I think its inflated more by bad driving instructors with gimmicks to get people on the books, Common sense seems to go out of the window when it comes to choosing an instructor
You have the teens that want lessons in the latest cool hot hatch regardless of the skill of the instructor and the bargain hunters that don't stop to think there must be a reason the lessons are so cheap
Then add to that the naive people who just believe anything there bad instructor tells them and end up doing way more lessons than they actually needed
You speak with common sense which makes a refreshing change!
Around the rural area in which I live, there are instructors who advertise 10 lessons for £99.00! It's clearly not possible to make any form of living by charging that sort of money for lessons given the running costs of the vehicle alone - my average fuel bill works out to between £4 and £5 per hour average over the year which takes into account pick-ups, student location, test area location etc. If these instructors were paying out that sort of money, it would leave just over £5.00 per hour to cover all the other aspects of running a business, not to mention paying themseves a wage.
The only way they can cut costs is by sitting out most of the lessons by the roadside or on an industrial estate and then dragging the lessons out to try and make some money.
However, there are still people naive enough to go to these instructors and base their instructor choice on lesson prices alone rather than reputation.
I can always tell when someone phones and enquires regarding driving tuition - if they ask to book lessons with me without asking the price, they are booking invariably on reputation whereas others will ask the price first and for more information which is understandable or others will freely admit that are just ringing around for prices and aren't bothered who they get as long as they are cheap. It's the latter ones I don't want.
I often get calls from people ringing around to find the cheapest instructor and often don't hear back from them - however, some time later I'll often get a call from the same people unhappy with whom they chose but if I can remember them ringing originally, I'll never take them on.
Of course a student should change instructors if they feel the instructor is not giving a good service or there are conflicts in personality but, many students have an unrealistic idea of what learning to drive is all about - couple that with very often student attitude problems which the instructor has also to deal with, most instructors on the whole do a decent job...it's just the poor ones which give the industry a bad name.
) and I'll gladly pay it. My instructors great. If I make a small mistake he'll just tell what I did wrong when we're crusing along and if I make a big mistake that usually involves the dual pedals such as not spotting a car coming from the right on a roundabout that was behind another car turning left then he'll have me pull in and tell me what I did wrong. No shouting involved. He also has a very high pass rate, something like 70% i've heard.![[FnG]magnolia](/styles/overclockers/avatars/9.png){kind=avatar}
