Excel Driving School

Fantastic experience: I got my permit here and when I took my driving hours I was first nervous but my instructor Ivan taught me well and how to be a defensive driver and is he is one of the coolest people I’ve meet. Definitely recommend this driving school they teach you well.

Fantastic experience: Teachers were great and very accessible. Very positive experience for my family.

Fantastic experience: We had a great experience with Excel. Scheduling drives and observation was easy. I woud recommend Excel.

Fantastic experience: We've used Excel Driving School for both my kids. My kids were confident and ready to drive, thanks to the preparation from all the instructors. Mr. Bill is a great guy, keeps the kids engaged and ensures kids are on track with the course requirements. Gustavo, the BTW instructor, in my son's word "was chill". My son gets super anxious and nervous; Gus put him at ease and made him feel comfortable. He never once felt any fear behind the wheel. Recommend 10/10

Positive experience: I would like to appreciate the Excel Driving school for my experience with them. Ray from the North Naperville location took extra time and effort to explain the packages and helped us navigate what was necessary for my daughter and also helped us find a female instructor as per our comfort. This brings me to give Kiran Haq (from the South Naperville location) a special shout out for ensuring that my daughter became a strong and safe driver. We had good days and bad days but Kiran didn't leave our side as she guided her with various techniques to perfect her driving skills and also guided us as parents on how to support our student driver. Thank you !!!

Negative experience: My experience with Excel Driving School. I registered my child for 10 driving classes. When I created the schedule, I asked for the 10:00 a.m. time if possible for all classes. The receptionist said that the first 5 classes were available at that time and then we would make the schedule for the remaining 5. On the first day of class, we were ready for class when the driving instructor contacted me and told me that there was a cancellation and asked if I wanted to go early. I told him no. Then when 9am came around, he sent me another text telling me that my class is at 9 a.m., not 10 a.m. and that they would not return my money because I didn't show up on time. I wanted to check the website to have proof that my time was at 10 a.m. and their website didn't even work. I told the instructor by text and he just replied that he doesn't know when the website is going to work. I had to call the next day because the first class was on the 4th of July and the Excel Driving school office was closed. The receptionist acknowledged the confusion and rescheduled his first class. We finally went to his class and the instructor was on the phone the entire time while my son drove. I told my son that if it happens again that the instructor is on the phone, instead of paying attention we would report her. The next class, the instructor never showed up, she never replied to my texts and I called the Excel school to make the report. We wasted 1 hour waiting for her and the school contacted me until the next day to give me another date. At that moment I canceled the classes and asked for a refund of 9 classes, since my son only took one class. They agreed and after 6 days they returned only the money for 8 classes. I contacted the school and they lied saying that my son had 2 classes. The school knows that his instructor did not make it to the second class. I have a text from the instructor who texted me 2 hours later the day she didn't arrive to class, apologizing because something had come up. I am upset because the school charged in advance and I do not want to return the full money for the classes my son did not take.

Fantastic experience: Great communication and instruction.

Fantastic experience: We had a great experience here. Easy to schedule drives and very accommodating.

Fantastic experience: We had a great experience with Excel. From the class to scheduling drives and completing the road test everything was efficient. Mark was very thorough and helpful in explaining the road test process and cares about making sure kids are prepared before driving on their own.

Fantastic experience: I’m not sure why I picked this school when there was one closer to me but I’m so glad I did. They didn’t disappoint me at all. Very professional and flawless process. Sending praises to the office team and driving team. Gustavo & Tiera from Western Springs to Mark from Wheaton location, to Samantha in the office. I can’t forget Mr. Bill the classroom instructor. Please don’t waste your time with any other school. I’ve personally seen the horror stories with close friends and family. Trust me Excel is the only choice.

Fantastic experience: Worth the money, the instructors Bill & Gus are amazing! Answered all of my questions and helped my son with everything.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic program options and staff flexibility. Coleen has been amazing! Thank you

Fantastic experience: Great experience for both myself and my son. He liked his teachers and the staff made the whole process very easy.

