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British School of Motoring - worth it?

I've had something approaching 50 hours of driving lessons and I've taken one test, failing with an instructor's record 6 Serious Errors. I'm with the cheapest driving school in Cardiff, Brittania, which charges £15.50 an hour. I'm fed up with being immobile and getting stick from people about my failure.

Would it be worth paying the extra £8 per hour for a block of 10 hours with BSM to sort myself out? Are BSM that much better than other driving schools?

Reply 1

Bavarian Motor Works

11

no end of, get independent fella

Reply 2

Rob 07

13

I personally learnt to drive with BSM and lessons were £19 per hour, i only needed 24 hours of lessons and passed my test 1st time with only 1 minor without any private practice. So in that respect i would definately reccomend them, however i think that it depends entirely upon the instructor that you get, bear in mind BSM employ of a lot of trainee driving instructors and you could be landed with one of these and still pay full price or you could end up with a newly qualfied instructor who is nervous about making a positive impression to help build their client base. So personally i think it is difficult to generalise and say BSM are the best as to be expected with any driving school there are good and bad driving instructors and to some extent it is simply down to the luck of the draw who you end up with, but i would advise speaking to friends who have learnt with bsm and ask them to reccomend somebody or if you don't know anybody in this situation ring the local bsm office and ask them to reccomend somebody after descriving your personality and they will try and match you up with a suitable instructor!

Hope this helps
Rob :biggrin:

Reply 3

Bavarian Motor Works

11

Rob 07

I personally learnt to drive with BSM and lessons were £19 per hour, i only needed 24 hours of lessons and passed my test 1st time with only 1 minor without any private practice. So in that respect i would definately reccomend them, however i think that it depends entirely upon the instructor that you get, bear in mind BSM employ of a lot of trainee driving instructors and you could be landed with one of these and still pay full price or you could end up with a newly qualfied instructor who is nervous about making a positive impression to help build their client base. So personally i think it is difficult to generalise and say BSM are the best as to be expected with any driving school there are good and bad driving instructors and to some extent it is simply down to the luck of the draw who you end up with, but i would advise speaking to friends who have learnt with bsm and ask them to reccomend somebody or if you don't know anybody in this situation ring the local bsm office and ask them to reccomend somebody after descriving your personality and they will try and match you up with a suitable instructor!

Hope this helps
Rob :biggrin:

how many lessons?

when was this?

Reply 4

Pheonixx

15

i had an ace instructor with AA, bsm and AA drivers are no different that independent instruction you know? the school simply help find the instructors pupils and charge a fee.

Reply 5

Rob 07

13

Bavarian Motor Works

how many lessons?

when was this?

Yeh, 24 hours plus an hour before the test, i passed in august last year with only 1 minor :biggrin:

Reply 6

FyreFight

14

My experience of BSM was utterly shambolic. I switched as soon as the pre-paid lessons were spent.

Reply 7

Charlski

14

Try asking around your friends, see who they passed with. I had an independent instructor, and passed first time with only six lessons. He charged £20/hour, but was worth it. A lot of my friends had recommended him to me - you should definitely ask people who have already passed their test (preferably those who passed first time) who they were with.

Reply 8

Ice_Queen

17

Yellow pages, get an independent instructor who is well established and has a good pass rate.

Reply 9

jaw

3

imo - bsm aren't worth the extra. the instructors were no better than others - one of mine was next to useless, they switched my instructor twice, fee's increased tons after an introductory period I didnt know about, one instructor was a laugh and pretty helpful however, and I'd reccomend him - the other cut corners and time, tried to draw out the lessons as much as poss and it was an absolute farsce.

some will have good stories, some will have bad, but not worth going with as a whole..

Reply 10

iMacThere4iAm

Best way to find a good instructor is to ask for recommendations off your friends. Get the name of the instructor, and ask for them specifically, because what school they belong to doesn't really have much to do with it.

My instructor always used to complain about BSM because of the number of trainees they employ. The problem with trainees is they have a tendency to fail their instructor's test, and then you have to change instructor which sucks.

Reply 11

Ed.

