Maruti Suzuki Driving School - Your Experiences.

[appus]

Maruti Suzuki Driving School Review​

Friends,

Today, I took my wife to 'Kalyani Motors near Nayandahalli' and registered for Drivers License Program.

They (Maruti Driving School) are running a promotion all India for Females who join driving program this month (As women's day fall on this March). 25% discount on course fee.

The fee is on a higher side. But, when you calculate all the options you get, I do not feel it is high.

Local Driving School : [REDY instead of READY]

• 20 Days - 1/2 hr ->10 hrs class.
• 1 day 1/2 hr theory
• 1 day 1/2 hr practical on vehicle.
• So total 22 Days - 11hr
• Costs 3800 for Swift with License

Maruti Driving School fees:- (Excluding LL and DL)
Rs 4000 for Alto
Rs 4250 for Zen Estilo
Rs 4500 for WagonR
Rs 5000 for Ritz

+1500Rs for getting LL and DL
We chose Ritz as that was the one close to my Swift Dzire (They teach in Diesel variants),
So the total was 5,000-25% +1,500 -> 5,250 Rs

We got an Auto Card with 1227 Points (1 Point is 1Rs). You can buy anything from any Maruti Dealer for same value or you can accumulate points on referral etc. [If you have a maruti vehicle, you are entitled to get this. You need to present the Photocopy of RC /Insurance]

So, the total comes down to 4000Rs.

You get :-

• 7.5 Hrs of Theory (1x1hr, 3 x2hr and 1/2hr demo) - Teach about behavior on road and cover a lot.
• 2.5 Hrs of Simulation (5 days - 1/2 hr each) (You can experience clutch, gear, steering, accelerator before hitting the road. It is kind of live feel. It is much better than going straight on road)
• 10 hrs of practical - 10 days x 1 hr . Pick up and drop if you happens to stay in 2.5km radius
• Total 20hrs.

I was more happy to join there as they teach theory which is essential for a beginner than just going on the road.
You can get more info about this 20hr program from here

Other than that,

• We got two CDs 'Road safety Self test CD ROM - part 1 and 2' which works only in XP (Very old program i believe) (Written on cover - Complete learner's kit part 1-2).

• Learn to drive safety 135Page printed book which i mentioned in some post yesterday PDF here.

• A scribbling pad

• Progress Record Book where they have P1 to P10 sessions. Each session teaching different things about driving.

Hope I chose the right one !

If you have a wife like mine who doesnt know 'ABCD of driving', this is the right time

Regards,
appus

 

[350Z]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Local Driving School : [REDY instead of READY]

• 20 Days - 1/2 hr ->10 hrs class.
• 1 day 1/2 hr theory
• 1 day 1/2 hr practical on vehicle.
• So total 22 Days - 11hr
• Costs 3800 for Swift with License

You’re still lucky that even a local driving school in your area provides theory classes. The situation is worse out here. Almost all local driving schools in Delhi offer a crash course (Normally 7 Days. 1 Hour Each). This might be good for building up confidence on road for someone who’s already familiar with driving but definitely not for a beginner. Maruti Suzuki driving school is an awesome initiative and indeed recommended for someone who’s starting from scratch. It’s high time India needs such well-equipped and authorized driving schools.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Thank You so much for the reply. I think I deserved at least a single reply for the above post ! !

Local Driving School guy said 'Theory is not necessary' and when we insisted we are looking some theory than going on road straight away, he told about '1/2 hr theory'.

Fun part is, he was talking lot against 'Maruti Driving School' . That, you do not see dogs or cows on simulators. May be he didn't know that MDS giving same hours of practical as they give on road.

Yes. Even I wish everyone goes thru the well-equipped authorized driving schools.

If anybody interested, I can upload the CD Content (150MB and 190MB) in an ISO format.
(Contains self test questions - Am sure, you do not get 100% right without going thru the study material, google etc)

 

[350Z]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

If anybody interested, I can upload the CD Content (150MB and 190MB) in an ISO format.

Yes. Please do so in a compressed file and upload it in the forum itself. It will be of great help to all of us.

Drive Safe,
350Z

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Yes. Please do so in a compressed file and upload it in the forum itself. It will be of great help to all of us.

Drive Safe,
350Z

Looks like I wouldn't be able to upload this forum as the maximum size of RAR file is 5MB

The second cd after compressing the .iso comes around 129MB. Looks like second cd contains all of first cd + more topics

Here are the content screenshot











I have BOX account of 50GB. I can even PM you the link if you want to download from there and upload to this site's ftp.