Fantastic experience: We are extremely happy with the driving program at Excel. Everyone was really nice and the driving instructor was great!

Fantastic experience: We had a wonderful experience. My daughter was nervous at the idea of driving with an instructor. We had Kiran Haq, at the Naperville South center. She was fantastic! She put my daughter at ease. Kiran provided great instruction and was patient with my daughter. We also did the driving test with Kiran at Excel, which made our process much easier.

Fantastic experience: Highly recommend Excel! My daughter's driving teacher was Gus and he was a great instructor and she took her drivers test with Mark, and he was great too!

Fantastic experience: From the beginning to the end the instructors were on time for classes and behind the wheel appointments. Website is easy to use and the questions we had were answered promptly. We definitely recommend Excel !

Fantastic experience: we had great time getting trained , especially with our amazing behind the wheel instructor Kiran. I would highly recommend this school

Fantastic experience: Great service, nice people and fantastic guidance throughout the classroom and behind the wheel lessons!!!

Fantastic experience: Best one

Fantastic experience: We have put three of our children through Excel Driving School, and have always had wonderful experiences. My daughter had some anxiety about driving, but Ms. Nikki really helped to ease her anxiety and made her feel safe and comfortable. I was amazed at the level of confidence she had gained after just one drive with her. We highly recommend Excel to anyone looking for a driving school for their teens!

Fantastic experience: My son had a very knowledgeable instructor who was available with several times/dates to choose from. Great experience overall!

Fantastic experience: We love Excel!! Our son had such a great experience and learned so much from Amanda Santiago! She was calm and cool with him from day one. We cannot say enough great things about Amanda and Excel.

Fantastic experience: Excel did a great job preparing my daughter for the road test.

Fantastic experience: great instructor, could not have asked for any more

Fantastic experience: My daughter loved her instructor. Getting set up with drives was easy and the customer service when I called was great. A+ experience. This was a breath of fresh air to the abismal experience at Be a responsible driver in Hinsdale. I highly recommend Excel

Fantastic experience: My kids’ instructor, Marty, was great. He’s very patient and they really liked him. He really worked with us and their busy schedule.

Fantastic experience: My daughter learned so much to help her be a good driver. The classes were convenient and filled with important information. Gus and the other staff were great. It is helpful that students can now take the driving test at Excel.

Fantastic experience: Excellent experience, from start to end. Highly recommended.

Fantastic experience: Our daughter felt totally prepared for the road test thanks to all the hard work or Miss Kim and her driving instructor Miss Amanda. Could not be happier with everything.

Fantastic experience: Gustavo is the best excel instructor would highly recommend.

Fantastic experience: Had a wonderful experience here. Also, loved my daughters driving instructor James, he was great with her and is really good with that age, makes it fun and enjoyable for the kids. She learned a lot from him.

Fantastic experience: Friendly, helpful instructors, schedulers and easy-to-use website

Fantastic experience: When your child starts to drive, it can be an extremely nerve-wracking experience. Thanks to the experienced staff at Excel, our family coasted through this time in our lives with nary a care. I'd like to specifically mention my son's behind the wheel teacher, Mr. Tim. He was not only seen as "chill" in my son's eyes, but he was also VERY willing to talk to me about any questions I had. Overall, an excellent experience!!!!

Fantastic experience: My daughter had a great experience overall. Thank you to your staff, and kudos to her drive along instructor Chris.

Fantastic experience: A wonderful driving school. Everything went smoothly. My sons teachers were great and very informative. The drivers ed instructor was exceptional, always polite, worked with our schedule, always answered my questions and my son enjoyed his lessons. We are very glad we choose Excel as an option for our son driving school.

Fantastic experience: Really great option for driving school. The instructors are down to earth and my son really enjoyed them.

