[Mpower]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

MPower sir, I did learn from a private school and I know a person(he works in a driving school, but teaches privately too), if your friend is only looking to learn to drive, I believe it would be better to learn from you if you dont have time some good trainers do it for some money, which is effectively cheaper than what the driving schools charge.

Yes thanks Alphakilo. You can either post or PM me the info. Just need a person who can teach the basics. Forget rules that comes later, she cannot even operate steering and clutch. I don't have that much patience man Maybe we need one of those double steering cars.

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Mpower, as you are aware Chennai is a huge place it might not be feasible to learn in north part if someone is living in South etc. Let us know where your friend is located.
Then people in the respective areas can pitch in with thier recommendation based on locality.

Location is Nungambakkam/Sterling Rd. Thanks and lady instructor would be a bonus.

[supremeBaleno]

^^^
Jayabharat and Vijaya are 2 prominent driving schools in the Nungambakkam / Sterling Road vicinity - these are near each other and opposite Valluvar Kottam, on Village road.

[naveen.raju]

Is it worth going here? Can anyone shed more details of the same? Would be great if someone could let me know the details of the school in Cochin.

[Saanil]

Originally Posted by naveen.raju

Is it worth going here? Can anyone shed more details of the same? Would be great if someone could let me know the details of the school in Cochin.

Here is the site of Maruti Driving School: Maruti Driving School

You can look at the course structure on the website. It looks pretty good to me. I think it will be pretty costly compared to normal driving schools but then they teach you a lot. There is a location tab on the website where you can search for your city.

[auto-one]

I had a bad experience with Maruti driving school, here in Pune ( year 2008 )
I didn't find the instructors to be very co-operative. They were trying to finish up the course too fast, without trying to know whether the students had digested it. Secondly I found the simulator to be of little use and as I said before, the concerned instructors had very little patience to check whether I was comfortable with it. I did find the course contents and the theory to be really helpful, but what spoiled the experience was the improper implementation and the not so friendly attitude of the instructors . Perhaps this issue of man-power might have been a case with this particular driving school.
I wish to add that I left Maruti driving school and learned driving from some other school.

[pavithra]

Alphakilo

Can you please let me know the details of the driving instructor you mentioned? I am looking for a good driving school in Chennai. I stay in Adyar,Chennai. Not yet made up my mind if i have to join MDS, Perungudi.

If you know any other good driving schools , please let me know.

Regards
Pavithra

Hi

I am looking for a good driving school or private instructors in Chennai. I live in Adyar.Can anyone help me?

Is it worth joining MDS, Perungudi? Please give your suggestions.

Regards
Pavithra

[Yamahead]

Same here... Adyar Gandhi Nagar. Wifey needs to learn and I need to brush up. Had driven my fathers WagonR and 800 5 years back. ride a yamaha Rx regularly, would be driving an Alto K10.
Advice needed urgently. Think Pavitra and I can do some collective bargaining.

[ArunV]

Is there any good driving school near Madiwala, Bangalore. My wife needs to learn driving.

Does Maruti Driving school assist in taking Learners licence and DL?

[Oxy]

I had learnt driving some eight years ago when I was in Delhi. Then I used to drive occasionally on empty roads for about six months before moving to Bangalore. Once here, I have never driven a car, though I ride my Honda Dio regularly.

I am planning a car purchase sometime next month so thought of learning driving again. Went to the Bimal Maruti driving school at Mahadevpura yesterday to enquire about the charges. After hearing my story (that I know the basics of driving), they asked me to drive an Alto 800 first since they wanted me to take a "skill test". After the test, they told me that since I already have a license and am a decent driver on empty roads, I just need some fearlessness and confidence drilled inside me to drive on conjested roads.

They suggested an "Advance Course" which would consist of 2 hours of theory, 1 hour on the simulator and 5 hours of driving on the road. I have got myself enrolled for this one, it costed me INR 2269 (I chose to learn on the new Wagon R). Let's see how it goes!

Since most of us here think that the simulator is pretty useless, I am planning to ask them if I can have that one hour on the simulator added to those 5 hours of driving, so that I get 6 hours of proper driving on the road.

