Defensive Driving Courses - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

XplodEd EA · 02-11-2004, 03:21

G'day all, just wondering who here has done a Defensive Driving Course and what your thoughts on it were. As I'm just about to purchase a new car I thought it might be a good idea to do such a course and sharpen up my skills a little bit.

I just wanna know what you got out of it If you have done one and if it was worth the money more importantly.

theman · 02-11-2004, 03:40

I haven't done one before but i think that some insurance companies will lower your premiums is you do the course, should maybe find out if yours does.
Other than that i dont see any point (touch wood), just go out into an industrial area when its raining and teach yourself, its fun too.

THEONE · 02-11-2004, 04:23

ive done one ,in syd,jim mercott ,it was pretty good but i wanna do the stage 2 course now,i learnt alot from it really open my eyes alot.i reckon everyone should do it ,young and cool in syd will knock $1000 off ya insurance if you do it but there are some other requeiments for it too,like an alarm and something else.

XplodEd EA · 02-11-2004, 04:27

Haha, yes we've been out doing that but I've never done it with an LSD or a V8 spinning those wheels so I was thinking of maybe going to somewhere that has a bit more of a controlled environment where minimal damage will occur if somethin did go wrong.

psycho chicken · 02-11-2004, 04:35

I got one for christmas, still gotta book it in, think I'll wait til I have a set of matching tread patterns.

theman · 02-11-2004, 05:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by psycho chicken

I got one for christmas, still gotta book it in, think I'll wait til I have a set of matching tread patterns.

lol, sounds like my car...

Rollin · 02-12-2004, 02:21

i have done two of them - one was called "safe drive 2000" which i did with my school in grande 12 - they did mostly braking work (power oversteer doesnt happen in Proton Satrias

) and theory - car maintenance, effects of wheel alignment and tyre pressures etc. i had a ball, and learned a lot.

the second one i did was a present from my parents for my 18th bday, it was one at mt cotton.

that was even more fun :D after some theory, we went out to the skidpan and they tried to make us spin (before this course, getting sideways and recovering was a bit of a lottery, but since the course its been like warm apple pie :s6: ) then we did some brake and avoid manouvers, and a bit of slow manouvering - like, driving around a course made of tightly spaced markers, reversing into 'parking bays' etc etc - the idea was to make us aware of the size of the car, and how to handle it in tight spaces.

then FINALLY we went out for a short drive on the road, and the instructor watched our driving habits, and commented on what we were doing right and wrong.

all in all, the course was BRILLIANT and im sure its saved me more times than i even realise - its paid for itself many times over i reckon.

pity my insurance company doesnt care that im a better and safer driver...no change to premium or excess.

damn.

blinkAU · 02-12-2004, 03:07

Hay rollin i did the course at mt cotton on the time I went extra was there filming so we got it half price.

I had my old 78 sigma back then, I got on tv they did a segment on how unsafe my car was (it was the worst car there) and i got to do a big skid for the camera. The guy who was running it let me use his 4cyl ricer we had to go down a hill at 60km and hit a skid pan anyway... camera lights action I dropped the clutch massive burnout came down about 120km hit the brakes and I went a hell of along way. It all got taped by extra to but never came up on their show. I went with some other guy to explore the course ended up on some big windy track with the... police. They moved us along, they just had the AU out then so i was looking for a free ride. It was a good day and well I wasnt allowed behind the wheel of the ricer again. I didnt have my licence at the time when doing it either.

BlueAU · 06-16-2004, 20:55

If any Melbourne guys are interested im trying to organise some courses at the moment:

http://www.fordforums.com/showthread...981#post781981