OT: best buy to maintain a (maybe) driver's NCD?

Depends if its to keep NCD, or actually to drive. A shed parked offroad would do for the former.

Fair point but the latter - ie she wants to be able to drive it to find out if she wants to drive. Oh, and no off-road parking.

she should take a few driving lessons to get some confidence back and maybe hire a car for a few days.

I'd have thought she'd be pretty safe with a £3k Micra / Jazz type from an ordinary dealer or a private seller with AA inspection.

Thanks but:

a. I managed to get her to take a couple of "driving checks for wrinklies" with the IAM last year and she sailed through them so it's not exactly lack of confidence to *try*, more lack of confidence she'll want to use a car routinely. (And she has good - and free - public transport in London so it'd only be occasional use);

b. I've failed totally to get her to hire. Partly 'cos she has good days and bad days and can't predict what tomorrow will be. And partly 'cos she is used to having a car she's used to and would be terrified of a different car each time. It was bad enough getting her to drive my Focus estate a few times for a few miles.

Sorry if I seem ungrateful. I'm not. I'm grateful for what are all good points. It's more that I've failed with them and have now only a couple of weeks to try the "why not buy this and see how you get on?" tack without a big insurance bill

Given what you've just said, ditching the car altogether sounds like a good idea.

Hmm, hiring would seem the obvious choice for occasional use but I appreciate her dislike of change. Maybe you can find a hire car company that could give her the same car every time? Fiat 500s seem popular with city hire companies and aren't likely to be dropped any time soon I wouldn't have thought.

Tim

then buy her a Corolla.

A driver who cannot adapt to a different car should probably not be on the road. I think the driving test for a new driver should ALWAYS be on a car different to that used to learn on.

If the "good days and bad days" are related to recovering from her illness, is this likely to improve? If not, then probably never driving again is a better option.

Get her to look at the total costs of owning and running a car - the initial purchase, compulsory costs such as insurance and MOT, routine costs such as servicing, usage costs such as fuel, and the like. Then compare this with the money required to pay for taxis and other public transport as needed. It may be that NOT owning a car is the best option for her.

Took the words out of my mouth...

Come on... That's all well and good, but it takes me a couple of hours to get really comfortable with a hire car (especially one full of tech).

No one wants to be wasting that time if the aim is to grab a car occasionally.

Not my point.

Imagine hiring a car at a foreign airport. You need to be able to drive that vehicle safely.

Now consider having to demonstrate that ability at a driving test.

Getting really comfortable with it can come later - and yes, a couple of hours isn't unreasonable.

I well remember hiring a car at an airport in the dark. When relatively young and clued up about cars in general. And couldn't find the lights switch for ages.

It's absolute nonsense than anyone should be comfortable to drive any car they've not driven before.

I agree with you in principle, but not in the specific case for this thread (where the OP was trying to get the lady in question to hire). For occasional, but not irregular utility reasons, it would be probably a very good idea to find a hire company that could dole out the same model.

I try this argument with my elderly customers in an attempt to keep them from crashing, it has not worked ony of the dozen or more I have used it on.

She's done all those sums. (She used to work in finance, including investment appraisal.) But it's not a simple sum when the value of self-confidence/independence is part of the equation.

Well she's had no crashes yet in 30-odd years. But we're both acutely aware driving's another thing that's all downhill from mid-60s :(

Have you tried it with your very young customers too? They are statistically far more likely to have accidents than the elderly. And far more likely to get themselves killed. ;-)

I sat in a new merc the other week and took a couple of minutes to find the gear selector.

On my 'new' car you have to press the brake pedal before the starter will turn the engine. Even although in park and the handbrake on. Nanny state gone mad.

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Yes that was i believe the original reason for the driving test!

Jaysus!, whatever was that motor?.

Got that in the new Audi plus the electrically operated handbrake;-(