Are Automatic Driving Lessons More Expensive?

Automatic driving lessons are usually around £2 per hour more expensive than the equivalent cost of manual lessons. For example, if a driving school offered their manual driving lessons at £25 per hour, they would typically charge £27 per hour for automatic driving lessons.

Why are Automatic Driving Lessons More Expensive?

Automatic driving lessons are more expensive due to the following reasons:

• The purchase cost of the driving instructor’s car can be a little more expensive than the manual equivalent.
• Car insurance costs can be slightly higher.
• Automatic driving lessons are traditionally less popular.
• You’ll usually need fewer driving lessons compared to those taking manual lessons.

The automatic car’s gearbox is more complex than a manual gearbox which means they cost a little more to purchase than the equivalent manual version.

This higher purchase price means that the insurance premium is also going to be a little higher. However, due to automatic cars becoming increasingly popular, this price gap is closing.

With automatic driving lessons being less popular than the traditional manual, a driving instructor who teaches in an automatic car will have fewer potential customers and therefore may need to charge a little more to make a living.

Finally, the main reason why automatic driving lessons are more expensive is due to the learner usually requiring fewer lessons than than those that opt for manual. Those that choose to learn in an automatic car do not need to learn clutch control and gear shifting as the car does all of this automatically.

Obviously each learner’s ability is different, but if we were to have a learner reaching test standard in 40 hours in a manual car, a learner with similar ability would reach test standard in around 30 hours in a automatic. That’s 10 hours less than the manual and the driving instructor needs to earn a similar wage to those instructors that teach in a manual car.

Will it Cost Me More to Learn to Drive in an Automatic?

That’s a difficult question to give an exact answer to due to each learner’s abilities being so different. But the fact that you do not need to spend time learning clutch control and gear changing means you’re likely to need far fewer lessons.

You may be paying a little more for each lesson when learning in an automatic, but because you’ll need less of them, it probably means it’ll be cheaper to learn in an automatic.