[PatienceWins]

I am having a bad experience with Maruti driving school at Pratham motors, Bellandur, Outer Ring Road, Bangalore. The local driving school is much better than them. They do not have a system in place to define the courses, track the course and schedule the classes properly. They put my wife in learners course eventhough she had joined advanced course by paying Rs. 5000. Advanced course is more expensive than learners course and has less practicals compared to learners course. They agreed that they made a mistake and agreed to compensate the number of classes. Now they have gone back from the commitment and not agreeing to the mistake. If anyone knows contact details of Pratham Motors management, please let me know.

I will post a detailed review later.

[arrowaby]

I learnt driving from a private guy 2 years before I got a car and got a license as well.
But when we actually got the car, I didn't want to take any chances as I learnt on a beat up Maruti 800 and I'm using a 1.4L Diesel Car.

So I joined Maruti Driving School in Pimpri-Pune. In Empire Estate Building.

One real bunch of professional guys.

Couple of Features:

1) Fees is on the higher side but believe me after finishing it you will be satisfied. You will get your Moneys worth.

2) They have many batches. As in a Full blown learners to final License Test. A refresher Batch, A practice level batch etc.

3) The fees is charged as per the car you choose. Alto/WagonR/Ritz/Swift. Fees keeps increasing as per the choice of the car and the type of batch chosen

4) The centre has a simulator that helps you simulate a car's environment. Right from Ignition/Gear/ Side mirrors etc. Great for beginners who dont know the ABCs of driving.

Now I dont want to sound wierd or anything but usually this system does not interest the guys who have played video Games (which is 100% of them).

Women usually tend to use this machine religiously and sincerely but I have seen guys driving like Road-rash game on this machine. The moment you feel that this "feels" like a video game--Poof-- Gone! The rest of the simulator sessions will be a pain because you wouldn't have the patience to drive under 40kmph

So try to bargain your way out of that simulator session. Though they do not allow it you can try asking them if they could swap at least 1 session with an actual on-road car practice. Not that you wont get enough practice anyways. Each hands-on practice is usually for 1 hour.

5) Only one student per round. This is not like the usual 4 people jammed into a car and taking turns to drive while the rest hold onto their dear lives.

6) Classroom Theory sessions that teach you the smaller nuances of driving.
They actually teach you the entire machinery of a car / whats under the hood/ How to change a tyre (though I didn't get to see this in my refresher course) How to drive when road conditions are wet/ Foggy conditions/ Heavy rains/What to do in case of an accident/ wrong and right overtaking etc.etc. Videos shown on an LCD projector.

7) Not once was I asked to buy a Maruti car or whether I'm interested to buy one. The entire driving school session was taken just like a separate business. I was waiting for their marketing move but it was Not to come.

I'm not aware of the full blown test as I was in the refresher course which is of a smaller duration. But I'm sure it would be amazing.

[neel385]

My wife learnt her driving from Maruti Driving School in Gwalior, and, from what I have seen, she has learnt quite well!! I did have my reservations about handing over the car keys to her, and initially was a bit hesitant, but after a few rides in the co-passenger seat, I was pleasantly surprised!!

Maybe she was plain lucky with the trainers she learnt with, but I have no problems with them. Moreover, I think that the Simulators that they have can be of great help if you do not approach them as just a vedio game.

[Cowardly Lion]

First a little bit of background -

Post my wife's usual 13 day Driving school (if we can call them that!) experience I realised that it would be cruel to let her take an unassisted drive on the streets of Delhi with the skill set that she had acquired from the local shop. These shops just pick you up from the house and then make you drive on the street and in 13 days you only discover and not acquire the rudimentary skills i.e. how and when to change gears, apply brake etc. Basically in 13 days you are acquainted with the car – a job that I could have/should have done myself within 2 days. They just dont care if you are learning anything at all. Their aim is to take money -> drive you around for 13 days - > take money again - > "buy" you your driving licence -> God be with you!!

With this concern I decided to have a look at the Maruti Driving centre. I met their manager, had a look at the course content but what really made an impression on me was their track. They have this big compound where they have this track which is clearly designed to keep the vehicle in constant transition so as to engage the driver from the word go and hold his/her attention throughout. The track has built in stretches of incline, decline, sharp corners, U turns , quick multiple U turns etc.

In addition to the track they have a Driving Simulator as well for those who want to do a little bit of virtual driving.

