Ali Driving School

Price: $ 120 for a 2-​hour lesson, $ 150 if you go to the driving test with him. He definitely overcharged me. I just called another driving school in San Jose, and they charge only $ 85 for a 2-​hour lesson.
I’ve been driving more than 10 hours with Ali. I’m extremely frustrated with his habit of showing up an hour or two in advance, and expecting you to take the lesson then and there. For example, my first lesson was scheduled at 8am, he called me at 6am to say he’s already here. I thought it was a one time incidence, but boy was I wrong. For the remaining lessons, where the scheduled time was around 5:30 or 6am, he has the audacity to call my phone at 4:30am… On my last lesson with him, scheduled at 5:30am, he called me at 4:57am to ask me to «not be late». REALLY?! This is how I get repaid for being accommodating all this time?
Besides, he cannot use his GPS correctly. He clearly inputed the wrong street number, while insisting that he’s right at my address for twenty minutes… And then, he tells me how tired he is of this incidence.
Now back to his teaching style. Instead of teaching you how to drive correctly, he simply drives for you, and expects you to do it correctly without detailed instruction. Instead, all he does is pointing out the obvious («stop at the stop sign», «green light: push brake and go»).
Bottom line: I don’t understand why I have to pay someone $ 60 an hour to learn driving through experimenting on my own. Not to mention the crazy show up time, and the terrible perfume smell in the car. After 10 hours with him, he dared to prompt me for more lessons with him before the driving test, which he charges $ 150.

Ali is a nice guy but seemed all over the place. During my lessons he would always be talking on the phone, eating, and doing other things. He also always had to make bathroom stops which he included as part of my lesson time. Basically we would drive around the same places and he would only speak up when I did something wrong. This was an ok way of learning except that he didn’t teach me beyond that so I wasn’t too clear on the critical errors and other driving tips that would’ve helped me on the test and driving in general.
On my first lesson with him, I had never driven before at all (I didn’t even know which pedal was gas and which was break), but he suggested that I get onto the freeway. This was pretty fun but also really scary. Not sure if this was good or bad but it was just interesting…
If you only need the lessons to qualify for the driving test, Ali is your guy! If you’re completely inexperienced with driving and actually want to learn to become a good driver, looking elsewhere might be better.

After reading these good reviews, I recommended Ali to my elderly neighbor who needed to pass her driving exam. The first appointment (arranged through Holly) was scheduled to be a 2-​hour practice session in Ali’s car. The car had brakes that screeched and the passenger mirror could not be adjusted. During the two hour session the instructor talked non-​stop, making my neighbor uncomfortable and nervous while she tried to concentrate. The day before the scheduled driving exam at the DMV, my neighbor called Holly to adjust the arrival time at the DMV as instructed – 30 minutes earlier than previously scheduled. Holly yelled at my neighbor, insisting this would require an additional hour charge. Even if the additional charge was justifiable, there’s no excuse for yelling at a paying customer – and an elderly one at that! When the instructor showed up to meet my neighbor at the DMV office – he had a DIFFERENT car than she practiced on – larger and more difficult to handle. My neighbor became very unsettled by the whole experience and failed her test that day. Of course the $ 240 fees had been paid in advance.
These folks may be good for some driving students… but not all. Buyer beware!

I would say Ali is a nice deal for the price (80 $ for 2 hours if I remember correctly).
Notice that I’ve been driving for the last 8 years in Europe, but I just moved to Cal and needed to re-​take the driving exam.
I just needed a brush-​up about the rules like watching the mirrors, following distance, etc.
We practiced in my car and we went to the DMV area where the exams are given, so he showed all the tricky places where it’s easy to loose points.
Ali is a great guy, very nice and kind.
In fact, if I have to find a downside to his style, that would be that he’s actually TOO kind.
I would have accepted someone that firmly tells me when I do something wrong but he appeared almost shy in some occasions.
Overall I’m satisfied and I’ll be happy to recommend Ali.

I recently took driving lessons from here. The lessons were pretty good, the instructor was helpful in pointing out the weaknesses and then made you work around them.
However, he wanted that I go to the driving test in his car, for which he would charge me $ 100. Initially he told me he would make me pratice on the DMV paths as well. When I told him i will be going in my own car, he lost interest in showing me the DMV path and told me DMV is very strict about them using their paths… well hello??? It is not a public road??? I was very put off by this attitude.