Darren is a truly terrible instructor, he was smoking with me in the car 4 years ago and I saw this week that he is still doing it. Every other company/instructor in the area knows what he is like, and the amount of times I have heard “if he thinks it will be effort, he just won’t continue with that student”. He would arrive late, finish early, make me pull over for 10-20 minutes mid way through the lesson so he could “have a smoke”, which he had been doing the whole time, while on my dime, and never once seemed like he wanted to teach me… I spent all 5 lessons on the brink of tears, it was that bad, he made me feel beyond stupid for asking simple questions. He was on his phone constantly, to the point where I was continuously having to ask “what now?” because he was never paying attention. This was years ago, and he is STILL doing it. Also I was unable to contact anyone for months - phoned Darren twice and left voicemails, sent 4 texts, phoned head office twice and left voicemails, submitted 2 contact forms, nobody has replied to me. Every time I see a Top Gear car, I genuinely want to get out and give the learner a different instructor’s number… they are going to need one anyway with all of Darren’s ghosting! Read Less

My daughter had an instructor in the South Lakes area, she often felt uncomfortable in the car with him. He would also ghost her for weeks, but the worst thing was that he smoked cigarettes in the car while giving instruction. There is such a shortage of instructors that he will continue to be able to get work despite being of dubious professionalism. Read Less