I recently got my license after doing three lessons with Deluxe Driving School and getting some practice driving around my neighbourhood. My experience with Deluxe wasn't absolutely horrible, but I do... Read More
I recently got my license after doing three lessons with Deluxe Driving School and getting some practice driving around my neighbourhood. My experience with Deluxe wasn't absolutely horrible, but I don't think I'd recommend them again. I feel like I actually learnt more while driving with other people and watching YouTube videos of tips for driving tests than during my driving lessons.
My first two lessons were with Alan Wong. His lessons and teaching style were decent, but he assumed a lot of prior knowledge even though I mentioned that I had never driven before. He started our first lesson by getting me to drive down the street towards a major road. I don't think that's the best way to begin someone's very first driving lesson, especially since I had barely any idea what I was doing! My girlfriend was surprised, as her first lesson was in an empty car park. Alan did provide some feedback, but it was pretty vague and he didn't really provide any actionable advice on how to improve my driving skills. Towards the end of both lessons, I felt like he was in a rush to leave.
My final lesson was with Steve Chandler, the weekend before my driving test. He was a much better instructor than Alan, and provided useful tips and advice as well as actionable feedback. I was feeling reasonably confident with my skills at this point, but a bit nervous at the same time. Steve told me that I was going to fail my test, and that I should reschedule. This directly contradicted what Alan told me, which was that I was going well and would have no trouble with the test. I felt like he was judging me whenever I did anything even slightly wrong. An instructor's job is to instill confidence in their pupils, and you don't do that by telling them that they're doing a poor job and are going to fail (unless they're doing extremely poorly, which I was not). Obviously someone just learning to drive isn't going to be 100% perfect all the time, but telling them they're a terrible driver and that they're going to fail the test isn't the right approach to take when trying to help them learn.
I didn't reschedule, and passed on my first attempt with very few minor errors.
I did like that I could book driving lessons through their site. One issue with the site is that it doesn't show available appointment times until you pay for the lessons - You need to call or email to check when their next available appointment is. Once you've paid for lessons, you can book or reschedule them through their website, which is useful. Both instructors arrived when they said they would, and their cars were relatively clean.
If you do go with Deluxe Driving School, I'd recommend getting lessons with Steve Chandler over Alan Wong. You can see the instructor's name when booking lessons online. I'm not sure how good the other instructors are - Perhaps they're better. Otherwise, try Sunnyvale Driving School instead. Read Less