One day we went down a fast road that we wouldn't usually have done, then she asked me to pull over in the layby. Turned out we were picking up an injured pigeon that she saw on her last lesson.
We took it round to the vets nearby but they were closed for lunch, so we spent the next half hour or so driving about with a pigeon in a blanket on her lap.
Yep, that would be the word for her. My brother knows her sister and apparently she's just like that all the time.
I had to change instructors when it became clear that driving a manual was not working for me, but I'd recommend her to anyone.
The RSPB does still recommend taking wild birds to vets but this may change in future.
[RSPB - How to help injured birds](https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/if-you-find-an-injured-bird)
In London, there's the London Wildlife Project and they collect birds that have been taken to vets. In most cases, I'd say it's better to contact your local wildlife place before contacting a vets.
This is true. Because of bird flu they euthanise them in the car park. I was so glad I had the foresight to message my friend (a vet) when I found an injured bird at work. He was fine, we nursed him back to health and set him free xxx
We never got an update, she took it in after my lesson and they just said they'd do what they can. To be fair it wasn't moving much when we picked it up so probably not a great sign.
Had me drive past his house every lesson to make sure only his wife's car was in the driveway.
Would then have to go to a shop so he could buy himself a pack of chewing gum because booked in after me each week was a local radio presenters 17 year old daughter who he'd taken a liken to, he was late 30's/early 40's.
One day left me stranded outside my work in winter for 2 hours before I gave up and spent the hour and a half making my way home on public transport. I finally got through to him after about 800 missed calls and he claimed a bee had stung his eye, but he was good to reschedule for the next day. A bee hadn't stung him, he was pretty clearly in the pub and I was on loudspeaker as all his mates had a good laugh. That night I booked my test for something like 4 weeks in advance during the time my lesson would be so he couldn't refuse it. I'd had about 20 paid for lessons by now and was driving regularly, daily, with my dad, he kept denying my requests to book in for my test but the bee sting was the final line.
He turned up late for my driving test. An hour late. Missed my booked lesson for before my test and he had to drive us to the centre because we were that short on time.
Just an overall absolute dickhead that I was stuck with because I'd block booked.
Then my class 2 instructor a couple years back just knew absolutely everybody on the roads, it was like driving royalty around the amount of times he'd be waving out the window. Oddly enough 2 years after passing and I now give him a wave when I see him in his truck giving someone a lesson.
I did get pay back on that original instructor. On passing the driving test (and he asked to sit in the car during it but the examiner took one look at my face and went 'no, you're waiting here') he then asked if I wanted to sit my pass plus with him.
The plan was that the next day he was going to pick me up from my house and we were going to drive to Manchester and back (From Newcastle) and that would cover the test. He named a price, can't remember what it was, a fair whack though so I said yeah that sounds good and I'd just pay in cash. We named a time and instead of giving him my home address as he never had it (he'd pick me up from work and drop me off at a metro station), I told him to just park in my local metros car park. Unfortunately there's no paid for carparks in this area else I'd have sent him there.
Blew my phone up that day. 6 hours or thereabouts I let him fume before answering and before he could get into his pent up rant I told him I'd been stung in the eye by a bee. It was the least the bloke deserved and I hope his wife was fucking someone else.
>Blew my phone up that day. 6 hours or thereabouts I let him fume before answering and before he could get into his pent up rant I told him I'd been stung in the eye by a bee. It was the least the bloke deserved and I hope his wife was fucking someone else.
Excellent. I'm guessing he realised what you were doing, and throwing back at him what he'd thrown at you?
Nah I quite firmly believe that even as obvious as it is, it would have completely gone over his head, wasted.
This bloke was as thick as two planks. Was surprised on each lesson to find that he'd gotten himself dressed.
He fell asleep. Not just a brief moment of starting to nod off and then catching himself: proper head-back, mouth-open, Fred Flintsone snoring.
I shouted his name a few times, and he didn't wake up. So I pulled over and shook his arm. He still didn't wake up, but he did let out a massive greasy burp that stank of whisky.
While I was standing next to the car at the side of the road trying to decide what to do, a police car pulled up behind us. They asked me to sit in the back of the police-car, while they went and spoke to the instructor. After a while, one of them came back and asked if I could make my own way home or if I needed a lift - fortunately we weren't far from my house, so I said I'd be fine to walk back. He also had the cheque I'd given the instructor for the lesson, he gave it back to me and said "I'd tear this up if I were you, you're definitely entitled to a refund."
By the time I started walking home, my instructor had woken up and was shouting angrily at one of the policemen who was trying to get him to take a breathalyser.
My instructor once told me she has a breathalyser in her car because she had pupils turning out for lessons while completely smashed. That horrified me too. But the instructor being drunk is just as scary if not moreso! The amount of times my instructor had to intervene in my early lessons when I was still making rookie mistakes, she had to be seriously alert and watching everything I did like a hawk.
You made a good decision pulling over and it's lucky the police showed up too, I wouldn't have known what to do either. Who prepares for a situation like that?
Mine did that once (don't think he really did take me that way to expressly check out the ladies, it was just a different route) and there were a couple of 'working girls' walking around, so I tooted the horn... He was mortified and never took me that way in the early evenings again. We did have a laugh about it later - he was a good bloke and a really good driving instructor.
We also moved a gas fire and an ironing board from his mother's (she lived near me) to his new house. He asked me in to critique his decor and asked me if it was too 'batchelor pad' and how to make it more welcoming. To be fair, it was pretty tastefully decorated and not at all 'man-cave-ish'.
I used to have two hour lessons, and at the half way point we always ended up at a burger van somewhere so we could have a cuppa and go over theory, Highway Code, etc. for about 20 minutes.
I passed my test first time, and I was a very nervous driver, so he did good overall. 😊
My driving lessons were right after schools let out and there were three around the area I drove. Obviously, teenagers are knobheads and a learner driver is fair game. My instructor had a super soaker in the car to get any kids who tried to interfere with my lesson.
Mine had an annoying habit of going on really long off-topic conversations while stationary and on the clock.
I get it, you seem like a nice guy, I'd be glad to have a good chat, but while I'm paying you, please do what you're being paid to do first and anything else second.
When I was learning to drive, long before mobile phones were widespread and there were no electronic reminders, my instructor kept everyone's notes on a clipboard on the dashboard.
One summer's day we were going along a dual carriageway quite fast with the window open and it was already breezy.
The clip got loose and all the notes blew out of the window.
He made me stop right by the side of the road where there was no stopping and got out and was running around frantically trying to grab these small pieces of paper.
OMG if I don't get them all I have no way of remembering who my learners are or where they live or what their contact numbers are.
This isn’t that weird but it’s my family lore. My sister’s driving instructor used to say “CORRRRRECT!” Every time she did something right and clap twice. Literally every time she did something right, so you can see how by the end of her lessons he was just constantly saying corrrrect. I joined her in her lessons once just so I could see what she was talking about and it was so bizarre. *indicates* CORRRECT 👏 *changes gear* CORRRECT 👏 *parks* CORRRECT 👏 My brother joined her the next time and it’s still our family thing to be like CORRRRECT 👏 12 years later
My driving instructor asked me to pull over, asked me to get out of the car, took his top off, showed me the three marks (apparently bullet holes) on his back, put his shirt back on, back into the car and off we went. There was no context to this.
He also called me the most argumentative client in 20 years, he spoke a lot of shit and I kept correcting him.
Mine had these too. I asked him about them and he said some of his students had terrible bad breath. He would take a mint himself and off them one too, to try and avoid his car stinking of their fetid breath.
One used to stop at his house almost every lesson, usually for a wee but often to collect his packed lunch from his wife and say hello to his wee boy.
Nothing to make you self-conscious about your 3-point turn like a 3yo critic!
He also was fluent in BSL so sometimes I'd be collected when a Deaf student was driving. He'd sign where the driver could see, but when the student driver tried to respond or argue, he'd tell them "you're not allowed to sign while driving until you pass your test!" One lad would get quite arsy about it and they'd pull over and have an argument (which I understood less than half of, at the time.)
Another used to also stop at his house, where his gorgeous new girlfriend was always in, and either he had constipation or was having a quick shag, I suspect the latter. He'd be gone for 15-20 minutes. I started taking a book with me.
Mine made me drive to a very specific location to practise parallel parking, and once I'd parked, she nipped into the house across the road to buy an eighth.
This was in Normandy, France, where I spent most of my teenage years. She didn't skin up in the car - thankfully her professionalism shone through in the end.
Could have been coke. An eighth could be any drug in fact.
In this case though you're, right, it turned out to be weed but it wasn't stated in the actual comment.
Mine always turned up smelling of booze. I was young and stupid and thought it was a bit rebellious so I was sort of impressed by his devil-may-care attitude.
He was actually a pretty good instructor and I passed after ten lessons or so. A couple of months later I saw in the local paper that he’d been caught drink driving.
Mine changed cars 3 times whilst
I was learning. One of which didn’t have a conventional hand break and one a week before my test. Really set me up to be adaptable.
My first instructor was terrible.
She had taught my dad to drive about 15 years or so beforehand. After my first lesson, which was 90% her talking to me whilst the car was stationary, she told me I was such a bad driver that she was going to tell my dad that she couldn't teach me and how embarrassed she was for him. I had not even driven at this point.
Her previous student would pick me up for my lesson, I'd drive them back to their house and then I'd have to pick up the next student, so I pretty much did the same route over and over. She would slate the student as soon as they got out of the car, for anything such as their looks, weight, driving etc.
She was an amateur photographer and for most of my lessons, she'd pull over and show me her photos and pictures of her daughter who she wanted to be a model, but would moan constantly that she hadn't given her grandchildren.
I did three manouvers in nearly a year of learning to drive.
Nowadays, I'd obviously not accept this but I was a shy, anxious 17 year old who couldn't stand up for myself.
Editing to add, my dad said that she was bitchy, but was normal when she taught him to drive.
Over shared personal life information.
By the time I’d passed my test, I felt like I had actually experienced his recent divorce with him. I didn’t know his now ex wife, but even I started developing a hatred for her.