17

AA and BSM only employee instructors from a higher level training (can't remember what exactly) but a majority of independent instructors aren't trained to the same level. However training doesn't necessary mean these instructors are best for you.

Reply 12

FyreFight

14

Ed.

AA and BSM only employee instructors from a higher level training (can't remember what exactly) but a majority of independent instructors aren't trained to the same level. However training doesn't necessary mean these instructors are best for you.

Are you sure? The one I got assigned by BSM wasn't even fully trained yet, she still had a pink instructors license. All of the independent ones I know of are fully trained.

Reply 13

Ed.

17

FyreFight

Are you sure? The one I got assigned by BSM wasn't even fully trained yet, she still had a pink instructors license. All of the independent ones I know of are fully trained.

It could just be AA then, I know it is definitely true for them.

Reply 14

Lara C.

3

id swear by BSM and all my mates who used them too. never put a foot wrong. whats better about BSM than others is that you are practically garunteed a car and instructor. so many times ive heard of people have their lessons and what not cancelled cause their instructor was 'busy'. and last time i looked they were the same price as others too.

basically go with BSM and you are garunteed;

a) a professional instructor who is qualified and has a 'grade'
b) a fully working car that is usually no older than 2-3 years
c) basic quality of service!

Reply 15

FyreFight

14

Lara C.

id swear by BSM and all my mates who used them too. never put a foot wrong. whats better about BSM than others is that you are practically garunteed a car and instructor. so many times ive heard of people have their lessons and what not cancelled cause their instructor was 'busy'. and last time i looked they were the same price as others too.

basically go with BSM and you are garunteed;

a) a professional instructor who is qualified and has a 'grade'
b) a fully working car that is usually no older than 2-3 years
c) basic quality of service!

In my first 3 consecutive weeks with BSM, my instructor phoned to cancel the lesson AFTER it should've begun, meaning I'd taken time off College for nothing at all.

Also:

a) The instructor wasn't even fully qualified, let alone experienced. She still had a pink instructor's license.
b) When they finally got their act together and followed through with their commitments to send me an instructor, the tyre burst during one of the lessons because of wear. I had to stand by the car with the instructor for an hour and a half while they waited for the AA to come, because the instructor didn't know how to change a tyre, and only got a refund for 50% of the cost of the lesson.
c) The service was utterly ****. Apart from the problems mentioned above, they kept phoning me every few days for TWO WEEKS complaining that I hadn't yet paid for my lessons, when I'd given the instructor the voucher as soon as I met them. The person who worked the phones at the branch had an aggressive manner and was generally apathetic about the whole business.

Needless to say, I switched as soon as I possible could.

Reply 16

Lara C.

3

maybe things are different in Surrey? i would expect that each region has its own HQ and whatnot. they couldnt have provided me with a better service and for that ill always put a good word in for them. same with a few of my mates also.

Reply 17

Callipygian

2

What colour are the instructors licenses if they are fully qualified, my instructor has 3 license looking things in the front of his window i think 1 is red and 1 is green (but i might be wrong) and i cant remember the colour of the other one.

Reply 18

Cassie__

As others have already said, it's best if you know of a good instructor with BSM. I got through 4 of their instructors. One I had at home one summer before going back to uni, he was great. The ones at uni, however, weren't quite so good. The first one left a week before I did my first test, and the guy they sent me to have one lesson and my test with had a diesel car rather than a petrol I had been learning with... it wasn't the best time to have to get used to driving a 'tractor'. I failed that test. Fair enough. I kept the guy I'd been given for my first test, although he starting messing me about to the point that he didn't show up for the lesson before my test. So I ended up having some random guy taking me to my test (in a petrol car this time), which I thankfully passed!

Reply 19

The Stig

18

Ed.

AA and BSM only employee instructors from a higher level training (can't remember what exactly) but a majority of independent instructors aren't trained to the same level. However training doesn't necessary mean these instructors are best for you.

Both AA and BSM use non fully qualified instructor driving on a pink licence, however when you ring to book you can ask for a fully qualified instructor with a green licence for your lessons. A lot of people aren't aware of this.

British School of Motoring - worth it?

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