Foothill Driving School

My daughter was very nervous. The instructor put her at ease and gave her lots of feedback. She came back feeling more confident!

Updated review- we have TWO successful graduates from Foothill Driving School! James passed with flying colors on his first try at the DMV. Great job Foothill Driving School and thank you again! Best staff, best instructors!

Nice easy to talk to instructors that will fully prepare you to get your license! I would definitely recommend using this!

I had four really good lessons, my instructors were kind and straightforward. They talked me through everything and made me feel comfortable.

We somehow managed to get a DMV drive test appointment for my son earlier than anticipated. Unfortunately, my son still had 2 driving lessons to complete and all instructors were booked solid. The owner offered to meet my son after hours on a Friday night to complete his final driving lesson, enabling my son to get his license on time! Excellent customer service. Thank you Foothill Driving School.

My son took some time learning to drive. The instructors were all so kind and generous with their feedback. They took the time to explain everything to him to make him feel comfortable. They also explained everything to me that they went over and what we needed to practice. My son was very comfortable driving and learning with them. I have 3 more children who will be learning to drive in the next few years, and I will be using Foothill Driving School for sure.

Both of my daughters got instruction from Foothill Driving School. We couldn't have been happier with their experiences. Each instructor that worked with them was both thorough and patient. My younger daughter is testing for her license next week (miraculously got a DMV appointment) and the driving school was able to promptly schedule her for her last lesson within the time parameters.

We have two sons that have been through the great driving school of Foothill. Our oldest made it through without a glitch and passed his DMV test with ease. We enrolled our youngest and he has been through several different lessons and loves it. He will be ready for his DMV driving test no doubt! We have recommended Foothill to several of our friends and will do so in the future. Love the people and instructors at Foothill.

Dave & Team were great (even despite the Covid disruption) in getting my teen ready for the big test! Happy to support a great local business

Paid nearly $500 in advance for 6 lessons, including accident avoidance and downtown driving. And then scheduling appointments was an absolute nightmare! My son missed 2 days of school to fit in lessons, and his last two lessons were crammed into 5 days before his driving test. No accident avoidance, no downtown driving. AND We had a different instructor almost every single time! After having one kid go through Driving Professors and the other go through Foothill, we will use Driving Professors, every single time. Avoid this nightmare!

My son had an amazing experience with Foothill! The instructors were all patient, kind and knowledgeable! They worked around my son's extremely busy schedule. Everyone was wonderful to work with. I won't hesitate to refer all our friends there. Simply the best! Thank you Foothill!

Paid for a comprehensive package for my 22 year old son who needed his license right away. Unfortunately you can not see the schedule availability until after you have paid and created an account. When we saw there wasn't availability I requested a refund and was refused and scheduled 2 appointments in a span of just over 6 weeks. The website states free pickup from school or home. Denied home pick up each time so I had to take time off work to get my son to the school in Folsom.

My son's drivers test is the 22nd and they have not had availability for his lessons since the January 7th with no availability in sight and no actual prep for his drivers test. Sorely disappointing and out a lot of money.

I would have given it full 5 starts if it wasn't the experience I had today, on my behind the wheel test day. I had an 8am to 10am class scheduled for one hour practice and 9am appointment at DMV. Nobody showed up till 8.30am. Their phone always goes to machine, so there was no way I could reach the instructor. Some other instructor showed up for other lesson, who tried helping me, but he also got voicemails of all others.

Eventually the other instructor helped me get to the DMV at least. The day has passed and yet nobody even called to apologize for this mess. They charged me for a 2hr class, and I just made it to the DMV exam in that last one hour. In general the instructors are very helpful and friendly. But forgetting your appointment on the day of the DMV test is THE WORST thing you can do to a driving school student!

The staff at Foothill Driving School is so patient and explains everything perfectly for new drivers! It takes a lot of the fear out of being behind the wheel for the first time for young drivers! Good job and thanks, FDS!

My son had an 8:40 appointment. He called me at 8:30, upset, to tell me he forgot his wallet and permit in his friend's car. Rod Stoddard, his instructor, showed up at the house and drove my son to get his permit so he could still keep his appointment. Then, since I had called to see how things were going, allowed him to pull over and call me back to let me know everything was ok. My daughter went through this school two years ago, and now my son. I highly recommend them. Thank you, Rod!

It's a very good driving school, would recommend to other new drivers.

Best service award! My son, 19, not quite a seasoned driver. He still was driving with a permit. Helping only with the short drive school pick ups or fast food runs. He was scheduled for his DMV test at 3:20p, I called Foothill Driving School at 9am in the morning checking for a same day appointment, I realize it doesn't always happen this way but they had a cancellation and I was able to get him in at 1:10p for a 90min session.

Long story short, He passed his drivers test! First try. My son was prepared and ready. He wasn't nervous, went in confident and he said he knew what to expect. Everything discussed in the session was what happened in his test. From checking headlights and turning his blinkers on to backing in a straight line and using similar routes! Not a wasted investment or time.

Special thank you to the trainer at Foothill who drove with Jonah before his test! Sometimes kids don't want to listen to their parents, I'm glad you were there and he listened to you! Five plus stars! This is such an important milestone! Would refer 1000 people over and over!

Great driving school and awesome instructors! I got Dave, Ron, and Bruce as my instructors. They keep track of what you learned and evaluate your performance. They have a well planned process to teach you how to drive. I pass the driving test and feel much more comfortable driving.

The instructors are so patient & professional! They explained everything calm, clearly that I could understand it immediately! I was so insecure when I first started but after 4 lesson with foothill, I learn to be comfortable & confident in my driving! Even the reception lady was so nice to me even though I was a pain. I strongly recommend Foothill Driving School! They are awesome!