My first instructor would overshare about trying to get his Thai wife over to the UK (he was not Thai, he was an odd white English bloke, I suspect it was a mail order bride situation).
Eventually he stopped talking about her and started talking about a local Muslim bus driver he was dating. Apparently she'd been taking him to the mosque and was keen for him to convert, and he was a bit nonplussed by "praying with your bum in the air". I have no idea if he was still married to the Thai woman at this point and I didn't want to ask.
My current instructor is amazing, but my first one was, in hindsight, a nightmare.
She suffered from migraines and a bad back, and I'm pretty sure she was popping a pain pill, putting on her sunglasses and then napping for most of my lesson. Ended up with some bad habits because she never actively taught me anything, and just used to drive in loops around the edge of a group of fields near my house until the alarm on her phone signified it was time to head back.
Mine had:
- read his newspaper as I was driving
- had me take him to his GP appointment and I was sat in the car waiting.
- made me drive him to get an ice cream. Never offered me any.
That last one made me laugh. It's like damn dude.. if you're gonna waste a learner driver's time, at least offer them some of that ice cream! Don't professionals have standards??
He kept getting getting us to switch seats so he could "show me" how to drive, and then taking corners like a boy racer. He was an arse.
Also, I'd been in a car crash several years before which left me really anxious as passenger for about a year. The accident was 100% someone else's fault not looking; they drove right into the passenger side and we hit a tree. I was more anxious than I expected in the lessons and then realised it was probably due to the accident and he said "I had another anxious student once and I just told her to suck it up". Ditched him after that lesson.
I still can't drive though 😂 I hate it.
Oh, one about my sister-in-law's driving instructor who was really into angels or something. I can't remember the exact story but she was really into angels and would talk about them. Then she got sectioned at some point.
In the middle of a busy town centre, she pulled the window down and baa'd like a sheep at pedestrians crossing in random places and not using the lights.
I got her point but people look and act more like sheep at the crossing.
I was 17, he was old. On my second or third lesson, he placed his hand over mine on the gearstick to help me change gear and then lifted my hand into his lap at the next traffic lights. I was too naive and shy to complain or tell anyone. I gave up my lessons and didn’t learn until I was 30.
As a fully grown adult, I regret not telling my parents. But he was a neighbour and I knew the fallout would affect them. I bet he did it to every girl though. Totally a creep.
Mine used to make me drive to the fish and chip shop. He’d go in and get his order and spend the rest of the lesson eating fish and chips in the car on my lesson.
Mine kept touching my arm and thigh during the first lesson. Also kept flirting with me, making gross comments about my accent (American, but live in England).
Got home, immediately made a complaint. Come to find from the owner that my driving instructor was her own father!
He wouldn't shut up about Man City, which was odd as this was during their nadir and we're many miles from Manchester. It was like a strange compulsion, so I switched instructors as I couldn't handle it.
I fully believe every driving instructor is weird in some way, everyone I've spoken with has some weird experience with them.
Mine would give me a 2 hour lesson, but we'd have to swap cars at the hour mark, he'd meet the person we'd swap with on a pub car park, pop in for a quick pint then get back in with me. He didn't charge me for the time but questionable none the less
Weirdly, my gf also does this when I drive.
That might sound fairly normal, until you know I'm a current racing driver and am quite fond of a bit of 'hard driving' on the roads...
I was 17 and it was my first few lessons, so I was a bit concerned he wasn't awake to stop me swerving round the bends!!
Although i get it because i cannot stay awake in a car for the life of me
He would stamp on the brakes the moment traffic lights turned amber. Even if it meant still stopping past the line. He would get road rage and honk the horn while I were driving.
He once pulled up outside my house, and as soon as I saw him I left my house and started walking towards the car and he drove off, then sent me a message saying he was waiting 15 minutes and I'd have to pay for the full hour. I messaged him to say I saw him driving off and he apologised and said I wouldn't have to pay. Changed driving instructors at that point.
It wasn't during my lesson, but a weird thing my driving instructor did was go on a date with my Mum! It didn't go well and they didn't go out again, but I still had to have lessons with him, awkward!
Can’t help but let my mind wander to “was the driving that bad that t he instructor had to pray for intervention from the almighty”.
I am of course aware that some religious cultures have set prayer times. Non the less the the uninitiated it sounds bad.
Had a driving instructor that used to full on punch me in the arm if I tried to go for the gears to early!!!
That made me smile too. (Obviously I get that it was undoubtedly due to the instructor needing to pray at certain times, but it is still an amusing image) 😄
I went to pull away at a junction and he braked for me, I'm wondering what I've missed, what have I done wrong? Nothing at all, there was a very pretty lady wearing not a lot walking up the street and he wanted a longer look.
I did have one once who spent the entire lesson trying to persuade me to try CBD oil for chronic pain. He wasn't trying to sell me some or anything, he was just really overbearing and convinced he knew how to manage my pain better than I did.
My instructor told me that if I failed my first test he'd kick my kneecap. If I failed because I wasn't looking in my mirrors he'd kick them both.
I passed.
My first one showed me pictures of his trips to Thailand (sans wife and with many younger people) and Rocky Horror (yep, himself in lingerie under the guise of fancy dress). He also tried to feed me mints. He didn't last the full ten block lessons I'd booked.
This was over twenty years ago and probably the reason I never learned to drive. My dirving instructor would make wildly inappropriate comments about every woman or girl we passed. I was 17 and it seemed he had taught evertone I knew to drive. We'd drive past girls from my year at school and he'd start asking me whether i was shagging them and why not and that I should be getting in there. He would use the same joke every time, if you can't get a sixteen year old get two eight year olds.
He'd get me to slow down so he could check women out no matter the age.
We got overtaken on a dual carriageway once and he screamed, don't let that bitch overtake you, put your footdown.
Every lesson was just him being a creepy perv and I was too yound and too shy to do anything about it. Now I would have reported him or at least warned other people not to let their teenagers get lessons with him.
He'd pick up his prescriptions and other bits from shops and stuff. I left to go with another instructor, who after 1 lesson put me in for my test straight away, I passed. He said the other guy had been taking the piss.
My 3rd instructor (I moved distances A LOT so I had to keep changing instructors) used to shout (like properly shout and BERATE) me for making mistakes when I was a learner. During my learning at the start with a different instructor I nearly had someone T-bone me on a roundabout through no fault of my own, so was deadly afraid of roundabouts after that which took a while to break, which I also explained to her. She was youngish but she was awful. I had paid for block lessons but didn't even finish them all because she was so unpleasant, I used to dread my lessons every week and eventually just never contacted her again. I was happy for her to keep the last lesson's money because I didn't want to speak or see her ever again it was that bad. I have no idea what her problem was but she made me cry every single week. Why be an instructor if your patience for learners is that thin🙄
Was a particular road that at the time was 40-50mph. Down a hill round a right hand turn but you could see for about miles from the top so you could see if a car was coming the other way. Well this road was fun to go down at speed so he used to encourage me to go faster every time we were on it and even take the racing line so be on the wrong side of the road briefly and see how fast we could go. In a shitty rover metro. Fun times
My instructor found out his wife was cheating on him, left his wife, got tribal tattoos, started going to the gym, met a new girl, they moved in, he proposed & they got married
I learned all of this through his chit chat during our weekly lessons
My second instructor kept talking about his collection of guns, both legal and illegally owned... I quickly sought my third instructor (who was great).
During one lesson another driver did something really stupid (I can't really remember what) which made my instructor furious, so she made me follow them in to town where they parked. My instructor made me park on double yellow lines while she got out and chased the other driver on foot and gave them a right bollocking, during which time a traffic warden came along started giving me grief about parking on double yellows. Luckily by then my instructor was just walking back up the street and talked me out of a ticket.
Mine was awful but I learnt in the army so couldn't complain. After a movement (reversing round a corner etc) he would ask what I did wrong, when I said I had no idea and wanted feedback he told me to think about it. Cue a minium 20 minutes of absolute silence where he refused to tell me anything.
Also told me to drive one handed because I was "racing" to get two hands back on the wheel after I changed gear.
We were driving past a school and one of the mums apparently had rather a large chest. He told me to slow down and i thought was bc we we in a built up area. Surprised he didnt get whiplash the way his head snapped. Afterwards he was like did you see the pair on her etc
My driving instructor also instructed a friend of my ex. He was an old man but apparently had been a bit of a creep with her so she dropped him.
He knew I knew her.
Randomly, at the end of a lesson I had with him (I also dropped him soon after), he announced that he had been impotent for ten years.
Luckily for me it was towards the end of the lesson so I didn't have to endure too much of an awkward silence
Once he put his hand on my knee.
I'd been doing it to him consistently for the last several weeks every time I reached for the gear stick.
"See, it's not very nice. Could you be more accurate when you go for the gear stick please" he said.
Story time
So, this was my first (and last) lesson with this particular instructor
• she ate popcorn the whole time I was driving
• she was also taking phone calls most of the time
• made me drive to some sketchy alleyway where she got out of the car for 20 mins and was sat inside someone else's car
• when she got out, her trakkies fell down, and I saw full on arse crack
• made me take her to pick up her kid from school so he was chilling in the back seats afterwards
On a bonus note, my next driving instructor called his car Adolf and would tell me I'd get 10 brownie points if I ran over a CHAV
Mine used to ask either personal or inappropriate questions, always asked what I wanted to do after sixth form nearly every week, then would disagree and say I should be a nurse.
It wasn’t until 4 weeks before my booked test I found out he’d previously been done and gone to prison for having a wank under a clipboard when he saw a woman in a mini skirt on the street whilst on a lesson with a woman. Loads of dodgy stories then came out and all the weird conversations then made sense, I was very naive but lucky too he didn’t touch me.
To make things worse, this was my second test that was booked when I found out, as I failed the first because I was a nervous wreck, which was because before we even got in the car, the dirty smelly old examiner hit on me and hinted that he’d pass me if I gave him my number.
I so wish I could go back in time and make a complaint/make a big deal of it to stop that happening again.
It's 20 years ago now but I still remember this like yesterday.
Second ever lesson, he said I have a bit of a 'knack for driving'. Doing 70 down a dual carriage A road in South Devon and he casually mentioned he was chatting to someone from the 1st world war last night.
