Yeah, I’m learning on an old mini, which is a great car to learn on because they made basically the same car for 40 years and it’s one of the most heavily produced cars of all time. I can buy every part for it for a reasonable price from one of 15 online retailers, about 5 of which are in Australia. However, if that wasn’t the case it would be quite a bad thing to learn on because you’d just spend all your time chasing parts.
Something like that, an old Toyota or a bug would be a good car to learn on
That’s often the point of riding two abreast. If you are riding one at a time and on the edge of the lane then cars will often try and overtake you without leaving the lane, or at least a minimal amount. That leads to very dangerous close passes.
If you ride side by side or in the middle of the lane if alone, then generally the times you get passed by cars are much safer as if going fully into the other lane already they tend to give you enough space.
This would depend on the drivers in your area, but with the shitty Sydney drivers I learnt quickly to hold the lane unless it was a safe place for them to pass.
Also, because traffic is a thing it’s very rare that I don’t end up right behind whatever car passed me at the next traffic light, safer passes don’t really cost much time for the driver once traffic is accounted for