Foothills Driving School is fantastic! My second child to go through this school just passed his driving test with 100%. The school has been so accommodating. They fit my son in for his final behind the wheel lesson just before his DMV driving test. I have been so happy with this school! Everything was easy! Drivers were professional and made my son feel comfortable. Thank you so much!

Great company, with excellent instructors. My daughter was nervous about driving, but her instructor put her at ease and gave her the confidences she needed. She passed her driving exam with a perfect score. We will be using Foothill again when our next reaches driving age.

Terrific school. Dave and staff were all very patient and friendly. I love that they give a dmv test drive on the last lesson. It helped my sixteen year old feel confident on her test. She passed! My chauffeuring days are over. Thanks to everyone at Foothills Driving!

The only stick shift driving school for miles around (I made the drive out from Stockton!). Setting an appointment had to be done over the phone by leaving a message because stick shift classes aren't handled through their online website. Setting up a 1.5 hour standard lesson was a breeze and they even fit me into their schedule at the end of the week.

I had my lesson with Dave in an older Toyota truck and while I can't claim to be professional after our class, I definitely feel 100% comfortable with driving a manual car now. I tried having a friend teach me in college and let's just say that we didn't even make it out of the parking lot. Dave is incredibly patient and has a route in the parking lot that will ease you into learning how to utilize the clutch.

After a few laps around, he was confident enough to let me take it out into the street and his patience and positive attitude continued to benefit me as I began to feel more and more comfortable learning to drive the car. 1.5 hours really does fly by but you get practice in real world driving conditions by shifting through gears, reversing, parking, and uphill/downhill starts.

I don't think anything was really left out and I definitely left a satisfied customer. Highly recommended! - Going into the class with a blank slate would probably benefit you the most. I watched too many youtube videos to prepare myself, but I think this just interrupted the lesson. Trust Dave and just go with the flow. You won't be referencing what you "think" you learned from an online video and things will go much smoother.

Instructor made a personal trip to run a personal errand during lesson. I complained to front office staff and they seemed fine with instructor behavior, I was shocked. I would not recommend this buiness.

They didn't fail me at all I learned a lot from my first session from Dave, my second session is from Johnny and literally he told me everything I need to know too bad he's not there anymore but I was really comfortable when he was teaching me. As of today I just took my driving test with Bruce and I passed the test with 3 minor errors which is the dmv instructor told me I did great and those are just really minor ones nothing to worry about. Thank you foothill from scheduling, payment, teaching, and patience you guys did great I got my license now!.

Our experience has been great as far as the instructors and the time behind the wheel. What *isn't* great is their scheduling system. I went online at the beginning of the month, to schedule a time for my son to have a class, and there wasn't one single time available for the next 8 weeks at a time he wasn't in school. I called and emailed the school about this, but they never responded.

Finally I stopped in, and the person there was able to set up another lesson, so at least we were able to get the sessions we paid for without waiting another couple of months, but beware of how hard it is to schedule driving times during the school year. It's too bad about this issue, because otherwise this is a first-rate company with knowledgeable, helpful driving instructors.

I took a 2 hr stick-shift driving lesson with Dave last month and he was such an awesome instructor. My husband and I had recently purchased a stick-shift sport car and I had never driven a manual transmission before (of course, I didn't want my husband to have all the fun driving it while I was left out so I was determined to learn). My husband had taught me the basics on how to drive it, but we were limited to practicing in an empty parking lot because I was inconsistent in my ability to get into first gear without stalling.

And since we didn't want to burn out the transmission of our car, my husband signed me up for a lesson with Foothill. The initial practice I had on our car definitely helped, but Dave has an amazing teaching skill that makes you really feel at ease. I know that trying to teach someone how to drive a manual transmission can be pretty frustrating, but Dave was his calm, laid back and patient self the entire lesson.

By the end of the 2 hour lesson, I was driving in traffic, on the freeway, up and down hills and parking in crowded parking lots. Without stalling :) Thanks for the great lesson, Dave!

Not very punctual. They missed an appointment and never bothered to even inform us about it. we just kept waiting in front of their closed office for 1 hour and no one showed up! Update: 07/29/2014 After calling like 100 times, finally a lady picked the call at the foothill driving school office. She was so rude and was not even sorry for their mistake.

Since I had not used any of their service, I asked for full refund. But they say they dont refund according to their policy! And she suggested that I either have to use their service (after all these) or go to another service provider, but no refunds! PLEASE DONT USE THIS DRIVING SCHOOL. There are other better service providers around this area. please research. BTW. There are lot of 1 star comments below (Yelp has hidden it). Please go through it before making you decision to use this school.

We had trouble accessing the online line course. When you call the office it goes straight to a recording. To date I have left three messages and no one has called me back! Their customer service is horrible!

Signed up online for DMV drivers package (not pay as you go). Registration was easy, efficient. Reserving classes via their website was easy, filters were useful and worked great. Bart is my child's instructor. Feedback was good and accurate after the first lesson. He is slightly void of a sense of humor, but he clearly was taking his job seriously. Would definitely choose this driving school again.

Just back from the DMV with my licence :) :) Pretty sure nerves would've gotten the better of me if the owner, Dave, had not accompanied me to the DMV - didn't have to think about anything but the test (took my test in the school's car, so everything was in perfect order)- the pre-test practice run helped a lot! Thank you Dave! :) Would definitely recommend this school to my friends - they're very professional and the entire experience has been very pleasant!

I could not feel more comfortable having my daughter learn to drive with Foothill. They do their best to work around our crazy schedule and are very professional and nice. We have two more kids that will be driving in a few years and I would highly recommend this driving school.