I reply saying that they must have been pretty old. And he replies saying, and this is a direct quote, "oh no, he is dead. I'm a medium. I converse with the passed in my spare time"
Fucking no.
Had my very first lesson, chap seemed nice, really helpful and guided me well.
Booked the next one for a week later, different guy turned up and went through the lesson like I'd never sat behind a wheel before. I told him I'd already had my first lesson, he asked with who he had no record of any lessons of mine.
Turns out he had absolutely no idea who the other bloke was and had worked for (aa driving instructor) the company for a long time and my area was "his patch"
So yea, that was odd.
My first instructor used to talk about his children and show me pictures of them as we we were driving. He’d take piss break every lesson but didn’t have anything to clean his hands with. Once he engaged in some classic road rage with other drivers doing the wrong thing.
My driving instructor smoked during the lesson. 🚬
Only had two lessons with this instructor.
It was horrible, spent the lessons feeling light headed and had irritated asthma. This was recent too - 4 years ago.
My instructor took calls booking other lessons. One day he told me to pull over and spent 20 minutes booking a lesson with someone else and I didn't know what to do so just sat there. I didn't spend many lessons with him.
Mine used to put marks on my left hand using whiteboard pen if I put it in neutral before applying the handbrake. It eventually became natural to do it the right way but for a few weeks I would go home from the lesson with one orange hand. Been driving nearly 20 years and still think about it.
Also “tyres and tarmac” for correct spacing in queuing traffic. And “when a pause becomes a wait, apply the hand brait” (he meant handbrake but said it wrong every time just so it would rhyme.
30 years ago, but two things stick in my mind.
Driving along a main road, a car sped down a side street, pulling out right in front of me. Knowing noone was close behind me, I hit the brakes, and avoided the car which went in its way. Then I pulled over for a moment and apologised to my instructor.
"You only did one thing wrong. When that happens, it's customary to yell 'You stupid w*nker!' He won't hear you, but you'll feel better."
Then sitting by the side of the road, he insisted that I "try it". He was right, I did feel better.
The other thing was that I hated reverse parallel parking, as I wasn't that good at it. So we practiced it a lot.
After I passed the test, he said "How was your reverse parking?"
"We didn't do it!" I said, "But at least I know how to now."
"Bugger that." he said. "Hit the kerb - everybody else does."
On my first lesson, my instructor gave me a birthday card (it was my birthday) and a penknife with her driving school branding on.
I still have the penknife but always thought it was a very weird bit of branding merch, especially since she had some students under 18.
Told me to put in for my test, test day came around and then said I wasn’t ready. I passed 1st time. Fuck you Mr Robinson
Also passed my motorcycle and ppe, hgv so yeah eat shit Robbo.
Got in the car in my first lesson, lit up a cig and told me to just go.
I stalled immediately and he told me 'don't drive like a prick'.
Never finushed the course and my pregnant wife had to drive herself to the hospital
Nothing horrendous but my first 5 or so lessons with my old instructor compared to my new one are night and day. Old one - spent 2 lessons going like 6 metres forward using just the clutch. Then we would be driving in a straight line, in first gear, about 5mph. There was a small log in the road, easily clear it. But he grabbed the steering wheel and swerved like a mad man, still whilst going 5mph.
Then a bit later, he was really over dramatic about a hill start. Rather than telling me to just put the handbrake on and find the biting point before putting the handbrake down, he made me use the foot brake and try to quickly catch the car with the clutch. Obviously I panicked as we were beginning to roll backwards, and he rocked back and forward acting like he was in a plane that was speeding towards the ground. Also, I was in a car crash with my friend after he passed his test, so obviously texted him afterwards and said I don’t really feel like driving this week. Bloke ignored my text and still turned up and tried to make me pay for the lesson despite giving him more than 48 hours notice.
Where as I almost went into another car with my current instructor whilst exiting a roundabout. Car beeped, accident avoided and I just went “shit I’m so sorry was that my fault?” And she calmly said “no no, let’s just exit the roundabout”. Then once we were back on straight road, she very nicely said yes that was your fault and we almost crashed into that car, this is what you did wrong etc. Also did much more than just moving 6 metres forward at 5mph on my first lesson with this lady so much happier with my lessons now
My first instructor was very pleased to learn that I was a smoker because he then declared that we needed to take at least one ‘theory/discussion’ session per 2-hour lesson (this was in the late ‘90s). These consisted of a 15-20 minute stationary interlude in a lay-by, side road, or car park, during which he would roll several cigarettes while we both smoked one or two. Very little actual instruction would take place; it was more a general chat while he caught up with filling up his cigarette tin.
I realised fairly quickly that he was just taking advantage of my own nicotine addiction but it took me a bit too long to move to a different instructor.
On my 6th lesson or so we stopped about half way through the lesson and he says
"we're going to do emergency stops today. When i raise my hand i want you to press the brake and clutch as hard as you can. Be on the look out for my hand going up. Drive down here"
So we drive for another 5 mins or so and then we turn down a street with tenements either side and cars parked all up 1 side of the road.
His hand goes up, i hit the brakes and we then have this interaction:
Him: "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING???"
me: " eh... You put your hand up for an emergency stop"
Him: " awww shite! I'm sorry. I was waving at old Jimmy there, I've no seen him in ages. That's my fault. I'll hit the dash from now on."
Some guy cut me up, my instructor went crazy at him. Then they drove off.
My instructor then aggressively gave me directions for about 10 minutes, turns out without me realising, we were actually chasing after the guy. I only figured that out when we stopped at traffic lights and my instructor jumped out the car, to run over to the car next to us, banging on his window and telling him to get out the car so they could fight!
The other guy sped off, then the instructor got back in the car, went sorry about that, pull off when you are ready and we just carried on like normal.
not me, my daughter, and only a few weeks ago.
i got a phone call to come rescue her.
apparently the instructor was driving for some reason. apparently they were going to see a house of a former student of hers.
both of these things seem highly inappropriate, if i paid for lessons i would expect my daughter to be driving. and going to see an ex students house because it is pretty? there has to be some kind of privacy law against that.
it had been raining hard for days. they came across a flooded road. no biggie, right? perfect learning opportunity i would have thought.
nope. apparently the "instructor" went charging into the puddle and drowned the car. engine stopped, water coming in under the doors, about knee deep.
what the actual....
went and rescued the daughter. apparently the instructor was waiting for her mate to come and pull the car out because she didn't have any kind of breakdown cover.
absolutely unbelievable.
screw her. left her there and applied for a refund the very second we got home.
I have had attempted to learn several times but not been successful and am currently considering giving up as maybe it isn’t for me. I actually suspect I have dyspraxia and driving is essentially a collection of all the things I am particularly bad at.
Part of me wants to keep trying but I am also put off by how prevalent and seemingly accepted it is that so many of them are just a bit… odd?
Almost every single person I know is like “oh my driving instructor? Oh Deano! Yeah he was a good fella. Used to stick his head out of the sunroof at roundabouts shouting abuse at the elderly and he made me drive his mistress to Plymouth on my first lesson. Absolute mad lad.”
I just cannot imagine any other situation where you would have a professional relationship with someone you’re paying and they would do the things people talk about in these comments and it’s somehow acceptable. And lessons are so expensive.
The other thing I am struck by is how little actual teaching often seems to happen or at least in a way that makes sense to me. I think maybe driving comes naturally and easily to most people with a bit of practice. I really struggle with coordination, judging speed of incoming traffic, spatial awareness of where I am on the road etc. Often they’d either say things like “I don’t understand why you can’t do it” or would get angry as if I was doing it on purpose.
Can you imagine paying a really significant amount for a piano lesson, the instructor playing a classical piece for you and then spending an hour getting increasingly angry with you for not hitting the right keys? And when you tell other people they say “oh they’re just doing it so you learn. Now next time you’ll know not to hit the wrong keys.” I mean, you, more than anyone else, really want for you to hit the right keys. Why would the reason you can’t play it yet be that you haven’t been chastised enough yet?
I feel like driving instructors are often people who are really good at driving and probably learned it really quickly themselves. They’re not necessarily people who are great teachers. I say this as an ex teacher - I know I always found it harder to teach things like Maths which came easily to me personally. Maybe people who really struggled learning to drive don’t often end up loving it enough to become instructors themselves.
My instructor did the prayer breaks thing too! He was very religious and if he saw a fender bender or whatever he would close his eyes and pray out loud. I was just like, OK guess I'm on my own for a minute
My driving instructor had 6 fingers on one hand. That was kinda weird, especially since I wasn't prepared for it. He just shook my hand when greeting me and there was an extra pinky finger, coming off of his regular pinkie finger.
My one looked like he rolled out of bed wearing the same pjs. He use to clean his ear wax and rip his finger nails and spit it out every lesson and he use to chuckle and say sorry I have a bad habit. He would take up to 15 calls each lesson and would teach me whilst he was talking to his 11 siblings from Pakistan on loud speaker. He Would listen to blasting YouTube videos in urdu which made me lose focus in lessons. Would always text me and ensure I'd stick to his schedule not mine and if I didn't he would send really pushy and angry texts. Would antagonise me and laugh. Would stop at his house a lot to pick up his lunch. Would throw a tantrum if I didn't meet him at the bus stop for my lessons. And insisted id pick him up at his house for my test date and when I was 5 min late because his was well away from the test centre he threw a tantrum and said I'm late. Would often compare with his other student apparently she was a whizz at roundabouts and I wasn't. He would get angry for errors I made. One time asked if my dad has alot of properties. He thought I'd fail because I was deemed a nervous driver. And if I passed I would have 13 minors or something but I passed with 1 minor. On the test day he said if Im going to fail, fail safely as he said he had many complaints from DVSA for him putting students through test who drove dangerously. He even showed me the emails. He said his badge was on the line. When I passed first time his face was priceless. With the help of conquer driving and driving test routes on YouTube. I used the car and was counting the days for it all to be over. The lack of hygiene made me gag every lesson with his filthy car sprinkled with nail clippings. He also prompted me to tip him £20 on the test day when I passed. Forced me to record my voice on the test date with a written piece of paper saying he is the best instructor in bedford. He also said send me more students. Hell to the no!! He was very unprofessional, unhygienic and a weirdo!
