thecatsgoolies: For a minute I thought you were talking about me hee hee. Favorite subject of course and just had a discussion with the nearly 16 year old telling me in 2 months time he will be on the road.
I'm filled with dread to be honest. I want him to have professional lessons not to be taught bad habits from his father but instead to learn proper skills. I believe all new drivers should be taught to drive properly. I've never seen such bad and slack driving since I've been here.
The Restricted License test is very strict now. My wife recently passed the test (after holding her learners for 10+ years, long story), and without professional lessons there is no way she would have passed.
I have been driving for 20+ years and if she had sat it based purely on my advice/understanding there would have been multiple points of failure. They are very pedantic about what they want to see and tiny 'errors' will result in automatic failure of the test.
So, while this is encouraging for the future, it obviously has little impact on the 99% of existing drivers!