The AA, BSM, or a cheaper driving school?

I have used the AA and personally think smaller driving schools are better and will be much quicker in taking you in for your test. In my experience AA instructors will be harsher with you. Plus they all teach in Ford focuses which i think is a pretty big car fo first timers so its better to learn in a fiesta or a corsa

Reply 21

Vincente

14

BSM all the way, I never understand people's accusation of money grabbing when they aren't even taught by the bigger companies. But firstly, I had 4 instructors before I passed my test: two different independents; one works on his own; and the other is part of a small company. The former was just terrible despite his high ADI grade and I left after 12-15 hours because he was just making me drive in a relatively empty double carriage way to my local town (where the test centre was) and it wasted two-thirds of my time on the way there and back. He was just leeching me of my money) The second instructor taught me for a few lessons and just completely overcomplicated things and I just gave up!

Then when I was at university, I tried BSM as they can arrange for an instructor at home as well. People complain about the relatively long times spent listening to instructors on the side of the road but in my opinion it really helped. The minor issues which I could have gotten from the other instructors weren't tolerated either. The 2 hour lesson system also helped a lot for me personally because I actually could spend a whole hour on just mastering one those bloody manouvers which you would never do again. Also since you tend to book XX hours to get a discount, you can at least change the instructor if you are with a bigger company.

But my advice is if you can get plenty of private practice then a decent independent instructor should be fine. If not, then one of the larger companies.

Reply 22

Elegant Elephant

12

AA, but them again it depends on who your instructor is and if they have any offers on. I managed to get a 20% off offer when I booked a 20 hour block.

Reply 23

MariaMaria8899

I mean it depends on the instructor i think. I had an independent instructor and i felt like he didn't take me anywhere and i am a confident driver thanks to private lessons with my uncle. but he would never take me on a main road, for 13 lessons i was going round and round the same road. i had to request that he actually let me drive home and after that he still didnt let me do anything new. But two of my best friends who were nervous drivers to start with passed after 20 lessons with AA and on their 4th - 5th lesson, were on dual carriageways. So again i think it's kind of down to luck and getting a good instructor

Good luck!!

Reply 24

Henrikh

5

Personal recommendation is the way forward.

Reply 25

knowledgenow

Try a lesson from AA and then one from BSM and then an independent instructor. That way you can make your mind up which instructor suits you the best. At least you will have the chance to compare the quality of the instructor and see which one is the best for you.
BSM use trainee instructors to teach you so if they have a pink badge in the windscreen that means they are not fully qualified as an instructor. Look for a green badge, as that means the instructor is qualified.
Good luck.

Reply 26

PDIDoug

PSSST!.... BSM and the AA are the same company, or to be more exact, the AA own BSM.

Reply 27

PDIDoug

Its all about the individual instructor whoever they work for. There is one thing to bear in mind, if you go with a larger company at least you will have the facility to complain if you feel you have reason and then they will change your instructor and SHOULD give the offending blighter a rap on the knuckles for being such a poor representative of their company. As reputation means an awful lot to the larger organisations maybe you can squeeze a couple of free lessons out of them under their customer care policy.

Reply 28

stephaniew

I signed up for an intensive course with a company called Complete Driving Solutions Limited run by MR JAMES BRIAN GRACE based in Sunderland. He took £1,200 of my money by bank transfer and 4 weeks later I have still not had one driving lesson. He told me he had applied for my provisional (which I checked with DVLA and they had never heard of me) and booked my theory but each appointment was cancelled. I listened to excuses and put up with cancelled lessons for 3 weeks before requesting a refund which I haven't got. Please avoid this guy like the plague, his name (he calls himself Brian Grace) should be shamed everywhere and Complete Driving Solutions in Sunderland should be shut down.

Reply 29

stephaniew

I signed up for an intensive course with a company called Complete Driving Solutions Limited run by MR JAMES BRIAN GRACE based in Sunderland. He took £1,200 of my money by bank transfer and 4 weeks later I have still not had one driving lesson. He told me he had applied for my provisional (which I checked with DVLA and they had never heard of me) and booked my theory but each appointment was cancelled. I listened to excuses and put up with cancelled lessons for 3 weeks before requesting a refund which I haven't got. Please avoid this guy like the plague, his name (he calls himself Brian Grace) should be shamed everywhere and Complete Driving Solutions in Sunderland should be shut down.

Reply 30

ChrisHarris1

2

Every single instructor is self employed

They just pay a fee to AA etc for marketing

No brand is better than another, just each instructor is good on their individual merit

Reply 31

rasb4559

I was with BSM and the instructor DOUBLE BOOKED my actual TEST DATE.

Although I'd not only confirmed it but also picked that date with him a month ago! Furious I called BSM sure that they could resolve the issue.
They didn't seem to care at all.. they even laughed at the situation. They ended it by saying:

"if he doesn't want to do something we can't force him"

They said they would call me back after that comment. With that said, what's the point of paying a premium to go through them at all?? Different people called me all of which had no idea what was going on! I had to EXPLAIN THE ISSUE THREE TIMES! In the end my instructor sends me a txt saying 'I got your message'.. when he hasn't been answering my calls for three days and when he finally did that day suggested we talk at 21:30. He was insisting I was wrong.. I screenshoted the past messages with his confirmation but never heard from him again..

I demanded a refund from BSM which I got a week later. Another thing about BSM is that they love adding MORE LESSONS on for you! I started off buying 10 then 20 which my instructor claimed was a more than enough since I'm just changing between driving an automatic to a manual.. and I was going to buy 10 more as I needed those to apparently.. if you're not strict with them they will make sure they get many many hours from you. Strangely enough the price for the hours increases the more you purchase.. I found that incredibly annoying and a stupid way to treat returning customers. With all that said, I moved to AA.. I have no idea how my lessons with AA are going to go. My first one with them is today. Good luck to you all. I hope you have better learning experiences than I have had.

Reply 32

Spindlow2

My advice would simply be take each instructor as a separate entity, not as part of a company. I find that a lot of apparently qualified instructors are simply below standard and out to make a quick buck at somebody else's expense.

Your best option is to talk to friends and family about their experiences with specific instructors rather than with companies. If that isn't an option then look on independent review sites to see what other people think of the company you are considering. Also bear in mind that cost doesn't necessarily mean quality... Yes if they are extremely cheap they are probably going to try to make you take a million lessons but within your areas standard price bracket a slightly cheaper instructor may be better than a more expensive one who works for a big company.