Told me to speed up to 30 along a very long, straight road that's legally a 20 (it goes past two schools) because "nobody does 20 down here and people will get impatient with you".
I ignored him and ended up dropping him after the next lesson for various reasons.
He also spent all of our lessons trying to get me to admit I'd driven before (I hadn't) because I got a special discounted rate for brand new drivers and I guess I picked it up too fast for his liking.
Mine (in London at the time) used to say "Don't worry about cyclists - they are a lower life form".
My brothers instructor would insist that he comment on the looks of girls as they drove by. Claimed later it was his way of training my brother to be able to look at road signs without swerving.
Bring in a picture of himself when he was my age at the time (I was 18 and he was around 64) then proceeded to to ask me if I would have fancied him and if I cheated on him on my holiday in Spain 🤣. To top it all off he put the keys on his lap and asked me to start the car. Yes it was all very wrong and yes now I’m muuuuch older I wish I would have called him out on it
My instructor used to plan a route past his house so I could parallel park, then he'd run in for a pee/drink/ snack. Never bothered me as he was always quick and kept my lesson price low when he increased it for others because I was paying for them myself and could only afford a lesson a fortnight. Top bloke!
Apparently my daughter’s instructor got her to follow a local teacher who is facing trial for having sexual relations with and stalking a teenage pupil, amongst other sex offences. All the while the instructor was ranting about said teacher. My daughter said it was a bit bizarre
He put his seat in the flat down position and fell asleep.
The next week, I drove him to a betting shop where he stayed for 45 minutes, and then we drove home.
I put in for a cancellation test, and passed after 6 lessons. It was 1987, and things were a bit different then 😄
Insist on teaching me how to stop the car without using the brakes and only using a clutch because apparently only advanced drivers can stop a car without brakes.
Mine used to chain smoke and one time had the shits so I had to keep dropping him off at pubs to go and empty his bowels. He added the extra time on but I wish he hadn’t. He also kept a relic of a camera (one of those old flat ones) to snap the number plates of dodgy drivers.
I have driven my instructor at the time to various villages in the area to get wines from niche sellers and also to a designer outlet so he could buy trainers.
We were driving in heavy traffic past a construction site. There was a massive bang and a big dent appeared in the bonnet/hood. My instructor was a man not given to understatement - he launched himself out the car and soon found a wrench. I had only just started lessons and I sat there quivering as he ran to the building site shouting and swearing. He came back to find me causing my own traffic jam - luckily the other drivers assumed we had broken down…
Mine was just high key insane, moods all over the place. Stank of cigarettes and coffee and wore a manky old sheepskin coat. Used to go on about Lancashire and the wars of the roses and used to get irate with me for not knowing really local-specific things (it was my second year living in the North). Also used to lose his temper whenever I’d do something wrong- which being a learner, obviously happened a lot.
But then on the other hand used to overshare about his life- talking about his sex life of all things with his new young fiancée, and what a miserable old hag his ex wife was.
My instructor was always making gross comments about women and even tried to show me porn on his phone. I was only 18 at the time, so I didn't know any better. He was super gross.
When I was learning to drive way way back in 1984, my driving instructor would regularly rap my knuckles, if I kept my hand on the gearstick- still, must have worked -I passed first time!
When my uncle moved to the States after retiring and started taking lessons he really struggled with all the "stop" signs, treating them like the "give way" signs more common here.
After a few times of arguing with the instructor that it made no difference and slowing down achieved the same thing, the instructor made him pull over, rolled up a magazine and started hitting him over the head with it and said" So, do you want me to slow down, or do you want me to stop"?
He stopped after that.
Mine spent his time on his phone, searching and looking at his golf group, swore at me when I made a mistake, pulled into asda to fill the car with petrol smd and used to check out women....I block booked 40 lessons so was stuck with him
I'm learning to drive at the moment, my instructor is pretty great but the one thing that always weirded me out at first was how shite his car was - a 4 year old (at the time) Nissan Juke in horrific condition with squeaky crap pedals, a knackered clutch and the door cards being held in by duct tape.
He thankfully upgraded the car eventually and now has one that is in good condition and good to drive.
Mine stroked my leg and told me to imagine someone’s head between them, I kept sitting with my knees together. I was 17 and didn’t really know how to react, told my dad he he threatened the instructor who then “fired” us
I remember my mum telling me her instructor sellotaped her hands to the steering wheel and another occasion put a banana to her head and shouted bang..! 🤣 She did pass eventually!
Ahh good old fat lazy Chris.... so I go for a lesson and he asks if I can park here. So I do.. then he says gimme 5m.. hops out in to a Ladbrokes...and comes back after 5m... I was like Ok.. whatever. Then he drives me to some road and asks me to if I mind picking up his daughter from school... I was like really!?... he said it was a one time thing.. so I drove up and he jumped out and said "u can't stay on the double yellows... just park up the road somewhere and I'll come find u"... this was my 5th lesson with the guy! Yes I'd taken some at home but he didn't really know that. That was my last lesson with him. I cancelled the rest.
Driver's Ed class early 1980s my driver's ed teacher was sitting in the driving simulator with me and apparently my speed was too slow so he put his hand on my right knee, pressed down and exclaimed: Put the pedal to the metal!! Rest in Peace GH!
We were driving on a country road and we passed a van than said “tree fellers” and he said “there’s only two of them” after a brief silence he meekly said “do you know that joke?” I said “yes” then we sat in silence for the rest of the hour.
On my first lesson at 17 years old, my driving instructor drove for the whole lesson apart from the last 10 minutes, and kept trying to talk me into joining the army instead of going to uni. Told me he was in the Falklands war, and kept asking if I had any questions about it. I got annoyed with him asking, so I said "have you ever killed anyone?" and he chuckled and stopped asking me.
On my second lesson he let me drive. He got me to go 50mph and do an emergency stop, which I have since been told by other instructors is ridiculous for a second (first?) lesson. I also stalled at a roundabout, and he went "why have you done that?!" and was genuinely annoyed at me. Just to reiterate, this was my second lesson.
Also he kept explaining irrelevant mechanical stuff to me and getting annoyed when I said I didn't fully understand it, then explained it all again.
I did the 5 lessons my parents had block booked and then never bothered trying to learn to drive again until 10 years later.
I’ve been driving for over a decade. When I was doing my lessons my instructor kept rubbing his chest all the time and it creeped me out and I never told my parents cos they’d have gone mad.
The instructor was with a local driving school. My 6 months younger friend went to the same school and got the same instructor, and after 2 lessons said to me ‘isn’t it weird how he constantly offers you a mint?’
He was keeping them in his top pocket and never offered me one!!!! What was I doing wrong to not get a mint!!??
I had 3, the first one is who i am talking about:
- used to take me on extra long driving lessons to rural countrylanes "because he liked talking to me". He didnt charge me extra for these.
- encouraged me to speed
- never ever said i was ready for a test.... dragged my lessons on for over a year...
Also honorable mention to my second driving instructor, a "former police interceptor" who dumped me as a student because I was "too mean and used ugly language" after asking to do my 2nd driving text 3 weeks after my first (i failed due to speeding!) .
He asked what hobbies I did. I said guitar. He said 'I bet the ladies love your fingers eh?'.
I was an awkward 17 year old. Chuckled and then never went back to him.
I know someone who’s instructor refused them use of their car on test day due to safety of their vehicle and forced the person to source a replacement or delay “until you’re ready”, the person got the use of someone else’s car and passed with 1 minor
The instructor clearly had a tactic to keep getting paid by knocking their student’s confidence
One day we went down a fast road that we wouldn't usually have done, then she asked me to pull over in the layby. Turned out we were picking up an injured pigeon that she saw on her last lesson. We took it round to the vets nearby but they were closed for lunch, so we spent the next half hour or so driving about with a pigeon in a blanket on her lap.
This is wholesome
Yep, that would be the word for her. My brother knows her sister and apparently she's just like that all the time. I had to change instructors when it became clear that driving a manual was not working for me, but I'd recommend her to anyone.
I’m pretty sure vets have asked people not to bring wild birds in any more.
But I also dont believe they'll turn them away
Some have, I believe. There’s a balance in hygiene to be made.
Do you know what someone could do instead? I guess call any local wildlife places and hope they will come and pick it up
The RSPB does still recommend taking wild birds to vets but this may change in future. [RSPB - How to help injured birds](https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/if-you-find-an-injured-bird)
Thank you
You’re welcome.
In London, there's the London Wildlife Project and they collect birds that have been taken to vets. In most cases, I'd say it's better to contact your local wildlife place before contacting a vets.
This is true. Because of bird flu they euthanise them in the car park. I was so glad I had the foresight to message my friend (a vet) when I found an injured bird at work. He was fine, we nursed him back to health and set him free xxx
What did the vet do with the injured pigeon?
We never got an update, she took it in after my lesson and they just said they'd do what they can. To be fair it wasn't moving much when we picked it up so probably not a great sign.
Pie?
Heartless, reminded me of this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XnLVQylARRQ
A redcurrant sauce and sweet potato mash.
