Choosing A Driving School (Part 2)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have narrowed my choice of driving schools down to three possible choices:

School #1 is a well-known nationwide school. I won’t give out their name but it is an anagram of B.M.S. They offer brand new cars and claim to be “The most experienced driving school in the country”.

School #2 is a family-run business, who according to their website, have been going since the mid-70s. What’s more, they claim to be able to get me through my test in as little as 6 weeks.

School #3 is a small independent school, offering cheap driving lessons and numerous different discount packages of 10 lessons apiece.

School#3 was a turn-off immediately as their website seemed to say very little about their actual school and experience, etc, instead it focuses primarily on trying to convince me that they are the cheapest driving school around. I’ll admit that money is tight right now, but can you really put a price on road safety?? After all, it won’t be long before I am driving my son around. Still, I decided to phone them to enquire anyway. The person who answered the phone answered it in Bengali. When he realised I spoke English he asked if I want to book a driving lesson, then immediately started to explain what he thought would be the “best package” for me. He didn’t even ask if I had a provisional. The lessons were cheap, but the emphasis seemed to be on getting me booked on as quickly as possible. So I put the phone down and crossed them off of my list.

School#2 seemed to be a little more promising. The person I spoke to was friendly and seemed know his stuff. He told me that all of their instructors were fully qualified, in fact he was a qualified ADI himself. He also confirmed that he could get me through my test in 6 weeks. So far so good. I told him I would call him back if I was interested.

School#1 took me through a hideous recorded message. I cannot stand talking to a machine at the best of times, but I gave up halfway through negotiating their various options and instead looked online for some reviews about them. Surprisingly for a nationwide school, the reviews were mixed leaning towards negative. And I noticed quite a lot of people saying that they kept being given different instructors. One guy had four different instructors over four lessons. This was less than promising.




So it looks like I will be going with the second school. The price was higher than the third school and about the same as the first. But I would much rather pay a bit more and go with them. They seem clued up, are obviously experienced, and it’s nice to phone up and speak to a real person who I can understand.