Learning to drive? Prepare to dig deeper than ever. Government data has revealed the average cost of earning your four-wheeled freedom is now more than £1,000.
A learner driver needs an average of 47 hours before passing, which at £20 per hour lesson equals £940. Then there are the practical and theory tests, which add another £62 and £25, respectively – so that’s at least £1,027 before car insurance, tax and fuel costs.
The government figures also reveal wannabe drivers need an average of 22 hours of practice in addition to the 47 hours of driving lessons, giving a total of nearly three days behind the wheel before being unleashed on UK roads proper.
Chicane School of Motoring owner David Walkley said in the BBC report: “People are finding it a little bit more difficult, with the cost of living going up. They’re finding driving lessons are an extra expense. They’re going to university, spending £9,000 on that and then need to save for an extra few years before they come back to the driving.”
“So on the whole, the mean age has gone up. I would say mid to late 20s, or early 30s, is when many people are learning to drive now,” he added.
Parents can benefit from thinking ahead. Putting £5 a week aside from when a child is 12, Walkley advised, will mean £1,300 when they hit the legal minimum driving age of 17. That, of course, ignores the hefty insurance premiums for younger drivers. One in three are expected to have some sort of incident in the first year since passing their test.
Such is the cost of car insurance for fledgling drivers, 16 per cent of drivers are insuring a car in their parents’ name, according to Gocompare.com.
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