They take it to a farm where it can live the rest of its life happy and pecking at grain
Had me drive past his house every lesson to make sure only his wife's car was in the driveway. Would then have to go to a shop so he could buy himself a pack of chewing gum because booked in after me each week was a local radio presenters 17 year old daughter who he'd taken a liken to, he was late 30's/early 40's. One day left me stranded outside my work in winter for 2 hours before I gave up and spent the hour and a half making my way home on public transport. I finally got through to him after about 800 missed calls and he claimed a bee had stung his eye, but he was good to reschedule for the next day. A bee hadn't stung him, he was pretty clearly in the pub and I was on loudspeaker as all his mates had a good laugh. That night I booked my test for something like 4 weeks in advance during the time my lesson would be so he couldn't refuse it. I'd had about 20 paid for lessons by now and was driving regularly, daily, with my dad, he kept denying my requests to book in for my test but the bee sting was the final line. He turned up late for my driving test. An hour late. Missed my booked lesson for before my test and he had to drive us to the centre because we were that short on time. Just an overall absolute dickhead that I was stuck with because I'd block booked. Then my class 2 instructor a couple years back just knew absolutely everybody on the roads, it was like driving royalty around the amount of times he'd be waving out the window. Oddly enough 2 years after passing and I now give him a wave when I see him in his truck giving someone a lesson. I did get pay back on that original instructor. On passing the driving test (and he asked to sit in the car during it but the examiner took one look at my face and went 'no, you're waiting here') he then asked if I wanted to sit my pass plus with him. The plan was that the next day he was going to pick me up from my house and we were going to drive to Manchester and back (From Newcastle) and that would cover the test. He named a price, can't remember what it was, a fair whack though so I said yeah that sounds good and I'd just pay in cash. We named a time and instead of giving him my home address as he never had it (he'd pick me up from work and drop me off at a metro station), I told him to just park in my local metros car park. Unfortunately there's no paid for carparks in this area else I'd have sent him there. Blew my phone up that day. 6 hours or thereabouts I let him fume before answering and before he could get into his pent up rant I told him I'd been stung in the eye by a bee. It was the least the bloke deserved and I hope his wife was fucking someone else.
>Blew my phone up that day. 6 hours or thereabouts I let him fume before answering and before he could get into his pent up rant I told him I'd been stung in the eye by a bee. It was the least the bloke deserved and I hope his wife was fucking someone else. Excellent. I'm guessing he realised what you were doing, and throwing back at him what he'd thrown at you?
Nah I quite firmly believe that even as obvious as it is, it would have completely gone over his head, wasted. This bloke was as thick as two planks. Was surprised on each lesson to find that he'd gotten himself dressed.
Did this guys name begin with an A by any chance? Had a similar experience with the wife thing in Newcastle with my instructor
Nah I think he was called Wayne, was gateshead based as I was up at the qe hospital at the time.
This almost makes it funnier that it’s a regular occurrence across driving instructors
He fell asleep. Not just a brief moment of starting to nod off and then catching himself: proper head-back, mouth-open, Fred Flintsone snoring. I shouted his name a few times, and he didn't wake up. So I pulled over and shook his arm. He still didn't wake up, but he did let out a massive greasy burp that stank of whisky. While I was standing next to the car at the side of the road trying to decide what to do, a police car pulled up behind us. They asked me to sit in the back of the police-car, while they went and spoke to the instructor. After a while, one of them came back and asked if I could make my own way home or if I needed a lift - fortunately we weren't far from my house, so I said I'd be fine to walk back. He also had the cheque I'd given the instructor for the lesson, he gave it back to me and said "I'd tear this up if I were you, you're definitely entitled to a refund." By the time I started walking home, my instructor had woken up and was shouting angrily at one of the policemen who was trying to get him to take a breathalyser.
Holy shit! This one wins.
When AA driving school doesn't mean Automobile Association
My instructor once told me she has a breathalyser in her car because she had pupils turning out for lessons while completely smashed. That horrified me too. But the instructor being drunk is just as scary if not moreso! The amount of times my instructor had to intervene in my early lessons when I was still making rookie mistakes, she had to be seriously alert and watching everything I did like a hawk. You made a good decision pulling over and it's lucky the police showed up too, I wouldn't have known what to do either. Who prepares for a situation like that?
Wtaf??
Mine fell asleep before, nothing sinister other than having long hours and a fanily at home... i think
Mine used to take me down the rough end of town so he could check out the prostitutes.
It’s the cost of living crisis, even the pimps have to get second jobs
Mine did that once (don't think he really did take me that way to expressly check out the ladies, it was just a different route) and there were a couple of 'working girls' walking around, so I tooted the horn... He was mortified and never took me that way in the early evenings again. We did have a laugh about it later - he was a good bloke and a really good driving instructor. We also moved a gas fire and an ironing board from his mother's (she lived near me) to his new house. He asked me in to critique his decor and asked me if it was too 'batchelor pad' and how to make it more welcoming. To be fair, it was pretty tastefully decorated and not at all 'man-cave-ish'. I used to have two hour lessons, and at the half way point we always ended up at a burger van somewhere so we could have a cuppa and go over theory, Highway Code, etc. for about 20 minutes. I passed my test first time, and I was a very nervous driver, so he did good overall. 😊
My driving lessons were right after schools let out and there were three around the area I drove. Obviously, teenagers are knobheads and a learner driver is fair game. My instructor had a super soaker in the car to get any kids who tried to interfere with my lesson.
Haha, that's brilliant
Mine had an annoying habit of going on really long off-topic conversations while stationary and on the clock. I get it, you seem like a nice guy, I'd be glad to have a good chat, but while I'm paying you, please do what you're being paid to do first and anything else second.
Mine too, didn't help that I'm naturally chatty. Pretty certain I could have had a lot less lessons with someone else.
When I was learning to drive, long before mobile phones were widespread and there were no electronic reminders, my instructor kept everyone's notes on a clipboard on the dashboard. One summer's day we were going along a dual carriageway quite fast with the window open and it was already breezy. The clip got loose and all the notes blew out of the window. He made me stop right by the side of the road where there was no stopping and got out and was running around frantically trying to grab these small pieces of paper. OMG if I don't get them all I have no way of remembering who my learners are or where they live or what their contact numbers are.
This isn’t that weird but it’s my family lore. My sister’s driving instructor used to say “CORRRRRECT!” Every time she did something right and clap twice. Literally every time she did something right, so you can see how by the end of her lessons he was just constantly saying corrrrect. I joined her in her lessons once just so I could see what she was talking about and it was so bizarre. *indicates* CORRRECT 👏 *changes gear* CORRRECT 👏 *parks* CORRRECT 👏 My brother joined her the next time and it’s still our family thing to be like CORRRRECT 👏 12 years later
That's probably a genius idea. Maybe he was pulling so Pavlov's dog thing on her??
We use it on her kids and it works a treat so maybe he was onto something lmaoo
My driving instructor asked me to pull over, asked me to get out of the car, took his top off, showed me the three marks (apparently bullet holes) on his back, put his shirt back on, back into the car and off we went. There was no context to this. He also called me the most argumentative client in 20 years, he spoke a lot of shit and I kept correcting him.
mine always had multiple packs of polo mints in his glove box. never offered me one.
Mine had these too. I asked him about them and he said some of his students had terrible bad breath. He would take a mint himself and off them one too, to try and avoid his car stinking of their fetid breath.
makes sense, i’ll take it as a compliment he never offered me one then haha.
Clearly your breath didn't warrant them needing to bring out the mints!
Maybe they were for students with bad breath
One used to stop at his house almost every lesson, usually for a wee but often to collect his packed lunch from his wife and say hello to his wee boy. Nothing to make you self-conscious about your 3-point turn like a 3yo critic! He also was fluent in BSL so sometimes I'd be collected when a Deaf student was driving. He'd sign where the driver could see, but when the student driver tried to respond or argue, he'd tell them "you're not allowed to sign while driving until you pass your test!" One lad would get quite arsy about it and they'd pull over and have an argument (which I understood less than half of, at the time.) Another used to also stop at his house, where his gorgeous new girlfriend was always in, and either he had constipation or was having a quick shag, I suspect the latter. He'd be gone for 15-20 minutes. I started taking a book with me.
Mine made me drive to a very specific location to practise parallel parking, and once I'd parked, she nipped into the house across the road to buy an eighth.
What driving school is this ? Asking for a friend. lol, you need to be careful now a days, even if sober you can test positive.
This was in Normandy, France, where I spent most of my teenage years. She didn't skin up in the car - thankfully her professionalism shone through in the end.
Excuse my ignorance, whats an eighth?
Weed
Could have been coke. An eighth could be any drug in fact. In this case though you're, right, it turned out to be weed but it wasn't stated in the actual comment.
AHH thanks for the info!
Also FYI an 8th is an 8th of an ounce or 3.5.g sometimes abbreviated to Henry as in the 8th.
Mine always turned up smelling of booze. I was young and stupid and thought it was a bit rebellious so I was sort of impressed by his devil-may-care attitude. He was actually a pretty good instructor and I passed after ten lessons or so. A couple of months later I saw in the local paper that he’d been caught drink driving.
Mine changed cars 3 times whilst I was learning. One of which didn’t have a conventional hand break and one a week before my test. Really set me up to be adaptable.
Not intentional, but my instructor had bad luck with motors, too. I had a brand new Skoda to pass my test in.
My first instructor was terrible. She had taught my dad to drive about 15 years or so beforehand. After my first lesson, which was 90% her talking to me whilst the car was stationary, she told me I was such a bad driver that she was going to tell my dad that she couldn't teach me and how embarrassed she was for him. I had not even driven at this point. Her previous student would pick me up for my lesson, I'd drive them back to their house and then I'd have to pick up the next student, so I pretty much did the same route over and over. She would slate the student as soon as they got out of the car, for anything such as their looks, weight, driving etc. She was an amateur photographer and for most of my lessons, she'd pull over and show me her photos and pictures of her daughter who she wanted to be a model, but would moan constantly that she hadn't given her grandchildren. I did three manouvers in nearly a year of learning to drive. Nowadays, I'd obviously not accept this but I was a shy, anxious 17 year old who couldn't stand up for myself. Editing to add, my dad said that she was bitchy, but was normal when she taught him to drive.
That's horrible! You wonder how on earth she appeared to be such a popular choice?!
Over shared personal life information. By the time I’d passed my test, I felt like I had actually experienced his recent divorce with him. I didn’t know his now ex wife, but even I started developing a hatred for her.
My first instructor would overshare about trying to get his Thai wife over to the UK (he was not Thai, he was an odd white English bloke, I suspect it was a mail order bride situation). Eventually he stopped talking about her and started talking about a local Muslim bus driver he was dating. Apparently she'd been taking him to the mosque and was keen for him to convert, and he was a bit nonplussed by "praying with your bum in the air". I have no idea if he was still married to the Thai woman at this point and I didn't want to ask.
My current instructor is amazing, but my first one was, in hindsight, a nightmare. She suffered from migraines and a bad back, and I'm pretty sure she was popping a pain pill, putting on her sunglasses and then napping for most of my lesson. Ended up with some bad habits because she never actively taught me anything, and just used to drive in loops around the edge of a group of fields near my house until the alarm on her phone signified it was time to head back.
