I'm constantly amazed at the types of cars being used by some Swiss driving schools. Here in Basel I've seen the following:

Mercedes SLK
BMW 330 Ci
Audi S3
Golf GTi MkVI
Alfa Romeo Brera
Seat Leon Cupra
Mazda RX8

Is there competition amongst driving schools for who can offer the most exotic vehicles, or does the driving test also consist of a lap around the Nürburgring?

Here is an example of driving schools in Zurich... Seat Leon FR, Jags, 170BHP Mini Cooper S

It does seem strange at first, but , and we are talking Zurich here, if you can take lessons , and pass your test in a car that you will drive after the test then the school that has your car gets your money I would suppose.

There is a slight (if somewhat jealous) positive knowing that people are trained in the cars that they actually drive.

Mini cooper, cool! At least that should make parallel parking easy

You would think so, but that's how I failed my first test, in a Mini 1275GTe , your bum is so low to the ground, and you look out and up rather than out and down through the windows, that you can't really see/work out where the kerb is. It was awfully embarassing.

Ah damn. I'm learning in a Fiat Panda.

I should have shopped around a little more!

I know , it is amazing. when I learned driving for my license (as I had been driving long before) they actually took me to the circuit haha as I knew how to drive. bad thing was (this is 10 ish years ago) that they did not have these fancy cars yet. I had to drive a nissan Primavera diesel that would no move haha.

Do they do it for tax reasons maybe?

I think the key is that driving schools need to attract customers. In Germany, taking lessons was mandatory, so all schools used the same Golf Diesel as they were the most efficient for the job. Here you need not an efficient, but attractive car to get the teenagers paying voluntarily three digit amounts per hour... otherwise they could just drive around with their older friends.

Maybe some instructors are part timers who use their own private vehicles for teaching. Otherwise I fail to see how you can teach clutch control to a complete newbie in a 250 BHP rear wheel drive car... in the rain

I find the RX8 worse... there was another one in Winterthur. If you are a driving teacher and on the road all day, you should really get something reasonably fuel efficient. The RX8 is the opposite of fuel efficient (and failed the new Euro norms, so you cannot buy it new anymore for the sole reason that it was too bad for the environment.)

In Bern I have seen Boxsters as well, which I find a cool car to learn...

I am going green with envy here. I learnt and passed driving in the same old bunged up Honda Civic.

i prefer 500 bhp: http://www.20min.ch/news/bern/story/19723084

I'm also amazed at the expensive vehicles they use for learner drivers around here. But my big fear is about the cost of repairs -- surely learner cars get pranged with a degree of regularity?

Some examples from England:





America:



And a few incidents at the local Swiss driving school:

Only in Switzerland

I lost my element of surprise when I was picked up by a S-class taxi for a trip to the hospital - and he said, "Don't worry if you drip blood on the seats, I have a clean up kit!"

I'm used to Chicago, where the cabs are 15-year-old ex-squad cars with 1,000,000 miles and an undefinable sludge on the bottom of them.

If kids are learning on what they'll be driving, my future progeny will be learning to drive on a bicycle or a clunker Chevy, just like I did.

Most cars with that ability have all the required kill-fun buttons, ABS/ASC+t/ABD etc etc... No skill required.
My MK1 MX-5 has half that power but without the buttons, it's the best ever rear wheel car in the wet :-) Easy to put out of control, a doddle to get back into line. I smile just even thinking about it.

I think the cars used for driving lessons are specialy modified and have pedals also at the 'co-pilot' seat,
so the instructor can save them from mistakes...

Wow!!!
Perhaps those instructors like to attract a certain kind of classy exotic clientèle there?

Nuff said.

Given the rates they charge for driving lessons here, I assume they can easily afford the fuel.

BTW, back when I did my license more than 20 years ago, my driving teacher already had a top-of-the-line Audi 90 quattro.

I taught* myself

* Provisional licence and mum sitting next to me, but she ain't exactly a qualified driving instructor