Last-chance saloon

People who start driving when they are older get cheaper insurance and are safer on the roads. But it doesn't make passing your test easier, says late learner Elisa Bray

I've just made a reservation at The Ivy and I'm feeling a little resentful. Some years ago I made a bet with my younger sister that she wouldn't pass her driving test before me. The prize? Dinner at The Ivy.

My sister took her test at 17 and passed. But here I am, approaching 30 and nowhere near a practical test.

What's more, I dread 2pm on a Friday, as that mean's it's time for my weekly driving lesson. My heart races and it takes at least five minutes to remember how to manoeuvre the car.

When it comes to meeting traffic, to avoid oncoming cars I'd be driving on the pavement if I could. As soon as I've mastered one thing, there's something else I haven't. I've been hooted at by van drivers, I've nearly crashed into a tree on my street, I've cursed and I've made the car jump in ways I never thought possible.

Now I have been assigned the AA's Top Gun instructor and become one of the 100,000 pupils the organisation teaches each year. With an instructor who typically trains teachers, rather than new drivers like me, if I can't learn with him, I might as well give up. But it seems that plenty of people do learn to drive as an adult – 36 per cent of those who took their test last year were aged 25 and above. It just might take longer. It is said that for every year of your age, you need one-and-a-half hours of professional tuition, not including private practise.

For a 30-year-old, that means 45 hours and if you're 60, you could be looking at a bill for lessons of £2,250.

With every year of age, the pass rate decreases by a little over one per cent. According to statistics from the Driving Standards Agency, if I take my practical test next year I'll have a 14 per cent less chance of passing than if I'd taken it at 17.

The pass rate last year was 55.1 per cent for 17-year-olds, but in your 70s you're looking at half that rate.

Why the discrepancy? In our teens, our sense of invincibility leads us to take more risks, but as we get older we are held back by our fears of the consequences of our actions. Then there are the superior psychomotor skills (coordination) that a teenager has and the ability to master new skills quickly.

I've never excelled in coordination (my lack of skills in that department was brought to the fore when I went go-karting as a 21-year-old and promptly lodged myself in the barrier, blocking a lane for the duration, much to the mortification of my boy-racer friends).

But nothing has seemed as daunting as when I am in charge of 1.3 tonnes of metal and not only is it essential to manipulate both feet over three pedals, a gear stick and steering wheel, but also to watch out for parked cars, moving cars, road signs and pedestrians.

I don't recall anyone at school discussing how difficult driving was, although a few years later it did take one of my best friends, despite an Oxford education, nine tests to pass. But then I missed the boat when I was in my teens.

I've had a few stalled attempts at learning and, until last week, after 30 hours of lessons I'd never gone beyond 30mph and third gear. My first instructor spent more time commenting on the wafting of my perfume and expunging his marital crises than teaching me to drive, while my second instructor expressed his views on my granny speeds by asking casually if I knit. That was my final lesson with him, before he stopped answering my calls. Next followed a brief stint with my boyfriend (we never made it beyond the B&Q car park).

Nothing is more frustrating than when I've checked my mirrors and I'm ready to go and then I start fumbling around and have to start all over again; it's having to combine the many skills that come automatically for experienced drivers that poses the challenge. The AA's Head of Road Safety, Andrew Howard, says: "The ability to split your attention becomes harder as you get older. You're probably more mentally equipped to learn things when you're 17 or 18. You probably feel less immortal as you get older and are more worried about misjudging the car in front and crashing as, if it's not dad's car or the instructor's, it may well be yours." But Howard has some reassurance for older learners.

"When we criticise young drivers, we tend to say they have the skills to drive, but tend not to use them. When you eventually get to drive, you're not going to have to impress your friends with your driving skills. In a strange way, older drivers will be less good at passing their test, but will be better drivers."

There is another benefit for older drivers. While younger drivers face insurance bills of thousands, no matter how cheap their car (the AA's quote is £5,232.56 for a 17-year-old male, and £2,911.01 for a female), at least – if I pass now – the insurance costs will be a fraction of that.

When you have the baggage that comes with age, be that fear of speed, lack of confidence or coordination, finding the right instructor is ever more essential. It took my instructor one lesson to ascertain that my main issue was going to be confidence on the road.

Last lesson, I was so nervous that I spent 15 minutes persuading him that I wasn't ready to take on dual carriageways. Now I've just made it to fifth gear and 50mph on the A41.

And my instructor even had to tell me to slow down.