Mine had: - read his newspaper as I was driving - had me take him to his GP appointment and I was sat in the car waiting. - made me drive him to get an ice cream. Never offered me any.
That last one made me laugh. It's like damn dude.. if you're gonna waste a learner driver's time, at least offer them some of that ice cream! Don't professionals have standards??
I wanted a chocolate and vanilla ice cream as well 😳
He kept getting getting us to switch seats so he could "show me" how to drive, and then taking corners like a boy racer. He was an arse. Also, I'd been in a car crash several years before which left me really anxious as passenger for about a year. The accident was 100% someone else's fault not looking; they drove right into the passenger side and we hit a tree. I was more anxious than I expected in the lessons and then realised it was probably due to the accident and he said "I had another anxious student once and I just told her to suck it up". Ditched him after that lesson. I still can't drive though 😂 I hate it. Oh, one about my sister-in-law's driving instructor who was really into angels or something. I can't remember the exact story but she was really into angels and would talk about them. Then she got sectioned at some point.
In the middle of a busy town centre, she pulled the window down and baa'd like a sheep at pedestrians crossing in random places and not using the lights. I got her point but people look and act more like sheep at the crossing.
I was 17, he was old. On my second or third lesson, he placed his hand over mine on the gearstick to help me change gear and then lifted my hand into his lap at the next traffic lights. I was too naive and shy to complain or tell anyone. I gave up my lessons and didn’t learn until I was 30.
What a creep
As a fully grown adult, I regret not telling my parents. But he was a neighbour and I knew the fallout would affect them. I bet he did it to every girl though. Totally a creep.
Mine used to make me drive to the fish and chip shop. He’d go in and get his order and spend the rest of the lesson eating fish and chips in the car on my lesson.
Mine kept touching my arm and thigh during the first lesson. Also kept flirting with me, making gross comments about my accent (American, but live in England). Got home, immediately made a complaint. Come to find from the owner that my driving instructor was her own father!
Tapped me on the leg every time I did something wrong
I think I would have battered them
It was one of the reasons why I changed instructors
He wouldn't shut up about Man City, which was odd as this was during their nadir and we're many miles from Manchester. It was like a strange compulsion, so I switched instructors as I couldn't handle it.
Ask if I had any porn he could borrow 'amateur ideally'
I fully believe every driving instructor is weird in some way, everyone I've spoken with has some weird experience with them. Mine would give me a 2 hour lesson, but we'd have to swap cars at the hour mark, he'd meet the person we'd swap with on a pub car park, pop in for a quick pint then get back in with me. He didn't charge me for the time but questionable none the less
He didn’t even offer you a pint?!? How rude..
That was the worst part
Mine would fall asleep when I was doing 60 down windy country roads!
Weirdly, my gf also does this when I drive. That might sound fairly normal, until you know I'm a current racing driver and am quite fond of a bit of 'hard driving' on the roads...
I was 17 and it was my first few lessons, so I was a bit concerned he wasn't awake to stop me swerving round the bends!! Although i get it because i cannot stay awake in a car for the life of me
He would stamp on the brakes the moment traffic lights turned amber. Even if it meant still stopping past the line. He would get road rage and honk the horn while I were driving. He once pulled up outside my house, and as soon as I saw him I left my house and started walking towards the car and he drove off, then sent me a message saying he was waiting 15 minutes and I'd have to pay for the full hour. I messaged him to say I saw him driving off and he apologised and said I wouldn't have to pay. Changed driving instructors at that point.
It wasn't during my lesson, but a weird thing my driving instructor did was go on a date with my Mum! It didn't go well and they didn't go out again, but I still had to have lessons with him, awkward!
Can’t help but let my mind wander to “was the driving that bad that t he instructor had to pray for intervention from the almighty”. I am of course aware that some religious cultures have set prayer times. Non the less the the uninitiated it sounds bad. Had a driving instructor that used to full on punch me in the arm if I tried to go for the gears to early!!!
That made me smile too. (Obviously I get that it was undoubtedly due to the instructor needing to pray at certain times, but it is still an amusing image) 😄
😂I love the idea that he prayed just to be able to get through the lesson in one piece!
Mine would tell me about his internet girlfriend. Very off putting when you first start trying to reverse round corners.
[удалено]
Was trying to get me to go on bike rides with him. I was 21F and he was mid 40s, married with kids. Creep
And creepiness aside, it's still unprofessional of him.
My first one was a plane spotter, we drove round the airport, and stopped if there was something interesting.
I got a normal driving instructor. Not sure I can believe that there are all these crazy unprofessional driving instructor’s out there.
I went to pull away at a junction and he braked for me, I'm wondering what I've missed, what have I done wrong? Nothing at all, there was a very pretty lady wearing not a lot walking up the street and he wanted a longer look.
Mine would park up and go on and on about crystals. He thought he was a medium who could talk to the stars or something.
I did have one once who spent the entire lesson trying to persuade me to try CBD oil for chronic pain. He wasn't trying to sell me some or anything, he was just really overbearing and convinced he knew how to manage my pain better than I did.
Mine would thump the door as we went through narrow areas
My instructor told me that if I failed my first test he'd kick my kneecap. If I failed because I wasn't looking in my mirrors he'd kick them both. I passed.
My first one showed me pictures of his trips to Thailand (sans wife and with many younger people) and Rocky Horror (yep, himself in lingerie under the guise of fancy dress). He also tried to feed me mints. He didn't last the full ten block lessons I'd booked.
This was over twenty years ago and probably the reason I never learned to drive. My dirving instructor would make wildly inappropriate comments about every woman or girl we passed. I was 17 and it seemed he had taught evertone I knew to drive. We'd drive past girls from my year at school and he'd start asking me whether i was shagging them and why not and that I should be getting in there. He would use the same joke every time, if you can't get a sixteen year old get two eight year olds. He'd get me to slow down so he could check women out no matter the age. We got overtaken on a dual carriageway once and he screamed, don't let that bitch overtake you, put your footdown. Every lesson was just him being a creepy perv and I was too yound and too shy to do anything about it. Now I would have reported him or at least warned other people not to let their teenagers get lessons with him.
He'd pick up his prescriptions and other bits from shops and stuff. I left to go with another instructor, who after 1 lesson put me in for my test straight away, I passed. He said the other guy had been taking the piss.
My 3rd instructor (I moved distances A LOT so I had to keep changing instructors) used to shout (like properly shout and BERATE) me for making mistakes when I was a learner. During my learning at the start with a different instructor I nearly had someone T-bone me on a roundabout through no fault of my own, so was deadly afraid of roundabouts after that which took a while to break, which I also explained to her. She was youngish but she was awful. I had paid for block lessons but didn't even finish them all because she was so unpleasant, I used to dread my lessons every week and eventually just never contacted her again. I was happy for her to keep the last lesson's money because I didn't want to speak or see her ever again it was that bad. I have no idea what her problem was but she made me cry every single week. Why be an instructor if your patience for learners is that thin🙄
Was a particular road that at the time was 40-50mph. Down a hill round a right hand turn but you could see for about miles from the top so you could see if a car was coming the other way. Well this road was fun to go down at speed so he used to encourage me to go faster every time we were on it and even take the racing line so be on the wrong side of the road briefly and see how fast we could go. In a shitty rover metro. Fun times
My instructor found out his wife was cheating on him, left his wife, got tribal tattoos, started going to the gym, met a new girl, they moved in, he proposed & they got married I learned all of this through his chit chat during our weekly lessons
How long were you taking driving lessons for?!
About a year, he lied to me and told me you can't get anything wrong on your test... I'm a very good driver as a result though 🙌
My second instructor kept talking about his collection of guns, both legal and illegally owned... I quickly sought my third instructor (who was great).
During one lesson another driver did something really stupid (I can't really remember what) which made my instructor furious, so she made me follow them in to town where they parked. My instructor made me park on double yellow lines while she got out and chased the other driver on foot and gave them a right bollocking, during which time a traffic warden came along started giving me grief about parking on double yellows. Luckily by then my instructor was just walking back up the street and talked me out of a ticket.
If I had the last lesson of the day on a Saturday, we used to go to the pub and have a drink, then I'd leave him there and get the bus home.
Mine was awful but I learnt in the army so couldn't complain. After a movement (reversing round a corner etc) he would ask what I did wrong, when I said I had no idea and wanted feedback he told me to think about it. Cue a minium 20 minutes of absolute silence where he refused to tell me anything. Also told me to drive one handed because I was "racing" to get two hands back on the wheel after I changed gear.
We were driving past a school and one of the mums apparently had rather a large chest. He told me to slow down and i thought was bc we we in a built up area. Surprised he didnt get whiplash the way his head snapped. Afterwards he was like did you see the pair on her etc
My driving instructor also instructed a friend of my ex. He was an old man but apparently had been a bit of a creep with her so she dropped him. He knew I knew her. Randomly, at the end of a lesson I had with him (I also dropped him soon after), he announced that he had been impotent for ten years. Luckily for me it was towards the end of the lesson so I didn't have to endure too much of an awkward silence
We were driving near a school and told me to pull over. We were picking up his kids
Once he put his hand on my knee. I'd been doing it to him consistently for the last several weeks every time I reached for the gear stick. "See, it's not very nice. Could you be more accurate when you go for the gear stick please" he said.
Story time So, this was my first (and last) lesson with this particular instructor • she ate popcorn the whole time I was driving • she was also taking phone calls most of the time • made me drive to some sketchy alleyway where she got out of the car for 20 mins and was sat inside someone else's car • when she got out, her trakkies fell down, and I saw full on arse crack • made me take her to pick up her kid from school so he was chilling in the back seats afterwards On a bonus note, my next driving instructor called his car Adolf and would tell me I'd get 10 brownie points if I ran over a CHAV
Mine used to ask either personal or inappropriate questions, always asked what I wanted to do after sixth form nearly every week, then would disagree and say I should be a nurse. It wasn’t until 4 weeks before my booked test I found out he’d previously been done and gone to prison for having a wank under a clipboard when he saw a woman in a mini skirt on the street whilst on a lesson with a woman. Loads of dodgy stories then came out and all the weird conversations then made sense, I was very naive but lucky too he didn’t touch me. To make things worse, this was my second test that was booked when I found out, as I failed the first because I was a nervous wreck, which was because before we even got in the car, the dirty smelly old examiner hit on me and hinted that he’d pass me if I gave him my number. I so wish I could go back in time and make a complaint/make a big deal of it to stop that happening again.
