Have You Thought About Hiring A Car For Your Driving Test?

You’ve spent the last few months driving around in your instructor’s vehicle - you know this car better than you know some of your housemates - so why would you take your practical driving test in anything else? That’s like learning to draw with the your right hand, only to use your left during an art exam! It just doesn’t make sense, which is why we encourage our learners to hire the school’s car - a car they’re familiar with - for the driving test. It’s one less thing to have to worry about on the day.

Make Sure Nothing Goes Wrong

And it’s not just about familiarity, either, although that does play a huge role. While your parents driving tests will have been pretty simple by today’s standards (lucky them!), it’s much more challenging these days, and your examiner will expect a lot more from you than simply showing you can move the car down the road. The modern driving test in Ireland is all about showing that you have lifelong driving skills and knowledge - that’s why the Essential Driver Training course was introduced, and it’s why your examiner will ask you to demonstrate some basic knowledge of your vehicle before starting the test. Not only is this a way of ensuring you know where all the important bits and pieces are, it’s also a bit of a sneaky way of making sure your vehicle is road worthy. After all, your examiner doesn’t want to put his life on the line getting into a car with no brakes now, does he?

10 Percent Of People Taking Their Practical Driving Test Fail Before They’ve Even Start

Here’s a fact that you may not have heard - around 10 percent of people taking their practical driving test fail before they’ve even started! If your examiner asks you to demonstrate how to use the lights and finds that one doesn’t work, or if your examiner inspects your car and finds it’s not properly taxed or insured, then that’s an automatic fail. And the worst part? Your examiner will still make you continue with the rest of the test before informing you that you haven’t passed! Cruel, huh?

This is why we think it’s so important to think carefully about which car you take your driving test in. While you are welcome to take the test in your own car, or a car belonging to a friend or family member, you must make sure that you know how to drive it safely and confidently, you know where the buttons and levers are, and that the car is structurally sound and has the correct documentation to be on the road. The most obvious solution is to hire your learner vehicle from us for the hour it takes you to take the test - it won’t cost you more than a standard lesson. And hey, if it all goes wrong on the day (which, fingers crossed it won’t!), your examiner will have the dual controls at his feet! Phew!