My 16 y/o son wanted to enroll as a student for Behind the wheel lessons at 4Lakes. He had talked to friends at his High School who had successfully completed the 4Lakes training and received their Wisconsin Drivers License. I watched my son gain confidence and skill at the conclusion of each driving lesson hour! The State DMV requires 50 hours of practice driving with a licensed Adult. The first 5 hours with my son were difficult as we drove slowly in our neighborhood. He began his hourly 4Lakes Driving School lessons and the growth in his ability to control the car was amazing to see! I no longer feared going on his practice driving times! My son benefited because I didn't feel the need to admonish or caution him to pay attention to his car control. I would like to thank the staff at 4Lakes as my son developed into an attentive, skillful and safe licensed driver! Cristian, JP and Chris were especially helpful, calm and understanding teachers. These guys know how to train a teenager to drive well!! Many Thanks!!! read more

I guess when there are not many other options available, they might look pretty good, but the best rotten apple is still rotten.... Very difficult to get 6 driving lessons scheduled in 6 months. Several price discrepancies- beginning with contract and website, as well as late cancellation fees... What part of my fee do I get to recover when my son has had 2 appointments cancelled on him with short notice? His 16th Birthday is in 3 weeks and he has only been able to complete 2 lessons! When I say I want my money back because I want to switch providers, their response is: good luck- all of the other providers have a 6 month wait time.... I guess this is 4 Lakes way of validating their poor customer service. *Specifically directed towards the University Avenue Location read more

It is extraordinarily difficult to schedule driving lessons with them -- and since you have to pay up front, you're left feeling like they took the money but don't provide the services you paid for. Supposedly there is an online system for scheduling lessons but few slots are available. They don't answer their phone. Sometimes the driving instructor simply doesn't show up and there is no way to figure out what happened. This is especially aggravating when you had to drive across town to meet them and they simply ghost you. They're bad. Go elsewhere if you can. read more

Very hard to schedule driving lessons. Called multiple times, they do not return calls. We have a credit on the system, asked for a refund and told no refunds, but can't schedule drive time either. read more

David is excellent ! He did a wonderful job teaching my very nervous niece how to drive! I attempted to teach her early on, and I could not believe how well she learned how! Everyone was really nice at 4 lakes and accommodating. Going out of their way to help. David even went out of his way on his day off to help my niece also. I would highly recommend read more

Stop standing up my daughter. Every one of her lessons has started late except 2 - one started on time. One was 30 minutes early. By late, I mean 15-20 minutes late. This doesn't count the 2 on Saturday afternoons where the driver simply never showed up. You stress your no-show policy and how we will be charged if you come to pick her up and she's not home. But there's no recourse when we sit around all afternoon in case the driver is just late again or maybe not showing up at all. Also, there's no one to call when it happens on the weekends. We just have to sit and hope. When the lessons happen, they're what we expect. I would really appreciate a better regard for our time. read more

We have been please with the quality of instruction. All sessions have started and ended on time. Our real problem has been scheduling. They are clearly short on instructors or have taken on more students than they can handle. Typically, the online schilling system has only a couple of open slots in a 3 month period (and those are usually during the school day and/or the other side of town). Unless something changes, my son will likely not be able to get all of his sessions in before he is eligible to take his test. read more

I chose 4lakes because of good reviews I find about them online but...I'm not impressed with the service. I signed up for four 1.5 hours package. My first lesson, the instructor was late 15 minutes. She did make it up by letting me drive around for a few more minutes after the time was up but that was mostly due to traffic conditions than her awareness of owing me the 15 minutes she was late for. What's more outrageous was that while she was driving around to explain some road rules to me, she was texting on her phone! Isn't it the first rule not to text while you drive? When I eventually got to get BTW, she was again distracted texting on her phone instead of watching me drive and correcting me during teachable moments. My second class wasn't any better than my first one. The instructor called David showed up at my house visibly irritated - he rolled his eyes at me as soon as I sat down in the car! Maybe he had a rough start to his day? He then continued to be passive aggressive with me during the lesson. For example: he would tell me what to do DURING turns (instead of BEFORE) and would expect me to carry out all the steps correctly on my first try. Given the pressure of being on the road with busy traffic, it was hard for a new driver like me to follow the steps accurately on my first few tries. The problem was, if I fail to execute something correctly during a turn, he would snort mockingly at me instead of encouraging me to try again at a different turn. Other times, he mixed up the snorting by irritably repeating the thing I failed to do (such as yelling "just slow down, don't stop" times 10). I spent my hour and half instruction being scared of getting yelled at by this instructor. This is not the kind of service I expect from a driver training school whose individual lessons average out to ~$95 per lesson. I would suggest 4lakes do a better job of reviewing their instructors - otherwise, they can't expect to stay in business for long. I won't be recommending this business to friends and family. read more

This is the best driving school in Madison. They have a great staff and someone always in the office to help. No wonder they have been in business for over 50 years!!! Keep it going 4lakes! !! read more

The business office is a s@#t show. Our experience with instructors has been great. However, having had two teens go through the program - I would NOT recommend. The business office is unreliable, unprofessional And disorganized. I have two more kids who will need to learn to drive and I will not be using 4 lakes. read more