Driving School recommendations?

[aaronck]

My daughter is turning 16 soon, and is finally interested in getting her license- Has anyone had any recent experiences with driving schools? We're in Haysboro in the SW if that makes any difference- TIA

[Titan]

We were happy with AMA

[Tyler]

Seconding AMA

[ken0042]

Another vote for AMA. My wife picked a driving school for herself based on price, and I don't think they did a good job. She had to do extra lessons to get a few important things. When it came time for my son we used AMA. A little more money, but much higher quality.

[DoubleF]

AMA.

Wife tried two other driving schools, didn't really teach. Just chatted and drove around with you. It was a complete waste of money.

AMA actually teaches you what is a good habit and what is a bad habit and will spend the time to tear down bad habits and rebuild good habits in its place. Those other driving schools are passable if you just need practice, but if you go through AMA for an in class and in car package, I think they give a heavy discount if you need more time to just drive around with an instructor anyways. My wife says she learned more in 2-3 sessions with AMA than the full package at two driving schools (one was bought out by another driving school part way through).

[prarieboy]

We used AMA for my son and he passed the first time with only one minor deduction from his score. His instructor specifically waited for there to be snow on the ground so he could get some experience in it. Had him driving all over town.

Highly recommend them.

[Wormius]

I presume everybody who has referred their spouse/child to a driving school had the previous experience of trying to teach somebody they cared about how to drive and it almost destroyed that relationship. I never plan on teaching anybody how to drive again either.



Anyway, so AMA is the gold standard in Calgary, or are there any other good ones?

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I presume everybody who has referred their spouse/child to a driving school had the previous experience of trying to teach somebody they cared about how to drive and it almost destroyed that relationship. I never plan on teaching anybody how to drive again either

I thought I was a patient person. Trying to teach my Vietnamese wife to drive, who had never driven anything larger than a scooter before moving to Canada, showed me I was wrong. I have also never done the "grip the Oh-Sh@t-Handle and press the imaginary brake" move before in any vehicle until I was a passenger with her. She ended up getting lessons from some Vietnamese driving school in Calgary that managed to get her to pass the test first try, and I don't fear for my life whenever she's driving now, so they must do good work

[Table 5]

One other thing with AMA is they can also teach stick, which is not that easy to find these days.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I presume everybody who has referred their spouse/child to a driving school had the previous experience of trying to teach somebody they cared about how to drive and it almost destroyed that relationship.

Having taught a few people to drive, I have found that you need to be in a position of authority for it to work. No problems giving my son some lessons, same with nephews in the past. But friends or girlfriends/wife- don't do it.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Having taught a few people to drive, I have found that you need to be in a position of authority for it to work. No problems giving my son some lessons, same with nephews in the past. But friends or girlfriends/wife- don't do it.

Agreed. For those that listen, I start them off with parking for 30-45 minutes, residential areas for 15-20 minutes, then a whopping 60-70 kmph road for 5-10 minutes before returning home (generally 15-20 minutes via residential areas).

I was taught this way by a former AMA instructor who went independent and was working with other instructors to shut down shoddy driving schools. She often taught things that other instructors (including AMA) didn't teach (ie: parking lot parking including backing into a spot) and I know at least one other CP member had been taught by her. She is retired now, but if she wasn't I would have recommended many people to her.

Those that have the mentality that they know how better for them to learn than what you're teaching... I just told them to go pay for a driving instructor and I wasn't going to teach them.