Driving school car

[rolo0151]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 22 October 2014 at 22:15

[New POD]

The cynical bit of me says fuel consumption is not the issue here, it's RELIABILITY.

Every hour the car is off the road will cost you £20. That will destroy the profit.

You need to be looking at which car, or which manufacturer will best support you.

[Justin S]

Wife was a driving instructor and had an early 5 speed mini on a lease for work. Was a trendy car, which all the learner drivers loved. Wasn't anywhere as easy to drive as the Yaris she had afterwards. We thought about the trend of the mini to get business in and it seemed to work.

[New POD]

rolo0151 said:

How will it cost me £20?

They also off a good service package, think its £150 for 5 yrs or 50k miles

How much are you charging per hour ? £20

So apart from pissing off your customers, if you have to cancel, you'll loose the fee, you could have received.

I'd check the small print, on the warranty, and service package because It might be that vehicles used for commercial use like taxis and driving schools are excluded.

I think from a marketing point of view that it would set you apart slightly, and might bring a few customers in, just because of the car, but most people go on personal recommendation, and look at how good the instructor is thought to be, by their friends.

I'd be contacting mini, ford, Honda, etc and seeing what deal they can offer, and more importantly what support if there is a problem. At the end of the day you need to do sums.

List all the options and all the costs and any marketing advantage.

On a related point is a diesel easier to learn to drive in ?

[New POD]

rolo0151 said:

Regardless of what car I choose if its off the road I loose my hourly fee for any cancelled lessons.

As for diesels being better learner cars. I tend to find they're a bit more forgiving when it comes to pulling away, using the torque of the engine for manoeuvres & the "diesel" noise is move obvious when listening out for gear changes, hill starts etc. Extra mpg helps with my costs too.

Hence reliability is everything. Which driving school car is the most reliable ?

I'm teaching my daughter in a petrol mini cooper circa 2001, and she actually can't tell when the engine has stalled.

[zip929]

My wife is an ADI and her 1.4 TDI fiesta does quite well overall.

Punchy (alright not really punchy but you can feel the turbo kick in!) little engine with good fuel economy.

Not sure if a mini because of it's cool factor would attract more pupils.
Most of her new business now comes through recommendations from previous pupils.

[Waugh-terfall]

You'll be wanting to speak to Clivey as his Dad is an Instructor and has always run various MINIs R50 OneDs through to an R56 CooperD.

[sad61t]

Personally I have found the Mini very difficult to reverse accurately. The Panda (2005-8) I could place on a dime, even in the test drive, as it was squared off. Five years on and the Mini still ends up at all sorts of angles in parking places. No idea why (digs at my being a boss-eyed bat accepted) just the way the reference points and mirrors don't work well for me.

Also the manual box was one of the worst I've experienced, baulking into second, especially on the down-change, and an evil (two-hands required) reverse selector. Only beaten for unpleasantness by an 80s Fiat Uno. Entirely possible I had a bad one, as I don't recall the test drives being anything like as bad, but I think BMW deliberately weight the gear-change action to make it 'sporty'.

As a learner I would need good references for the four corners to help place the car on the road, and really easy gearbox/clutch operation.