Under 17 Driving Lessons with a Young Driver Experience

For LP’s birthday last year, her Uncle bought her a Young Driver experience but we waited until the weather was better before booking it – meaning it was nearer her next birthday before the time came!

What is Vauxhall Young Driver?

Vauxhall Young Driver give the opportunity of a full driving experience to children aged 4 – 17. Children aged 4-10 have the Firefly Experience where they drive an electric car around a track.

From age 11+, children can have a full driving experience in a Vauxhall Corsa – which is what LP had. It’s either a 30 or 60 minute lesson, with an instructor, going around a track laid out in a racecourse car park.

Where is Vauxhall Young Driver?

Vauxhall Young Driver have sites all across the country, usually at racecourses on non-race days. The set up a track in the car park which includes so many features the driver would need to navigate on actual roads. There are two sides to the road, junctions, roundabouts, parking bays and even width restrictions.

The Vauxhall Young Driver experience

We arrived at the Vauxhall Young Driver experience a few minutes early as requested and spent time watching other children in their cars. At this point, LP was a combination of anxious and excited. She’d never been in the driving seat of a real car before!

When her time came, the driving instructor introduced himself to her and off they went to the car. LP had to have a booster seat to reach the car pedals and they started as any driving lesson would start – with the gears, mirrors, indicators and steering. It’s basically a junior driving lesson and full driving experiences and a first step before doing road driving lessons. 

Once LP knew how to use the car they were off. There was no time to get scared about driving as the instructor just told LP what to do, she did it and then the car was moving. She was so proud of herself.

LP’s half hour lesson was spent driving around the track, doing various maneuvers and even getting up to 20 miles an hour. She said afterwards that half an hour went quickly but took a lot of focus and concentration!

We paid extra to have the session filmed and so we had a memory card with the lesson it which was lovely to look back on afterwards. She also received a driving record book where the instructor notes what maneuvers have been done and how well they’ve been done so you can see how you’re progressing as time goes by.

As well as the Young Driver experiences, they also have driver skills events when you’ve had a few lessons and want to work on more technical skills as well as mock practical driving tests to see if you’re ready for the real thing.

Young Driver is a great way of preparing to drive – as well as a super fun experience for any child. It gives children confidence behind the wheel and really gets them ready for getting behind the wheel on actual roads. I know LP will be having more lessons in the future and I’m sure Little Man will in a couple of years too.

You can find out more about Young Driver over on their website.