My daughter has requested that I enroll her in a driving school as she will require a car next year for school. I have tried to take her in my car for a quick spin around the neighbour, but I don't have the patience or willing to jeopardize my car.
I have checked into AMA and price seems pretty steep, around $1500 for a new driver. Anyone else in similar predicament as myself and can suggest a decent driving school without AMA price? I am looking for in-class or online training plus 20 hours of on-road driving.
My daughter has requested that I enroll her in a driving school as she will require a car next year for school. I have tried to take her in my car for a quick spin around the neighbour, but I don't have the patience or willing to jeopardize my car.
I have checked into AMA and price seems pretty steep, around $1500 for a new driver. Anyone else in similar predicament as myself and can suggest a decent driving school without AMA price? I am looking for in-class or online training plus 20 hours of on-road driving.
I appreciate you want to teach your child to be the best driver they can be... but you sound like a really supportive parent lol
My dad taught me to drive in his company car. And I will teach my daughter to drive using my car one day.
I can't remember the exact numbers, but recall that insurance companies will give her a discount for having completed driver training and that after a few years, the discount pays for the cost of driving school.
I remember getting my driver training at Crowfoot AMA as a teenager years ago.
My instructor was this tanned, blonde, leggy Polish girl, probably about 26 years old.
One day she wore a black dress that came two thirds of the way up her thigh. It was a huge struggle to keep my focus on the road, and she seemed totally oblivious to the impact she was having.
I still wonder if that was part of the test.
I have no recommendations whatsoever. Just that anecdote. Sorry.
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I remember getting my driver training at Crowfoot AMA as a teenager years ago.
My instructor was this tanned, blonde, leggy Polish girl, probably about 26 years old.
One day she wore a black dress that came two thirds of the way up her thigh. It was a huge struggle to keep my focus on the road, and she seemed totally oblivious to the impact she was having.
I still wonder if that was part of the test.
I have no recommendations whatsoever. Just that anecdote. Sorry.
NEVER be sorry for an anecdote like this. Best post in the thread so far!
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During one short drive with her, she already crashed my car into someone's fence, causing minor dent on the bumper and scratch and damaging the fence. I left a note for the owner of the house for the repair, BTW. I wish I had that brake pedal on the passenger side to prevent such. Putting a teenager in 300 HP car isn't a good idea, IMO.
I think I will go with AMA during Christmas break. It's probably better to have driving experience in winter than summer to deal with the element. Other driving schools seem shady without too much reviews online, hence, turning to CP for opinion.
Any parent of young children that thinks they will teach their kids to drive as teenagers is naive or unprepared for what awaits them. I was that guy at one point. It could save your relationship with your kids... You can't underestimate the amount of snarkiness you will need to absorb while genuinely trying to be patient with them! Let trained professionals handle this.
(yes, I realize it all depends on the kid)
We used AMA for my daughter. Worth every penny... she's evolved into a pretty good driver. As mentioned, this is something you will not regret spending money on.
I think I will go with AMA during Christmas break. It's probably better to have driving experience in winter than summer to deal with the element. Other driving schools seem shady without too much reviews online, hence, turning to CP for opinion.
I agree, I took an AMA course (a long time ago) in the winter with a standard transmission car. That pretty much set me up for anything Calgary could throw at me. It was well worth the money.
I went through Young Drivers of Canada years ago. From what I recall, it was really good. Beyond the standard stuff they took me onto country roads so I could practice stopping on ice and recover on gravel.
Last edited by cDnStealth; 11-09-2015 at 12:36 AM.
TL; DR - I'd suggest AMA as well. Not a place to cheap out. I am not happy with other driving schools.
Spoiler!
I took AMA a decade or so ago with a guy who actually was involved in taking down all the shoddy driving schools and while I have deliberately let poor habits sneak into my driving , I feel like I do have the basic skills to be a reasonable driver.
