How many driving lessons do I need?

The honest answer is that nobody can tell you before they have sat beside you. But there is a national figure, and it is a better starting point than the numbers you will see advertised.

The DVSA's figure: around 45 hours

The DVSA's long-standing guidance is that the average learner needs about 45 hours of professional tuition, plus around 22 hours of private practice, before they reach test standard.

Two things are worth pulling out of that.

The first is that 45 is an average. Some people are ready at 25 hours. Plenty need 60. Being at either end says nothing about how good a driver you will end up being – some of the most careful drivers we have taught took the longest to get there.

The second is the 22 hours of private practice. If you have nobody to practise with, that time has to come from somewhere, and in practice it comes from more lessons. A learner with a parent and a car in the driveway will usually need fewer paid hours than one without, and that difference is often larger than any difference between instructors.

Automatic is usually fewer hours

The 45-hour figure is based on learning in a manual. Learning in an automatic is normally quicker, and often noticeably so.

It is not that automatic is easier in some soft sense. It is that a large slice of early manual lessons goes on the clutch: finding the biting point, moving off smoothly, stalling at junctions, hill starts, gear changes at the wrong moment. Take all of that away and the same lessons are spent on the things the test is actually about – observation, judgement, road position, planning.

So if you are weighing the two up, the higher hourly rate for an automatic does not automatically mean a higher total. For a lot of learners it works out level or cheaper, and for anyone who has already struggled with a manual it is often the difference between passing and giving up.

The trade-off is the licence: pass in an automatic and you can only drive automatics until you take a manual test. With most new cars now automatic, fewer people mind about that than used to.

What actually changes the number

• Your age. Younger learners generally need fewer hours. It is a well-established pattern, not a judgement.
• Private practice. The single biggest lever, and it costs nothing but somebody's patience.
• How often you have lessons. One hour a fortnight is close to the worst way to learn – too much of each lesson goes on remembering. Two hours a week beats one hour a week for the same money over time.
• Nerves. Anxiety genuinely adds hours in the early stages, and then usually stops mattering. It is not a sign you will be a bad driver.
• Where you drive. Learning in Edinburgh means trams, bus lanes, multi-lane roundabouts and the odd cobbled hill start. It is a harder place to learn than a market town, and it makes you a better driver for it.

Be careful with very low numbers

If a school tells you that ten hours will do it, ask what happens when it does not. Courses sold on an unrealistically low number tend to end with extra hours bought in a hurry, close to a test date, at whatever the going rate is that week.

We would rather give you an honest estimate that sounds like more, then come in under it. After your first lesson or your first course day we will tell you where we think you are, and we will keep telling you as you go.

So what does it cost?

Take the DVSA average as a working figure. At £55 an hour manual, 45 hours is around £2,475. At £65 an hour automatic, the same 45 hours is more – but the point above is that most automatic learners do not need 45.

Our five day intensive course is 20 hours at £1,495, which suits someone already part-way there rather than a complete beginner.

We are not the cheapest instructor in Edinburgh and we do not try to be. The lessons people end up regretting are the ones they had to repeat.

Answer a few questions and we will give you an honest estimate for your situation, or call 07773 645 645.