and 2.0 Turbo models, with and without power steering. When I drive other cars, I always come away thinking that the Maestro is better. It's all good...

...but clearly I will have also offended some driving instructors now - so apologies in advance to any of those that may be reading.

[Beaker]

A lot of the problem has to do with driving instructors who take you out once a week for an hour and keep you on their books for ages. This sounds like what Graham's step-daughter is doing and why she still has no clutch control.

I had one like that...took me a while to realise but I ditched him in the end. Found someone who I could chat too easily and inspired confidence. Helped my driving immensensely. I used to get told off for not overtaking when appropiate. The other one would had let me happily sit behind with his foot on the dual controls.

[Guest]

Coincidentily, she has just ditched her instructor and has done 16 hours intensive this week. New guy thinks, she's now 10 hours away from test.

Cannot wait, me and my monty will be so glad to be free of taxi duties.

Graham

[Beaker]

Hope you got a Maestro for her first car

[D87SMW]

Driving

Coincidentily, she has just ditched her instructor and has done 16 hours intensive this week. New guy thinks, she's now 10 hours away from test.

Cannot wait, me and my monty will be so glad to be free of taxi duties.

Graham

Don't want to hi-jack the thread..

I was told that I would need at least 25 hours before I could take a test... But that is roughly the same as Graham mentioned above for his step-daughter, who has already had several lessons and has not gained much clutch control. However I didn't have much trouble with clutch control on the assessment I had and that was after more than a year of being 'out-of-practise...' Methinks he just said that to gain £470 for a 25 hour course.

Back on topic, Stephen please let us know how you get on with insurance quotes.

[Guest]

No she wanted a mini. (Silly money!!), so we settled on a bubble shape Micra..

I would have liked to get her a Maestro, but it's much cheaper to get her insured on a one litre Micra.. at 17 it makes a huge difference.

I actually quite like the Micra too they are pretty rust resistant and have excellent hairdryers er I mean engines. 16 valve twin cam no less ! The gearboxes are known to be near bombproof.

Graham

PS. Oh and before someone says Metro, can I remind you that in the North of Scotland we get lots of snow and therefore have terribly salty roads.

[tony]

[QUOTE=macwomble]No she wanted a mini. (Silly money!!), so we settled on a bubble shape Micra..


a one litre Micra.. 16 valve twin cam no less !

Graham


sorry that made me smile

[Guest]

The biggest steering difficulty i have is when i turn corners. I'm getting better at it but at first i was ending up on the wrong side of the street - thank heavens that the roads were clear.

This could also be down to the Maestro being *much* wider than the Polo to which you are used. The comments which have been made about how much stuff you can fit in a Maestro are largely due to its width. For example, it's almost a foot wider than my (Mk3) Fiesta.

[Guest]

hi guys

Thank you all so much for the informative advice. The car is growing on me, i'm still not sure of the gearbox but i'm getting used to it. The gears seem quite close together? Also, and this is probably just me, it doesnt seem to need 5th gear this week, i can't explain it, but when i got the car (a week last saturday) it was screaming out for 5th. My polo only ever had 4 gears which confused me greatly LOL when learning as the Corsa had 5. Even tho the polo only 4 gears it would often sound like it wanted taking up into 5, if that makes sense?

As for insurance, well i Norwich Union have released the price for the next year...£1304 would you believe?!?!?!??!? whoever said here that you should just tell them what you want to pay, and say thats the cheapest you have been quoted, is wrong, at least as far as N U are concerend. I had a genuine quote of £875 of Liverpool Victoria, and N U didnt want to know. That was the price and thats that

Just a quick word about lessons...speaking as i find (as i always do) i had a superb BSM driving instructor. I have heard horror stories about tutors, but also good too. At the end of the day you have no choice but to trust and hope that your tutor doesnt take the mick. My instructor was extremly busy when i learnt so i assume that meant that he didnt need to keep me 'on his books' as customers were aplenty. I think i had 25 lessons before me first test. But anyway, he was sent from heaven. Not that i liked learning to drive much, but i do miss the tutor.

cheers agian

stephen

[Guest]

Try this lot: www.quotelinedirect.co.uk

Nought to lose..


Graham

[SimonR]

I wouldn't have thought a car as young as the Ledburys (Ledburies ) should need a gearbox oil change, but it can't do any harm.