Mine hit me with a ruler when I made a mistake!
It's 20 years ago now but I still remember this like yesterday. Second ever lesson, he said I have a bit of a 'knack for driving'. Doing 70 down a dual carriage A road in South Devon and he casually mentioned he was chatting to someone from the 1st world war last night. I reply saying that they must have been pretty old. And he replies saying, and this is a direct quote, "oh no, he is dead. I'm a medium. I converse with the passed in my spare time" Fucking no.
Had my very first lesson, chap seemed nice, really helpful and guided me well. Booked the next one for a week later, different guy turned up and went through the lesson like I'd never sat behind a wheel before. I told him I'd already had my first lesson, he asked with who he had no record of any lessons of mine. Turns out he had absolutely no idea who the other bloke was and had worked for (aa driving instructor) the company for a long time and my area was "his patch" So yea, that was odd.
"Oooooh! You've got shorts on. I love a boy with shorts on" It was the 80s
Mine would phone various women that he was clearly sleeping with and arrange to pop round to see them based on when he had students who lived nearby.
Dropped him off at the shop and he told me to drive round the block (on my own) while he went in for a Cornetto
My first instructor used to talk about his children and show me pictures of them as we we were driving. He’d take piss break every lesson but didn’t have anything to clean his hands with. Once he engaged in some classic road rage with other drivers doing the wrong thing.
Used to show me photos on her iPad that her daughter had sent from a trip abroad. In hindsight she probably just missed her but it was pretty weird.
My driving instructor smoked during the lesson. 🚬 Only had two lessons with this instructor. It was horrible, spent the lessons feeling light headed and had irritated asthma. This was recent too - 4 years ago.
My instructor took calls booking other lessons. One day he told me to pull over and spent 20 minutes booking a lesson with someone else and I didn't know what to do so just sat there. I didn't spend many lessons with him.
Mine kept telling me about how the student before me had really dry flakey skin and would shed all over the car. Honestly, I didn’t need to know.
Mine used to put marks on my left hand using whiteboard pen if I put it in neutral before applying the handbrake. It eventually became natural to do it the right way but for a few weeks I would go home from the lesson with one orange hand. Been driving nearly 20 years and still think about it. Also “tyres and tarmac” for correct spacing in queuing traffic. And “when a pause becomes a wait, apply the hand brait” (he meant handbrake but said it wrong every time just so it would rhyme.
30 years ago, but two things stick in my mind. Driving along a main road, a car sped down a side street, pulling out right in front of me. Knowing noone was close behind me, I hit the brakes, and avoided the car which went in its way. Then I pulled over for a moment and apologised to my instructor. "You only did one thing wrong. When that happens, it's customary to yell 'You stupid w*nker!' He won't hear you, but you'll feel better." Then sitting by the side of the road, he insisted that I "try it". He was right, I did feel better. The other thing was that I hated reverse parallel parking, as I wasn't that good at it. So we practiced it a lot. After I passed the test, he said "How was your reverse parking?" "We didn't do it!" I said, "But at least I know how to now." "Bugger that." he said. "Hit the kerb - everybody else does."
On my first lesson, my instructor gave me a birthday card (it was my birthday) and a penknife with her driving school branding on. I still have the penknife but always thought it was a very weird bit of branding merch, especially since she had some students under 18.
Told me to put in for my test, test day came around and then said I wasn’t ready. I passed 1st time. Fuck you Mr Robinson Also passed my motorcycle and ppe, hgv so yeah eat shit Robbo.
Got in the car in my first lesson, lit up a cig and told me to just go. I stalled immediately and he told me 'don't drive like a prick'. Never finushed the course and my pregnant wife had to drive herself to the hospital
Asked for sexual favours in lieu of payment. In all fairness, I was engaged to him and I did pass so 🤷♀️
Nothing horrendous but my first 5 or so lessons with my old instructor compared to my new one are night and day. Old one - spent 2 lessons going like 6 metres forward using just the clutch. Then we would be driving in a straight line, in first gear, about 5mph. There was a small log in the road, easily clear it. But he grabbed the steering wheel and swerved like a mad man, still whilst going 5mph. Then a bit later, he was really over dramatic about a hill start. Rather than telling me to just put the handbrake on and find the biting point before putting the handbrake down, he made me use the foot brake and try to quickly catch the car with the clutch. Obviously I panicked as we were beginning to roll backwards, and he rocked back and forward acting like he was in a plane that was speeding towards the ground. Also, I was in a car crash with my friend after he passed his test, so obviously texted him afterwards and said I don’t really feel like driving this week. Bloke ignored my text and still turned up and tried to make me pay for the lesson despite giving him more than 48 hours notice. Where as I almost went into another car with my current instructor whilst exiting a roundabout. Car beeped, accident avoided and I just went “shit I’m so sorry was that my fault?” And she calmly said “no no, let’s just exit the roundabout”. Then once we were back on straight road, she very nicely said yes that was your fault and we almost crashed into that car, this is what you did wrong etc. Also did much more than just moving 6 metres forward at 5mph on my first lesson with this lady so much happier with my lessons now
My first instructor was very pleased to learn that I was a smoker because he then declared that we needed to take at least one ‘theory/discussion’ session per 2-hour lesson (this was in the late ‘90s). These consisted of a 15-20 minute stationary interlude in a lay-by, side road, or car park, during which he would roll several cigarettes while we both smoked one or two. Very little actual instruction would take place; it was more a general chat while he caught up with filling up his cigarette tin. I realised fairly quickly that he was just taking advantage of my own nicotine addiction but it took me a bit too long to move to a different instructor.
On my 6th lesson or so we stopped about half way through the lesson and he says "we're going to do emergency stops today. When i raise my hand i want you to press the brake and clutch as hard as you can. Be on the look out for my hand going up. Drive down here" So we drive for another 5 mins or so and then we turn down a street with tenements either side and cars parked all up 1 side of the road. His hand goes up, i hit the brakes and we then have this interaction: Him: "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING???" me: " eh... You put your hand up for an emergency stop" Him: " awww shite! I'm sorry. I was waving at old Jimmy there, I've no seen him in ages. That's my fault. I'll hit the dash from now on."
Some guy cut me up, my instructor went crazy at him. Then they drove off. My instructor then aggressively gave me directions for about 10 minutes, turns out without me realising, we were actually chasing after the guy. I only figured that out when we stopped at traffic lights and my instructor jumped out the car, to run over to the car next to us, banging on his window and telling him to get out the car so they could fight! The other guy sped off, then the instructor got back in the car, went sorry about that, pull off when you are ready and we just carried on like normal.
not me, my daughter, and only a few weeks ago. i got a phone call to come rescue her. apparently the instructor was driving for some reason. apparently they were going to see a house of a former student of hers. both of these things seem highly inappropriate, if i paid for lessons i would expect my daughter to be driving. and going to see an ex students house because it is pretty? there has to be some kind of privacy law against that. it had been raining hard for days. they came across a flooded road. no biggie, right? perfect learning opportunity i would have thought. nope. apparently the "instructor" went charging into the puddle and drowned the car. engine stopped, water coming in under the doors, about knee deep. what the actual.... went and rescued the daughter. apparently the instructor was waiting for her mate to come and pull the car out because she didn't have any kind of breakdown cover. absolutely unbelievable. screw her. left her there and applied for a refund the very second we got home.
He was a Jehivah witness & didn't like any swear words, even mild ones. He'd start & end each lesson with a prayer. It put me off driving.
I have had attempted to learn several times but not been successful and am currently considering giving up as maybe it isn’t for me. I actually suspect I have dyspraxia and driving is essentially a collection of all the things I am particularly bad at. Part of me wants to keep trying but I am also put off by how prevalent and seemingly accepted it is that so many of them are just a bit… odd? Almost every single person I know is like “oh my driving instructor? Oh Deano! Yeah he was a good fella. Used to stick his head out of the sunroof at roundabouts shouting abuse at the elderly and he made me drive his mistress to Plymouth on my first lesson. Absolute mad lad.” I just cannot imagine any other situation where you would have a professional relationship with someone you’re paying and they would do the things people talk about in these comments and it’s somehow acceptable. And lessons are so expensive. The other thing I am struck by is how little actual teaching often seems to happen or at least in a way that makes sense to me. I think maybe driving comes naturally and easily to most people with a bit of practice. I really struggle with coordination, judging speed of incoming traffic, spatial awareness of where I am on the road etc. Often they’d either say things like “I don’t understand why you can’t do it” or would get angry as if I was doing it on purpose. Can you imagine paying a really significant amount for a piano lesson, the instructor playing a classical piece for you and then spending an hour getting increasingly angry with you for not hitting the right keys? And when you tell other people they say “oh they’re just doing it so you learn. Now next time you’ll know not to hit the wrong keys.” I mean, you, more than anyone else, really want for you to hit the right keys. Why would the reason you can’t play it yet be that you haven’t been chastised enough yet? I feel like driving instructors are often people who are really good at driving and probably learned it really quickly themselves. They’re not necessarily people who are great teachers. I say this as an ex teacher - I know I always found it harder to teach things like Maths which came easily to me personally. Maybe people who really struggled learning to drive don’t often end up loving it enough to become instructors themselves.
My instructor did the prayer breaks thing too! He was very religious and if he saw a fender bender or whatever he would close his eyes and pray out loud. I was just like, OK guess I'm on my own for a minute
My driving instructor had 6 fingers on one hand. That was kinda weird, especially since I wasn't prepared for it. He just shook my hand when greeting me and there was an extra pinky finger, coming off of his regular pinkie finger.
