The word on the street

Much talk yesterday in the Test Centre amongst ADI’s of Check Tests.  The rumour mill was churning away full pelt.  One ADI apparently knows of 5 people failing.  Another named an ADI that he has heard has failed.  As ever, it’s only the fails that is ‘news’, inevitably you tend to get no context in these discussions.  Even if there is truth in that figure of 6, 6 out of how many? 

At one stage, out of the 4 of us jabbering away, there was me and one other who have just had one, there was another chap saying he’s been given a date for his, and the other chap was remaining tight lipped on the subject.  It does appear that Peterborough is having a blitz right now on Check Tests.  One chap was explaining that when he qualified he was not tested for 4 years.  He got a grade 5, and within 2 years he has now been informed of his test. 

Slight change of subject.  I’m after an automatic for my driving school.  Hyundai wrote to me 2 weeks or so ago saying they are selling off new cars at ‘cost price’ just until 31/3/12.  I went down there to take a look.  In the forecourt was a manual up for £8495 – not on any promotion.  I explained what I was after, in red, and to my surprise, I was told they could provide one on this promotion.  They asked me if I was a member of the DIA – which I’m not.  If you are, you can get a further discount in an attempt to appeal to driving instructors.  The chap dug out their annual membership, and it turned out that it would have paid for me to join up just to get this discount.  There was a £547 ‘delivery’ charge.  Even with the discount which apparently was the promotion described as ‘cost price’, the overall cost for this automatic was going to be £9100.  I left them to it.  When you consider that 3 years ago I bought a new manual from them for £7400 – their ‘promotion’ leaves a little to be desired as far as I can see.