Yeah, it occurrs to me that the gearboxes had been hanging around for a long time before fitment to the car. I've no idea if the people at Ledders changed the oil prior to sellig the cars. It's not a big job and might help a bit.

[matthewsemple]

whoever said here that you should just tell them what you want to pay, and say thats the cheapest you have been quoted, is wrong.

I said that! It won't work every time but is saves a lot of time and if they won't match your price, then you go elsewhere and find someone who will.

My instructor was extremly busy when i learnt so i assume that meant that he didnt need to keep me 'on his books' as customers were aplenty. I think i had 25 lessons before me first test. But anyway, he was sent from heaven. Not that i liked learning to drive much, but i do miss the tutor.

Sort of confirms my suspicions about BSM and other big compaines. Of course he was busy, he kept you on his books for ever, along with loads of others, doing 1 hour a week for months on end. Not the best way to learn to drive. I wanted to learn to drive, not start a long-term relationship with a driving instructor.

Look at it from the instructor's point of view - they're self-employed, working for a franchise. No point in building a reputation because they get business from the large company that has a website and adverts in the Yellow Pages. They have to pay for a new car, insurance, petrol and a fee for the franchise and pay tax, their mortgage, take the wife on holiday, etc., etc.

So they teach people to drive, 30 or so at a time, one hour a week. It ensures a steady income and they don't get any gaps. They don't need to put you in for a test until they get a few more new learners. When you ask for a test, they can say "I don't think your ready yet," which is probably true because you have had one lesson a week in a diesel whilst they operate the clutch on the dual-cntrols. When you go for a practise in your real car that is a bit older and doesn't have dual-controls, you find you cannot drive it - so you have more lessons and put your test off a bit more.

[Guest]

hi all

Matthew

You are so right, i only wish i been given your advice before is started. It mught have prevented me from learing at the pace i wanted to, and i might not have choosen to have one lesson a week. With heinsight i suppose i should have had ten lessons in one week, booked a test, and if i failed it given up driving. Is that it?

compared to the cost of running a car, learning to drive is as cheap as anything. You seem to know quite a lot about driving instructors, and yet your comments do not tally up in any way with my expericence. I took lessons for 5 months, would have been 3 if i had passed the first test. I had to keep up with one or two lessons between each test in order that i might still be used to the instructors car.

But whether i think you are right or wrong to completly run down driving instructors, what alternative is there? i couldnt have learnt off my parents or partner as they have been driving for so long they have no idea how the 'test standard' has chnaged. So i had to get an instructor. There was no other choice.

Do be aware that making random statements like you have can put people off learning to drive. I do feel very passionate about the subject as it took me many years to come to terms with the fact that i COULD be a driver after all (despite all the horror stories i heard about driving instructors taking the mick, and people being complete a#sholes about learner drivers) and i did, eventually, pass.

laters

stephen

[E_T_V]

It IS possible to teach yourself to learn to drive. I did and I'm not always the sharpest tool in the box. I haven't had one lesson for either my bike or my car and I passed them both, (admitedly I failed my bike test first time but that was partially due to nerves and the fact it is harder than the car test).
I got one minor on my car test and none on my bike one.

I just drove my mum and dad about and practiced manuvers and tried to unlearn all their bad habits and misconceptions. I learnt in a not very learner friendly rover 416 saloon which is difficult to park and has very limited rear visability. A lot of learning to drive is all about road experience/sense which fortunatly I had a head start over most people on as I'd already spent 2 years on the road on bike L plates before I started to learn to ride and driver properly. My advice to anyone is to spend as much time on the road as you can whoever it is with and whatever the car, you'll learn more that way than you will in any lesson.

[Guest]

I'll second all of what Dan's said. Even if a parent or partner can't actually teach you to drive, finding one who is prepared to act merely as a supervisor, thus allowing you to get a decent amount of road experience without paying an extortionate hourly rate makes so much difference.

I do appreciate that it's not possible for everyone, but if you have a willing parent (or the like) who will allow you to drive their car (with them in the passenger seat, and not on the motorway, of course) whenever they're going somewhere, to rack up some miles, it really is worth it.

Incidentally, the DSA (quite surprisingly, in this day and age) do provide a lot of information about the test, to allow anyone to learn/teach someone to drive. So in theory, being out of touch with the test standard isn't a problem. The books are a little pricey, but still much cheaper than 'proper' driving lessons.