Southbury Driving Academy/ Driver’s Ed Program, Waterbury | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I took 12 hours of driving lessons with this school, but I took my driving test with a different driving school. I passed my driving test, and I believe that I was able to accomplish this because of all of the help that I received from the driving instructors. While I’m grateful for their help in preparing me for my test, I have to give this business a three star review. With the exception of two specific instructors, the driving instructors are not at all on the same page about how to drive. There were a multitude of occasions where I received conflicting information about driving and the laws of the road, and had to resort to using Google and YouTube to piece it all together. One instructor literally told me that you don’t need to use your turn signals when reverse parking after you’ve pulled over to the side of the road. That statement (and many others) were in DIRECT conflict with everything that I’ve ever been taught about driving. In addition to the inconsistencies between the instructors, this business is very disorganized. They attempted to schedule me at any time despite me repeatedly explaining my available hours, and they even rescheduled one of my driving lessons without telling me. On a positive note, they were quite flexible when it came to rescheduling lessons that they had scheduled improperly, as well a lesson that I had to cancel.

Lastly, the owner of this driving school had an unfortunate habit of touching and tapping my arm whenever he was talking. At first, it was a mild annoyance, until one day, he suddenly and forcefully grabbed my wrist and squeezed it very tightly. When I tried to pull my arm from his grip, he proceeded to dig his thumb and his fingernails into my skin. Luckily, this all happened while the car was in park, so I was eventually able to rip my arm from his grasp. I do not believe that he intended to harm me, but there is no reason that he should’ve been touching me to begin with.

This review is to express our appreciation for the TERRIFIC EXPERIENCE our 16 year old (at that time) son had at the Southbury Driving Academy / Waterbury Driver’s Education Program in early 2022. His use of your off site testing option enabled him to get to school after the test and maintain his attendance record of no absences for his 2 years at High school. The fantastic service level during his license attainment process was consistent with the positive learning environment of our eldest son (approximately 6 years ago).
We also wanted to acknowledge your successful efforts to adhere to the DMV requirements. We found the registration, classes and road training processes efficient and convenient. Both our older sons were well prepared to be competent and safe drivers. We look forward to working with you and your organization to navigate the DMV driver license process for our youngest son (16 years old).
Thank you!

This school is just out for the money. Look for another school. They charge $25 to reprint a paper that takes two seconds. They also made my son run around town to find a printer just to complete their form and bring it back to them so they can give him the certificate of completion. We could have paid them $1 to print it but instead we had to use gas going across town to staples just to return for them to give him the certificate. He had already paid for the course. It’s just ridiculous and if I were you I would look elsewhere.