The Official DSA Guide to Driving - The Essential Skills

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I bought the DSA's Official Guide to Driving as I'm currently learning to drive. However, the book does state that it's suitable for experienced motorists and instructors too. I got bought it from WHSmith and paid £12.99 for it.

As I'm a very excitable person I tend to throw myself into everything I do and try to find out as much as I can about it. So, when I began learning to drive I went out and bought every book, dvd ...
...all the stuff I bought cost more than the lessons I've had so far!

I'd previously heard from several friends not to buy official DSA books because they weren't very informative, and that the DSA filled their books with adverts trying to sell you other books. I must say that's not my experience with this book at all. If you're after a book for the theory side of the driving test then this book isn't for you - but out of all the 'practical' ... more

About me buying this book.....

I bought the DSA's Official Guide to Driving as I'm currently learning to drive. However, the book does state that it's suitable for experienced motorists and instructors too. I got bought it from WHSmith and paid £12.99 for it.

As I'm a very excitable person I tend to throw myself into everything I do and try to find out as much as I can about it. So, when I began learning to drive I went out and bought every book, dvd and cd I could find on the subject. In fact all the stuff I bought cost more than the lessons I've had so far!

I'd previously heard from several friends not to buy official DSA books because they weren't very informative, and that the DSA filled their books with adverts trying to sell you other books. I must say that's not my experience with this book at all. If you're after a book for the theory side of the driving test then this book isn't for you - but out of all the 'practical' books I bought, this is easily the best, and there isn't a single advert in it!

The book itself......

The Official DSA guide to Driving has 352 pages (not including the index) and the edition I'm reviewing is the fifth edition: third impression from 2006.

Very helpfully, not only have they made seperate chapters for each subject (as you would expect) but thay have colour-coded each page with a margin down one side, so just by flicking through you can easily find the chapter you want.

The chapters are:- the driver, the driver and the law, the controls, driving mirrors, starting to drive, traffic signs, on the road, bends and junctions, manoeuvring, defensive driving, driving on motorways, all-weather driving, driving at night, basic maintenance, breakdowns, accidents and emergencies, eco-safe driving and the environment, avoiding and dealing with congestion, towing a trailer, vehicle security, European driving, automatics and four-wheel drive, taxi driving and the conclusion.

There is also a list of useful websites at the front and useful addresses at the back.

As you can see it covers a whole range of subjects and for the thickness of the book it manages to cram in a decent amount of information on each subject - which I found surprising. Also very good was the layout of the actual chapters and the illustrations, which are on every page.

The colours used throughout the book help to break it up and make it less boring to read. There are summaries at the beginning of each chapter telling you what that particular chapter contains, and throughout the chapter there are bullet-point lists highlighting important information. These also help to break up the page and make it easier to read rather than if it was just one block of text.

My opinion....

All the information is written in very clear language and so would be easy for anyone to understand. I have a friend learning to drive who finds reading very difficult, but he thought this book was brilliant because it doesn't use complicated language. However, bearing in mind this is meant to also be a book for experienced motorists, I would think people who have been driving some time may find this book much too easy and probably even patronising. For an absolute beginner like me though, it's perfect.

To me, the most helpful chapter is the one on basic maintenance, because most of the things in this chapter aren't covered in driving lessons - such as electrical and battery problems, brake problems and tyre problems.

The only thing I would have liked is maybe more information on actually 'how to drive' rather than all the trailer-towing and European driving stuff. Although, if you are using this book in conjunction with driving lessons the information they give should be adequate - and they have covered all the basics.

Overall, what sets this book apart from the others that I bought is the layout, which is not boring-textbook style and is very easy on your eyes. Also, because the chapters are fairly short it makes it easy to put the book down for a while and start up again later - without stopping halfway through a particular subject.

I had intended to try and sell my 'learn to drive' books after (hopefully) passing my test, but I'm pretty sure I will hang on to this one in particular as the information is relevant to all drivers, not just learners. Having said that, though, if I was already an experienced driver I wouldn't rush out and buy this book because I think it's very doubtful that it would tell you anything new.

My conclusion....

I would definately recommend this book to people who are learning to drive or have only just passed their test - for £12.99 it gives you tons of information and is extremely helpful.
For anyone who's been driving a while though, I would say there are probably other books out there that are more suitable. 

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