I made up my mind to get my wife to do a 19 day course at this Maruti School. I can tell you that at the end of the course her confidence level in her driving skills was far improved from when she had started.

Some of the things that I recall I really liked about the course were the following –

1. Managing the inclines/declines – straight forward driving + stopping and then starting + parking + hill driving stimulation (rules for overtaking etc and the why’s and why not’s were very lucidly explained.

2. Parking the car in various situations – parallel, tight, reverse etc. These are skills that are never addressed adequately by the driving shops.

3. Checking the Engine oil, coolant, air filter and changing the tyre..! They must have made my wife change the tyre at least 4-5 times. According to me this was one of the most important things that she learnt over there. With the stories we hear in Delhi, self sufficiency as far as possible is something to strive for....especially for women.

4. The disposition of the instructor/s was satisfying to say the least.
In one of the conversations I had with the manager, he mentioned that they are planning to start a course for people who already have been driving for some time and have their license etc in place. Their take was that most people dramatically over estimate their driving skills and they rarely are as good as they think they are. These courses will aim at correcting the errors that have crept into one’s driving style and take your skill levels a step higher.

The only thing missing is that they don’t teach “advanced driving skills” like Skid Pan Driving, Drifting Courses etc...Aaaah, If wishes were horses...!

My wife and I highly recommend this particular Driving school of Maruti. No reason to believe that the others would be markedly different..!

[thinkanddrive]

My experience at Maruti Driving School

So after I had decided to learn driving I wanted to do it proper. I knew that I’m going to ‘learn’ driving only once in my entire lifetime. After that I would have learnt it and would end up improving my driving not relearning from scratch. So I decided to invest in a decent school which is guaranteed to give reasonably good teaching. I was willing to spend a little more for something better than what the usual run of the mill ‘local’ school would teach. When I did the search, other than Maruti Driving School I couldn’t find anything else. The fee was double than the regular schools. But I went ahead and paid the fee and started going for my classes in weekends only batch.

Material given:
1 CD-Rom & 2 Q&A Books on driving and road safety

Classes:
Theory – 4 Hrs spread across 4 days in an air-conditioned classroom using MDS presentation
Demo – video on car maintenance check
Simulator – 2.5 Hrs spread across 5 days
Practicals (the actual driving part) – 10 Hrs spread across 10 days

Fee:
Rs:6.5K approx (includes learner's license, permanent license and of course the course itself)

They would allocate whichever car would be available on that specific day of the class. So I was lucky enough to drive Alto, Wagon R, Estilo and the Swift. They did not rush, showed patience, were respectful, did not shout at me if I made any mistakes and most of all encouraged me through the course. I have had both male and female instructors.

But on the down side, I was not taught uphill driving. I learnt it from my friends. There is also an advanced learner’s course. Maybe it’s part of that . Don’t know.
After all classes were over, few days before the test I was asked to sign an attendance record for around 21 hrs of driving when infact I had only 10 as per class. When asked, I was told that it was a standard requirement for getting the license.
At the RTO, the driving test was not the toughest even though the car was rough around the edges. After the procedures, the RTO told me to collect my license at MDS. This is a clear appalling picture of the nexus between driving schools and the RTOs in our country.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Maruti Driving School for any learner as it most definitely is worth the investment.
And importantly, they never did any marketing for Maruti Suzuki cars during the entire period. I find that very pleasing. I only wish it had some competition which would result in its own betterment. In India, where most drivers have not been trained properly and getting a license is easier than buying a movie ticket, MDS is a boon and wish more people get trained in the best school possible.

[umaengineering]

My personal experience with MDS ( Bangalore Hosur Road )

I had enrolled with MDS in Oct 2012 for a learner course (After having some bad experiencing with local driving schools, some of them even fraudsters who took full advance and never came back)

Pros:

• Vehicle are regularly serviced and in good condition

• professional and humble trainers.
• The course content was adequate and the theory classes were really good.
• Feedback was taken everyday using a checklist.
• Trainers identified my weak areas and provided more training on those till I was a expert. ( I am very confident with uphill and downhill driving now )
• punctual timing and followup by co-ordinator.
• made adjustment to schedule on request

Cons:

• Most of the time they would take you in empty lanes and roads, They would not spend more time on highways and high traffic zones, quoting the reason that its not allowed to teach on national highways.
• 50% costlier compared to other local driving school.