Breaking into 20 parts is not difficult. Downloading it separately and joining it would be really difficult for users.

Once extracted the rar file, you get .iso format. You can either burn it on a CD or mount on a virtual drive. If you are using thru virtual drive, you need to disable Physical drive from device manager.

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Today, wife finished her first on-road session successfully.

First day, they took her to Bangalore University roads which are free with less or no vehicles.

She drove in all the gears (with the help of course). Reversed. 1 hr of training and came and parked in Kalyani motors parking lot (not done properly it seems). Instructor told her that she got a good steering balance and that is the reason she could drive back on road till their parking lot. (May be giving some confidence boost)

I am impressed. It is her first day she is touching a car's steering other than simulator's. She never look at steering/gears or clutch/accelerator/brake pedals when i drive. I was skeptical about.

I think their simulator sessions worked well. Instead of 5 session, they gave her almost 8-9 session. She was going off the road and driving thru park in simulator for first two days .

She is actually a slow learner. But, I am so happy about her first session of driving.

Positives so far

• They will never let you drive on the road till they are confident than you.
• They will give same simulator classes again if found unsatisfactory.
• Simulator includes and covers other things which are not used to pass driving test. Like driving on loose gravels, hilly terrain, night driving, putting petrol, up hill, down hill etc
• Their main aim is not just to get you a driving license, but to make you a safe driver.
• Giving confidence boost always by saying - "No need to worry, you can do it easily etc"
• Administration staff behaves decently and politely when you are at their office.

Will update about the teaching classes / instructor once she completes the class.

Negatives so far
That is more about the staff than about teaching/driving

• Over promises to get admission
• Initially promised about pickup drop over phone. While joining, they said the pickup is only for practicals. Now they changed no pickup for practicals. When asked about promise, they said "First 3 classes are done not on road, so no pickup" (Only 7 days pickup/drop). Initially they said pickup on 3km. Now reduced to 2.5km. We are just 2KM (they are not giving pickup/drop facility to those who do not ask). Some MDS, they do not give pickup/drop at all.
• There was no update on theory class starting till the day we called up and enquired. They are good in saying 'we were about to give you a call even if you call just before 6.15 - their office hours is only till 6.15PM'. After few shouting, that got alright. Now they call and update regularly without fail
• Available staffs will give you a theory session at that point of time. I always prefer a single instructor either in theory or practical.
• Initially they said they cant give the same instructor for driving classes on road. We insisted on same instructor and later they agreed.

You can see the negatives are more on the administration than the teaching. So, as far as teaching is concerned, good choice.

Friends, if you have not learned driving or want your close ones/friends to learn driving, choose Maruti Driving School. If you are not learned from any driving school, you can join their advanced program where they teach about safety.
It is not just for your safety on road, it is for others safety too

You can see the course content for learner's program Learner's program contents

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Yesterday, my wife officially became a Driver ! She passed the driving test. Only 1 failed among 14 went from Maruti Driving School !
(The person failed was on a free course offered by MDS)

Few suggestion those who wants to join the Maruti Driving School (MDS).

• Talk to them and be clear on their terms and conditions
• If you are offered on pickup and drop, make sure you ask 'from day 1?'. They may change it later.
• Ask the vehicle is driven with AC on or not. They should actually drive with AC on and window rolled up. Never happened with the instructor she had.
• Ask for the same instructor for the whole training. They were allotting diff instructors and I had to fight to get same instructor. You will loose lot of time adjusting to different instructors.
• Ask whether they are sure of taking all the theory class. (t3 and t4 - 4 hrs). Normally that classes do not happen unless you pressurise them. I did and they are arranging one class on coming week.
• They never sign anything on progress report (Daily report). If you are interested, ask about this too.
• Make sure you tell them about 15KM/1Hour duration from the pickup point. Later they say 'it is not from pickup point, it is from their office to office'. So you end up getting around 10KM or 45minutes.
• Be clear and straight forward. We were soft initially and we did not want to shout later.
• Ask for 8 formation / reverse S formation which you need to do on test. Eventhough it is mentioned on practicals, they have not done. On test day with a different vehicle, it can be too difficult.

These many points came to me as we had expected a lot more from their initial canvasing.

Lots of positives too. Simulations made her drive without tensions. That took out the fear in her. That made her get steering balance from day 1.

