hibernian provisional ignition

declanoneill

Anyone done this? I've booked mine for Tuesday week, from the website it looks like they pretty much just cover the same stuff as the test, anyone who has sat it have anything else to add?

anyone know what car they have you driving (I'll be doing it at Dublin Airport)

Cheers.

Dagon

I also had it booked, but I backed out after doing a bit of homework.

Basically, if you don't get 1st class honours, it doesn't work out much better than your normal insurance quote. And at the time, Axa gave me a really good quote, which was much less than getting a 2nd in the test. If I got a 1st it would have been marginally cheaper...

But if I failed, or got a low score, then I would lose the fee for doing the test (€200?) unless I opted to go with the Hibernian quote (which is given to you at the end of the test). Hence, I opted out....

But maybe it worked ok for some people?

declanoneill

Might you be thinking of the full day one, the provisional one only costs 70 eurobucks and goes on for an hour. On the downside I've since got a better quote without having to do it, but since I've already booked it and can't get the money back, I may as well go ahead with it.

Dagon

I had booked mine too, and had paid and everything. But when I got a better quote, I cancelled it and I got a full refund (you are entitled to this, don't let them fool you).

Yes, mine was the full day.

declanoneill

The full day one is the one for people with a full license though. I don't know if this makes a difference. Course now it turns out that I still need the assessment....blah blah. I wish they'd mention these things when giving the quote :rolleyes:

darabbit

I did this test about 2 years ago and failed. You can'd do it in your own car. I did it in a shi''y Citron C2. Anyway the reason I failed was for Hazard management, some guy in a BMW stopped to answer his mobile and was at the bottom of a hill, there was a lorry in front of me which swung to avoid hitting the BMW so I followed suit. Appartantly that was the wrong thing to do. I still wonder if I would have passed if I just crashed into the BMW!!!!

Anyway it is not worth the stress. Thought the whole day was a bit stressful as there is usually three people in the car..not just you and instructor.

Hope you have better luck than me!!

kazzer

Declan,

Might be doing it myself soon, let us know how you get on.

cormie

I did it (yes the provisional:))and failed I did it about 2 weeks ago and I have booked it again for March 1st.

I think it's terrible you have to do it in a new car and not your own. This really put me off, it takes the time of the test to get used to it and when it's over your thinking "but I just got used to this car!!".

However, I did have my faults, I got into some bad habits of being in too high a gear for places I should have only been in 3rd or so. She had to say to go down a hill the same gear you would go up it to stay in control of the car. My gear changing was a bit rough too (I blame the new car for that).

Some other things: I flashed 2 people to let them out onto the road. Do Not beckon traffic!! Little did I know (because everyone in the country seems to do it.

Push in your button on the handbreak stick when pulling it up. I thought this would take a while to get used to but I do it without thinking now which is good.

You should drive with your lights on even during the day (I usually do, and I questioned should I before the test started and she said yes), the more visable the better.

Keep your distance from other cars etc etc


Good luck with whatever car they throw at you :rolleyes:

declanoneill

Almost forgot about replying to this. Did the test, here's some info anyone doing it might find useful:

I did it in a ford fiesta (Great Southern Hotel, Dublin)
At the end you're marked on about 10 topics, each marked 1-5 (1 = best). I got two 4's, three/four 2's and the rest were 3's. One of my fours was not checking blind spots enough, the other was changing gears was a little on the harsh side (a bit of a tough mark on the latter I though)
Yer man is really friendly and happy to give little tips along the way, e.g. This road is very badly posted, it's an 80 kph zone, which I thought was cool.
He gets you to drive out the airport -> Swords -> Malahide -> Airport. Nothing tricky, just watching how you drive (no turnabouts, reversing around corners... etc. I did one hill start, but that was more due to getting a red light then him wanting me to)
At the end he asks you to reverse into a parking spot N.B. if possible, he'd prefer if you picked on no where near other cars (I did this) and it's fine to pull into a spot driving forwards, then when you're happy, reverse into the one behind it (I didn't do this) (Of course, don't forget to keep checking all around...etc)

Assuming you haven't picked up any bad habits and you don't get flustered it shouldn't be too bad. For the record my driving experence extended to 10 lessons in a mini cooper, nothing else.