Automatic Driving Lessons

Gold Driving offer automatic driving lessons, which provide a great alternative to learning to drive in a manual car. There is no clutch and the car changes gear automatically, meaning you can put your full concentration into the other aspects of learning to drive.

An automatic car has a selector in place of a gear lever. The driver selects ‘D’ (drive). From then on the automatic will change to a higher gear as you increase speed and to a lower gear as it falls. It also takes account of hills.

Who should take automatic driving lessons?

Automatic cars can make learning to drive easier, particularly for older or disabled people. Learning to start, stop and steer is much easier in automatic cars. The right foot should normally be used to control the accelerator and foot brake. Because there is no clutch, your left foot should not need to be used at all.

When the initial gear selection has been made, usually when the vehicle is stopped, all subsequent changes are carried out automatically. They are regulated by the car’s speed and the pressure applied on the accelerator.

When driving automatic cars, the brakes have to be used more often to avoid its natural tendency to creep forwards.

Automatic cars enable drivers to concentrate on the more important things, such as planning ahead and steering. It makes learning to drive easier, particularly for older or disabled people. Your instructor should explain about the extra use of the handbrake and different techniques used to control the car at low speeds.

Remeber, if you take your test in an automatic car, your Driving Licence will only entitle you to drive automatic cars, not manual cars. A full automatic licence only acts as a Provisional Licence for a manual car. You’ll need to take and pass another test to get a full manual Driving Licence. Some cars are described by their manufacturers as having manual and automatic gears, but any vehicles with two pedals will also be classed as automatics.

Driving lessons in automatic cars tend to be slightly more expensive than manuals due to the cost of running the cars, at Gold the driving academy we have a full time automatic instructor who can advise you on many issues to do with learning to drive automatics.

Automatic lesson course price is £380 for 10 hours*