Top Gear have used such gestures accompanied with the term 'wheel shufflers' to describe the IAM for years. And they're not wrong.

People on here like to make out that its just me and a few select uneducated individuals who think the IAM are a waste of space and fair game for ridicule but its actually the vast majority of people.

jamie, 'but its actually the vast majority of people'

Another moronic post without substance!

Thats it? Wheel-shuffling and rigidly doing 29mph? Hardly advanced. Thats probably why i dont like them, every 'road safety charity' believes if everybody does 1mph below the speed limit then there'd never be any crashes. The assumption that slow = better, safer driver is misguided.

Im not sure what else they can 'teach' with observation skills, my driving instructor told me to observe what happening.

Wheel shuffling epitomises the IAM. It achieves exactly the same as spinning the wheel round one handed but they make it more complicated and stamp 'advanced' on it.

I too have my reservations about the IAM.

I took a few lessons with them 10 or 12 years ago & went to a couple of meetings but dropped out before taking my test.

Why? Because their views were certainly inconsistant; I disagreed with them on one (IMO) fundamental point; & according to my instructor there was nothing they could teach me about "observation"

1. The inconsistancies were a couple of times where the speaker at the meeting was explaining the rational behind some good driving practice or other but was then corrected by other members of the group with "Er no! The official position has now changed"
2. We had a few lively discussions about my view that drivers should signal EVERY time they look to make a manoeuvre. They said you should only signal when other road users were present as this encourages greater observation. I maintained (& still do) that no matter how great your concentration & observations skills you cannot guarantee you will see all road users at all times.
3. The instructor said my observation skills were optimum because I was a motorcyclist & that the best training for car drivers in observation skills was to learn to ride a bike!

Some shades of childish green showing here and i don't mean the save the planet crew either.

If you can't drive well enough to pass the IAM test then thats fine, not many people can or do.

Why knock others who are capable of displaying fine car control though.

Each to their own.

I'm not a member of the IAM, my bad habits are too many and i'm not sure i could attain the standard required, therefore i respect those who can and do, and if they can get a few quid off their insurance into the bargain good luck to 'em.

Just done a fire brigade ADEC which is an advanced driver emergency course which entails driving at normal road speeds and above speed limits in a car with blues and twos, skid training and driving on blues and twos in a fire appliance.Much of the car work was shuffling the wheel and reading the road with IAM input instruction. Working to the police Carcraft handbook. It gave me a better understanding of speed, driving and road positioning which will be transferred into my civilian driving habits.Jamie, you don't understand the IAM or what they are about. How about you sign up for a course and see for yourself what they are all about. And at the end, you will either be a convert or be able to criticise this group with some sense of proportion.

Edit: I've just realised that 475 has posted an earlier post by me up above - so some of this might be a little repetivie but.....

Come on people! This is so repetitive. This is a forum for motoring enthusiasts and people who love driving and love cars. This particular conversation just keeps coming up and up and up like some sort of vasculitic semi-erection.

I have passed my IAM test and I think it's a good thing. I don't profess to be the best driver in the world but I know that lots of people drive very badly on our roads (lights off in the dark, 2" off the back of the car in front, windscreens covered in ice with a little peephole, no idea how to drive in fog, rain, snow, ice, can't read traffic-lights or roundabouts so screech to a halt and then have to burn off again instead of just going straight over etc etc).

We all like to think we are good drivers - especially those of us who follow these forums and the IAM just seek to advance the very basic level that our standard driving test covers,

It is for people who want to try and improve their driving not for people who want to laud it over everyone else - and that's perhaps why you don't get that many responses on here.

Any advice they give is not directed at YOU specifically so don't take it personally - it's directed at people who don't know any better.

Incidentally, the vast majority of posts here about the IAM are wrong. I was not told to shuffle the wheel. I was told not to cadence brake. I wasn't told to rigidly adhere to speed limits - but I was told not to break our laws. I was told to give it beans and get my car up to the limit quickly and smoothly so as not hold up myself or other traffic.

Another example - I drive to work on a 60mph single carriageway road for 12 miles each way and there are lots of people too nervous to drive at the speed limit. As a result there are lots of tailgaters getting understandably frustrated behind them. Many of them do not have the confidence to actually overtake other cars. The IAM did actually improve my ability at this and now I end up overtaking on every journey. That's not to make myself sound like something special - I am not. I am sure that I am resoundingly average. But I make this point to show that the IAM are not all about driving round slowly in a beige Rover whilst shuffling my hands around a leather clad steering wheel.

No one will be able to answer Jamie's question about what makes them advanced. It's more about general observation, reading the road, getting the max out of your car whilst treating it well and making as fast and safe progress as you can on your journey.

I really enjoyed being taught by my instructor - he was a boy racer with a souped up coupe who liked driving fast, as do I. I am also a massive Top Gear and Jeremey Clarkson fan and I know that their comments, like many on the show, are tongue-in-cheek and designed to amuse.

I rarely post on these forums - I just read, mostly because there are a lot of hostile replies. But I honestly can't understand why people get so irate about the IAM. They are not making any of us do anything different and there will be many motorists who are excellent drivers who already do those things the IAM teach. Perhaps Jamie and others are in that group. Just don't be so hostile to people who are simply trying to improve their own driving because the standard test is just so......

Edited by nudger on 07/02/2012 at 11:11

One of the greatest differences between a driving test and an advanced one is the commentary. At one time in the IAM Test you had to give a running commentary of everything you saw throughout the test. (I'm not sure whether or not this is still the case.) You may not believe it, but it does really concentrate the mind and make you aware of things you'd otherwise miss or didn't think were relevant while you are driving.

I'm in two minds about the commentary. On one hand it does tend to focus the mind on one's environment and likely hazards. But from the clips I've seen, there is a danger of over analysing a situation and looking for obscure potential hazards and actually missing the obvious hazards that are right in front of you! (This is what happened to me when I tried commentating (to myself) my own journey.

"country road, tall hedges, farm gate 500 yards on the right. Aware of possibility of livestock entering highway without warning...oh b*****, sharp bend 35 feet ahead"[Screech! ]

You do have to get them in order of prioriy! I'm surprised you couldn't see the corner when it was only 35 feet away! :) Did you forget your specs on that journey. ;)

N.B. I don't think most people are going to do a commentary for whole journey. There are limits. With IAM I believe that if you showed you could do a commentary and pick up relevant aspects an examiner wouldn't expect you to do it all the time