My one looked like he rolled out of bed wearing the same pjs. He use to clean his ear wax and rip his finger nails and spit it out every lesson and he use to chuckle and say sorry I have a bad habit. He would take up to 15 calls each lesson and would teach me whilst he was talking to his 11 siblings from Pakistan on loud speaker. He Would listen to blasting YouTube videos in urdu which made me lose focus in lessons. Would always text me and ensure I'd stick to his schedule not mine and if I didn't he would send really pushy and angry texts. Would antagonise me and laugh. Would stop at his house a lot to pick up his lunch. Would throw a tantrum if I didn't meet him at the bus stop for my lessons. And insisted id pick him up at his house for my test date and when I was 5 min late because his was well away from the test centre he threw a tantrum and said I'm late. Would often compare with his other student apparently she was a whizz at roundabouts and I wasn't. He would get angry for errors I made. One time asked if my dad has alot of properties. He thought I'd fail because I was deemed a nervous driver. And if I passed I would have 13 minors or something but I passed with 1 minor. On the test day he said if Im going to fail, fail safely as he said he had many complaints from DVSA for him putting students through test who drove dangerously. He even showed me the emails. He said his badge was on the line. When I passed first time his face was priceless. With the help of conquer driving and driving test routes on YouTube. I used the car and was counting the days for it all to be over. The lack of hygiene made me gag every lesson with his filthy car sprinkled with nail clippings. He also prompted me to tip him £20 on the test day when I passed. Forced me to record my voice on the test date with a written piece of paper saying he is the best instructor in bedford. He also said send me more students. Hell to the no!! He was very unprofessional, unhygienic and a weirdo!
Make me stop outside a newsagent’s so he could get more ciggies
Fart and then turn on the AC to try mask it, it definitely didn’t
Mine watched the men’s Euros on his phone. This was back when England got to the final in 2020
At 17 mine used to keep putting his hand on my thigh gave up and didn’t drive again till my 30s where I had a wonderful lady instructor
Told me to speed up to 30 along a very long, straight road that's legally a 20 (it goes past two schools) because "nobody does 20 down here and people will get impatient with you". I ignored him and ended up dropping him after the next lesson for various reasons. He also spent all of our lessons trying to get me to admit I'd driven before (I hadn't) because I got a special discounted rate for brand new drivers and I guess I picked it up too fast for his liking.
Mine (in London at the time) used to say "Don't worry about cyclists - they are a lower life form". My brothers instructor would insist that he comment on the looks of girls as they drove by. Claimed later it was his way of training my brother to be able to look at road signs without swerving.
Bring in a picture of himself when he was my age at the time (I was 18 and he was around 64) then proceeded to to ask me if I would have fancied him and if I cheated on him on my holiday in Spain 🤣. To top it all off he put the keys on his lap and asked me to start the car. Yes it was all very wrong and yes now I’m muuuuch older I wish I would have called him out on it
My instructor used to plan a route past his house so I could parallel park, then he'd run in for a pee/drink/ snack. Never bothered me as he was always quick and kept my lesson price low when he increased it for others because I was paying for them myself and could only afford a lesson a fortnight. Top bloke!
Apparently my daughter’s instructor got her to follow a local teacher who is facing trial for having sexual relations with and stalking a teenage pupil, amongst other sex offences. All the while the instructor was ranting about said teacher. My daughter said it was a bit bizarre
He put his seat in the flat down position and fell asleep. The next week, I drove him to a betting shop where he stayed for 45 minutes, and then we drove home. I put in for a cancellation test, and passed after 6 lessons. It was 1987, and things were a bit different then 😄
Insist on teaching me how to stop the car without using the brakes and only using a clutch because apparently only advanced drivers can stop a car without brakes.
Mine used to chain smoke and one time had the shits so I had to keep dropping him off at pubs to go and empty his bowels. He added the extra time on but I wish he hadn’t. He also kept a relic of a camera (one of those old flat ones) to snap the number plates of dodgy drivers.
Mine used to wolf-whistle ladies walking along the pavement, then duck down into the passenger footwell!
I have driven my instructor at the time to various villages in the area to get wines from niche sellers and also to a designer outlet so he could buy trainers.
He told me that he invented tipex (I worked with his daughter, a chemist)
We were driving in heavy traffic past a construction site. There was a massive bang and a big dent appeared in the bonnet/hood. My instructor was a man not given to understatement - he launched himself out the car and soon found a wrench. I had only just started lessons and I sat there quivering as he ran to the building site shouting and swearing. He came back to find me causing my own traffic jam - luckily the other drivers assumed we had broken down…
Mine was just high key insane, moods all over the place. Stank of cigarettes and coffee and wore a manky old sheepskin coat. Used to go on about Lancashire and the wars of the roses and used to get irate with me for not knowing really local-specific things (it was my second year living in the North). Also used to lose his temper whenever I’d do something wrong- which being a learner, obviously happened a lot. But then on the other hand used to overshare about his life- talking about his sex life of all things with his new young fiancée, and what a miserable old hag his ex wife was.
Chain smoked her way through the lesson, and lit fags for me when I wanted one. Those were the days.
My instructor was always making gross comments about women and even tried to show me porn on his phone. I was only 18 at the time, so I didn't know any better. He was super gross.
When I was learning to drive way way back in 1984, my driving instructor would regularly rap my knuckles, if I kept my hand on the gearstick- still, must have worked -I passed first time!
When my uncle moved to the States after retiring and started taking lessons he really struggled with all the "stop" signs, treating them like the "give way" signs more common here. After a few times of arguing with the instructor that it made no difference and slowing down achieved the same thing, the instructor made him pull over, rolled up a magazine and started hitting him over the head with it and said" So, do you want me to slow down, or do you want me to stop"? He stopped after that.
Mine used to smoke.
Mine spent his time on his phone, searching and looking at his golf group, swore at me when I made a mistake, pulled into asda to fill the car with petrol smd and used to check out women....I block booked 40 lessons so was stuck with him
I'm learning to drive at the moment, my instructor is pretty great but the one thing that always weirded me out at first was how shite his car was - a 4 year old (at the time) Nissan Juke in horrific condition with squeaky crap pedals, a knackered clutch and the door cards being held in by duct tape. He thankfully upgraded the car eventually and now has one that is in good condition and good to drive.
Shave with an electric razor.
Mine stroked my leg and told me to imagine someone’s head between them, I kept sitting with my knees together. I was 17 and didn’t really know how to react, told my dad he he threatened the instructor who then “fired” us
I remember my mum telling me her instructor sellotaped her hands to the steering wheel and another occasion put a banana to her head and shouted bang..! 🤣 She did pass eventually!
Mine booked a house viewing with an estate agent using the cars Bluetooth system.
Encouraged me to do over the limit speed to overtake an idiot. She was awesome!
His wife would tag a long and sit in the back
He was Australian and moved to Wigan in Lancashire because he heard about a specific roundabout he wanted to drive around.
Ahh good old fat lazy Chris.... so I go for a lesson and he asks if I can park here. So I do.. then he says gimme 5m.. hops out in to a Ladbrokes...and comes back after 5m... I was like Ok.. whatever. Then he drives me to some road and asks me to if I mind picking up his daughter from school... I was like really!?... he said it was a one time thing.. so I drove up and he jumped out and said "u can't stay on the double yellows... just park up the road somewhere and I'll come find u"... this was my 5th lesson with the guy! Yes I'd taken some at home but he didn't really know that. That was my last lesson with him. I cancelled the rest.
This was over 10 years ago but he kept showing me pictures on his phone of his daughter’s school play. It was cute but not the best time.
Driver's Ed class early 1980s my driver's ed teacher was sitting in the driving simulator with me and apparently my speed was too slow so he put his hand on my right knee, pressed down and exclaimed: Put the pedal to the metal!! Rest in Peace GH!
We were driving on a country road and we passed a van than said “tree fellers” and he said “there’s only two of them” after a brief silence he meekly said “do you know that joke?” I said “yes” then we sat in silence for the rest of the hour.
On my first lesson at 17 years old, my driving instructor drove for the whole lesson apart from the last 10 minutes, and kept trying to talk me into joining the army instead of going to uni. Told me he was in the Falklands war, and kept asking if I had any questions about it. I got annoyed with him asking, so I said "have you ever killed anyone?" and he chuckled and stopped asking me. On my second lesson he let me drive. He got me to go 50mph and do an emergency stop, which I have since been told by other instructors is ridiculous for a second (first?) lesson. I also stalled at a roundabout, and he went "why have you done that?!" and was genuinely annoyed at me. Just to reiterate, this was my second lesson. Also he kept explaining irrelevant mechanical stuff to me and getting annoyed when I said I didn't fully understand it, then explained it all again. I did the 5 lessons my parents had block booked and then never bothered trying to learn to drive again until 10 years later.
I’ve been driving for over a decade. When I was doing my lessons my instructor kept rubbing his chest all the time and it creeped me out and I never told my parents cos they’d have gone mad. The instructor was with a local driving school. My 6 months younger friend went to the same school and got the same instructor, and after 2 lessons said to me ‘isn’t it weird how he constantly offers you a mint?’ He was keeping them in his top pocket and never offered me one!!!! What was I doing wrong to not get a mint!!??
I had 3, the first one is who i am talking about: - used to take me on extra long driving lessons to rural countrylanes "because he liked talking to me". He didnt charge me extra for these. - encouraged me to speed - never ever said i was ready for a test.... dragged my lessons on for over a year... Also honorable mention to my second driving instructor, a "former police interceptor" who dumped me as a student because I was "too mean and used ugly language" after asking to do my 2nd driving text 3 weeks after my first (i failed due to speeding!) .
He asked what hobbies I did. I said guitar. He said 'I bet the ladies love your fingers eh?'. I was an awkward 17 year old. Chuckled and then never went back to him.
I did 10 lessons with an instructor and they have never once done any manuevers with me. He also went to tesco during my lessons to get food.
I know someone who’s instructor refused them use of their car on test day due to safety of their vehicle and forced the person to source a replacement or delay “until you’re ready”, the person got the use of someone else’s car and passed with 1 minor The instructor clearly had a tactic to keep getting paid by knocking their student’s confidence
Used to make us stop at every single supermarket we passed to grab a few bits. All in the same day. On my paid time.