IF the above points are taken care, then MDS would be a better choice over local driving school who hardly give 10Hrs of practicals with no theory.

Will definitely send the feedback to Maruti once she finishes her remaining theory sessions.

Thank You

 

[jayesh]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

congratulations to your wife appus..

even my wife and I have learned driving from MDS, but have never faced any problems like the ones you have mentioned.
We used to get the same instructor from 1 day onwards till w completed.
he used to fill out the progress report explain where we went wrong and asked us to sign the same.
even on test dat my wife gave her test in the same vehicle that she learned I gave in mine our EECO.

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

congratulations to your wife appus..

even my wife and I have learned driving from MDS, but have never faced any problems like the ones you have mentioned.
We used to get the same instructor from 1 day onwards till w completed.
he used to fill out the progress report explain where we went wrong and asked us to sign the same.
even on test dat my wife gave her test in the same vehicle that she learned I gave in mine our EECO.

Thank You

I think your MDS @ Jamnagar follows their curriculum strictly.
She learned in Ritz as we have Swift Dzire (They do not have swift or dzire). The other schools are having Dzire and Swift. Since this school is nearby, we chose that.

I have seen in Bangalore (HSR Layout), they drive on AC.

Regarding the test. All schools are taking Alto for test. She was sitting in alto for first time. Will definitely forward this feedback to their higher officials for sure.

 

[jayesh]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

The head of MDS @ jamnagar is very strict in all aspects of driving.

we had to give final test with him accompanying us before we went to test with RTO.
we had been shown the route that we had to follow for the final test by MDS and believe me he was very srtict.

We had only two vehicles ALTO and WAGON R both were running on LPG ( we dont have CNG here) and were AC vehicles.

 

[Sidd7hartha]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

I joined MDS run by Premier Car World, B.T Road,Kolkata very recently. If anybody have any previous experience of them may share here in this forum. My experience is not bad so far.But I have not attended any practical training(06 days).

 

[appus]

Sidhharth,

Check the above posts and see to it you donot miss anything. Happy and safe learning !

 

[sraman]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

Good initiative appus and congrats to your wife on successfully getting the license.

I had done my training at MDS@Valasaravakkam Chennai and paid Rs.4500+1500 for the whole package. It was nice on those theory session where some of the videos shown were really helpful. The simulator is really helpful for newbies and it behaves like a real vehicle. The vehicle even switches off when you release the clutch imperfectly and I perfected it there.

In practical classes I had different instructors/cars and I enjoyed all of them and in particular, it is a full one hour drive with you & the instructor alone. I started with a Waggie then had Alto, Astar, Estillo & Swift. Last 3 classes was with diesels 2 days on Swift and one day on Ritz. I enjoyed the swift diesel the most and hate the estillo most. Would you believe, I got the estillo during my driving test for license.

Overall a nice initiative by Maruti.

But the driving inspector said " I don't know what is with these people from MDS, they are the ones who are tense & lousy compared to the others from driving institutes". Actually I was really surprised by that remark, but on that day his comment was correct, only 2 out 14 from MDS did complete the small 8 without errors. One fellow even failed to move the car in reverse. But everyone passed, that is india..

 

[appus]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

My wife still did not get 4 hrs of theory (t3 and t4). When we went to took the license, they assured that will happen in coming week.
Did you get all theory sessions ?

One instructor took 300RS for LL of two wheeler . Initially he told her to apply together. Now he is saying that he got to pay to other driving school etc.

Instructors - Some of them are not professionals. They just wanted to make money.

 

[sraman]

Re: Maruti Driving School - 25% Discount for Women

My wife still did not get 4 hrs of theory (t3 and t4). When we went to took the license, they assured that will happen in coming week.
Did you get all theory sessions ?

I had only three theory lessons, had them in this order T1, T3 & T2 . They asked me to come on the weekend for the last class, but I took the practicals on that day.

One instructor took 300RS for LL of two wheeler . Initially he told her to apply together. Now he is saying that he got to pay to other driving school etc.

Instructors - Some of them are not professionals. They just wanted to make money.

Yes, all the instructors were not professionals in their behaviour. One particular guy was most irritated and the whole class, he shouted at me entirely denting my confidence. This incident affected me so much so that the next class (my 4th) I was so tense made so many mistakes in the first 10 minutes, I even tried to change gears without pressing the clutch. This time the instructor was so good, he stopped the car in a corner, made a peptalk to me for 10 minutes and Whoosh I was back to normal for the next 50 minutes.