Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12244703)

There are probably hundreds of things that could lead to you failing your test but would never get you a ticket.

And the other reasons getting a friend or relative to teach you would be a bad idea include: insurance, suitability of their vehicle, the risk to their vehicle and therefore to your relationship, their patience and suitability as a teacher, mutual availability of time, etc. Most of those reasons are why I would never have got my father to teach me. I only very rarely ever drove his car even after I passed my test, and on one occasion he criticized me for doing something I wasn't doing and knew to not do (tailgating IIRC). :blink:

Originally Posted by NYer (Post 12244962)

Nothing wrong with learning to drive using a relative's car or his/her help. And if someone wants to pay a driving school that's ok too. It's not complicated. As I said, you usually learn in large, empty parking lots. Hard to have an accident that way.

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12244972)

It works for some people, that doesn't mean it's a good idea for everyone (I am not even going to try to estimate the relative proportions). And since you learned to drive more than 30 years ago, Sunday trading laws have eliminated most large empty parking lots that used to be available on Sundays.

Originally Posted by NYer (Post 12245207)

Just because I received my license thirty years ago, doesn't mean we haven't shown our own children how to drive - in empty parking lots on Sunday. Believe me, school parking lots where I live are empty on both Saturday & Sunday generally and totally during the summer months. Church parking lots on Saturday are good too. ....

Originally Posted by Pulaski (Post 12245278)

I thought we were talking about the UK. That it certainly what the OP was asking about, and clearly what I was talking about in my post that you quoted. I don't know of a school in the UK with a parking lot big enough to swing a cat. Most churches I know of have very little off-street parking.