These guys are great, but I really wanted to write a more detailed review to explain why, so if you…read moreare serious about researching a driving school, I would recommend you read the full review.
My son just turned 16, took his written driver's test in school and wanted to get his permit and take driving instructions. I am a relentless researcher, and researched all the driving schools servicing my area. A number of the schools told me the same thing about their procedure for getting my son's permit: I have to give them custody of my son's birth certificate for several weeks and fill out a green registration card; they will either go into DMV without my son or will mail in the items, after which the permit is issued and we can begin lessons. I asked each of them whether they can, instead, take my son into the DMV to get his permit. Both said, no way, that's not how it works. Given that the green registration card contains my son's full name, DOB, SSN, height, weight, eye color and address, and the birth certificate contains my own full name (including maiden name), date of birth, his father's full name and date of birth, and the place where my son was born, I was concerned that handing this over to someone else's custody was not a great idea in this day and age of identity theft. I got a referral from a friend, who said that their driving school will take the child in to DMV to get the permit.
I called them and, although they said that they would do that, I did not feel great confidence in their judgment regarding certain other issues and decided not to go with them.
I found New Life because it had some good reviews and, although I believe also saw someone complaining about one of the employees in a review, I decided to give them a call. They were great right from the beginning and all the way through the end. I initially dealt with the owner, Paul, who told me that he was willing to me myself and my son at the DMV to get his permit for a small additional fee. I had no problem with this because it is extra time he took out of his schedule to stand in line with us. When we got to DMV, he was already there and on line, and when DMV opened, we breezed right in.
We then went back to their offices, where Paul administered the eye test. He took my contact information and set us up with Al - the instructor who services my town. Although it took Al a few weeks to get to us, this is apparently because he was busy with others. I waited my turn and we were able to schedule my son's lessons for President's week, which worked out really well.
I don't know how other schools are with this, but Al was great. He drove up, got out of the car and came to the door to meet me as well as my son, so that I could know who my son was getting into a car with. He told me what they were going to work on (which I basically already knew from my initial conversations with Paul). My son then went with him and they "did their thing." I saw that he spent some time at the outset teaching my son where things are in the car and how to set his seat and mirrors. They then took off. When they came back, Al got out again to let me know how my son did, and to confirm the next lesson (which had already been pre-arranged). I asked my son about the lesson and found out more detail. He told me Al was great - he was encouraging, but told him when he was doing something wrong and answered his questions as they went along.
The second lesson went much the same. Before they went, Al told me that they were going to be doing some highway driving. For the third lesson, he did the same, and told me that they were going to be practicing what they learned and doing some parking.
My son told me that Al was a pleasure and felt good about the lessons. Their cars are in great condition and I had no safety concerns.
Although the school would have gone to DMV for us to validate the permit if we wanted, I preferred to do it myself. They gave us great instruction about where to go, and when I left questions for Paul, Ruth from the office got back to me immediately. In fact, even though I wrote another email to Paul telling him that Ruth got back to me, he got back to me a little while later anyway, and gave me more helpful information I did not even know to ask.
I would highly recommend this driving school.
