Driving Conversion Lessons for an American Expatriate

I hope there are some answers to this thread. I'll definitely need to learn how to drive in England. The left side of the road seems daunting. Haha.

Jaxs wrote:

Hey, y'all!  I'm an American living in Patchway, Bristol, and I need to get some advice on where to take driving conversion lessons.  For me, it would be a two-part process.  First, I need to learn how to drive an automatic car here in England because that's what I already know how to drive in America.  Then I need to learn how to drive a manual, because that's what kind of car my father-in-law has.  Anyone have any suggestions as to where to go, like, what companies offer these choices at a reasonable price?

Thanks!

Joanna

Jax I would just start from scratch and book lessons with a driving school you will find listings in the yellow pages or the Thompson local. If you have family there they will have used a school or friends will have kids learning to drive.

As you are aware in the UK most cars are manual so finding a school that will teach on an auto is harder than just going for the manual. Driving on the correct side is not as difficult as it would appear I move from country to country driving on the right and wrong sides and never have too much of a problem. As you only have a US auto licence you would only be able to convert that to a UK auto and would need to take a test for the manual anyway.

When and if you go back to the states and start driving on the wrong side again you will be able to get a US manual licence. Prices vary between £25 - £30 an hour but if you book a number of lessons 10 for example you can get the price down to £20 a lesson but that does mean shelling out £200 up front and if you can't get on with the instructor you are a bit stuffed, try a school out with a couple of lessons first but make sure that they do offer the bulk discount and see if you can get the full price ones included in the deal if you like them.  :-)

Go to www.direct.gov.uk then click motoring, you can find a lot of informations in there and list of registered driving school in DVLA.