Like you, I drive a vehicle that isn't great for teaching on (Acura TL 2012 SH-AWD and previous to that, another huge tank sized sedan), though I have spent lots of time coaching and teaching my wife. Let's just say that I haven't been very amused by the quality of a few highly ranked driving schools' quality of teaching. I'm not going to name their names, but essentially a few shave down costs by having students drive students home. In theory not a problem because it's still driving, right? Unfortunately, most of these situations involve about 1/3 of the entire lesson on a Deerfoot/Crowchild/Glenmore etc. and not really learning anything. I personally think a huge chunk of the lesson is wasted. Furthermore, my wife is still not even confident driving on roads and seems more terrified of other cars than before. I am not amused at the outcome of these "cheaper" alternatives and my wife has gone through not one, but two of these schools.
This is perplexing to me because she had a decent set of driving skills and knowledge prior to these schools. I probably spent 20 hours with her in my cars and felt she was quite ok. I had originally requested her to go to a driving school to refresh her driving knowledge, drive in a car that is more reasonably sized than my tank (after I changed cars) and learn proper driving technique and habit rather than from me and pick up my bad driving habits. I feel like after both schools, her confidence is shot. I personally think AMA would have been a better choice over trying to save a few hundred bucks. Not to mention some BS scheduling issues with the other school which made my wife lose out on the last few lessons + borrowed car for lesson (oh believe me, we've been giving them an earful).
IMO, there is no problem with us being the individuals sitting in the passenger seat while the other person practices and gets hours of practice before taking the exam. But us being the teacher? I'd get a good one for sure and not save the extra money.
I'm learning this the hard way. Un-teaching bad habits isn't easy.
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I took driving lessons with AMA, my story does not have the awkward hot driving instructor though. Mine is about painful awkwardness.
The first lesson this middle aged woman asks me about my name, as often people do. I tell her I'm Icelandic and after a bit of a weirdly long pause she asks me if I know Iris. Which yes I do, that's my sister!
Thinking neat, she knows my sister... Well turns out her now ex-husband of 20 yrs left her a few weeks earlier because he was in love with my sister. The dude who was my sisters boss, had been hitting on her but my sister had zero interest and politely declined. This guy had started off by asking her to marry him, then when she said no, offered to start dating... lol, he was a special person.
But umm yeah oh those driving lessons were a special kind of awkward from that point on. I think AMA was pretty good though, but honestly all I can remember is the long awkward silences.
My Crowfoot AMA instructor sipped "water" from something in a brown paper bag. And made me practice my 4-way stops by driving around the French Maid / 3rd Ave hooker stroll repeatedly.
I failed and had to take remedial hours with a better instructor who actually instructed.
I only wish I had the scorching hot Polish girl.
As for the OP - Kijiji has lots of cheap discount driving instructors. Who better to entrust your daughter to?
My dad taught me how to drive in the world's crappiest '67 Mercury Comet. 351 V8, RWD, and no power steering. After learning in that POS, driving any other car was a breeze.
He would get pretty stressed at times though, which stressed me out in turn. I'd recommend shelling out for the pros at AMA. The insurance break that most companies offer for completing driver training is a nice boon as well.
My son is almost done the driving portion of Alberta Driver Education & Training and they have been great and super flexible with my son's crazy busy schedule. It was 7 hundred dollars I think? He was already a very competent driver before he started the program though, he is really only doing it for the insurance discount.
I enrolled my son in AMA, it was more expensive but hey have a good reputation and I figured they'd be most likely to have a teacher that spoke english. I plan on enrolling my daughter there as well next year.
I took my son out several times times in our car before the course. But low and behold he hit a parked car under my tutelage so obviously I am not qualified to teach anyone. Which I figured anyways...I have 30 years of bad habits!
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AMA was great for me about 10 years ago. The in car lessons were just so much better than driving with my mom or dad, and gave me the confidence to nail the road test on the first try.
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Recommend me a driving school for a teenager