Positive experience: My son's classroom experience was straightforward and quick. Although we experienced some hiccups with communication/scheduling our drive times, once we connected with the correct employee all of our drive times were scheduled in a timely fashion. Gustavo was a great behind the wheel mentor!!

Fantastic experience: I recently had the privilege of attending Excel Driving School for my driver's education, and I can confidently say that it was an outstanding experience from start to finish. From the knowledgeable instructors to the well-structured curriculum, everything about this driving school exceeded my expectations.

Fantastic experience: The whole process was easy and smooth. My son had the most amazing driving teacher, Mr. Steve. He had a blast. Definitely an awesome experience

Fantastic experience: Very organized and stringent on the schedule...Prices are very competitive and their classes are convenient to the kids schedules. Three more kids to go at excel!

Fantastic experience: Great service. Good school.

Fantastic experience: Mark D. Was my son’s instructor and he was great to work with!

Fantastic experience: My daughter had a very pleasant, and informative, confidence boosting experience with her lessons. Tim is very kind and patient instructor.

Fantastic experience: Well organized and very easy to schedule when you want

Fantastic experience: 2 of my kids have gone here. I am happy with the experience. Mark makes every effort to get driving hours in — even with busy teen schedules.

Fantastic experience: Marty was awesome with my boys during the Behind the Wheel portion of the program. He was great with scheduling times for my boys and great with picking them up or dropping them off. Great experience and he taught them so much!

Fantastic experience: I don't write many reviews, but Excel deserves my 5 star review. Our son was nearly done with his driver's ed through another company when it went belly up. We worried we would have to repeat the whole thing, so we contacted many other companies. Excel was the only one to inform us we could contact the state and perhaps get credit for work completed and even a refund. They told us who to contact and what to do. And it worked. Sadly Excel was a bit far for us to drive, so we reached out to at least 6 other companies again to try and complete the few hours behind the wheel we needed. Other companies were far less knowledgeable and helpful than Excel. In the end we came back to Excel, and I'm so glad we did. From start to finish they were fabulous. I highly recommend them to anyone.

Fantastic experience: The staff is really easy to work with. Excel goes above and beyond to make sure the kids are prepared!

Fantastic experience: I did 7 drives with Gus and he was great. Really nice guy, who taught me well.

Fantastic experience: Gustavo was my driving instructor at the Western Springs and he was great!! It was very easy to schedule drives and observations and cancel if needed.

Fantastic experience: Classes went by fairly quickly, but Mr.Bill really helped to make it more fun and less boring.

Negative experience: STAY AWAY!! Classroom instruction was fine, no issues there. But scheduling the Behind the Wheel and Observation instruction is a frustrating, inefficient mess. We were told we could book online, nope online scheduling is not available, had to call instructor to schedule, she never answered, left message. Driver finally texted telling us to call her “schedule coordinator” who hasn’t responded back (update: it's been 3 weeks, texted again, still no response, I'm not sure one even exists). We paid over $500 and this is unacceptable. Why only one Behind the Wheel driver with literally hundreds of kids vying for appointments? Such bad business! I called the WS location, sat on hold only to be redirected to a pre-recorded message asking for me to leave a message. States someone will call back within 24 hours. I'm guessing that won't happen either. Apparently if you go through your high school it's much better, without these issues. But why punish those with kids whose birthdays don't fall within the school year? Those who pay a TON of money out of pocket? Excel...get your act together!

Negative experience: Don't wanna help with getting drivers license.

Negative experience: The classroom portion was fine, my son said it was boring, but I felt it covered what it needed to. I was not at all impressed with his Behind the Wheel instructor. The woman was at least 5-10 min late to meet us at the driving school and always seems to be dropping him off 5 minutes early. She also never took him on the highway for the highway driving lesson, and when I asked her about it she claimed he my son didn't say anyting about it. Well I expect the instructor to know what the student has to work on.

Fantastic experience: My son just finished his drivers ed at Excel. We were so pleased with the experience. Everyone we worked with was so helpful. Anyone who answered the phone, the classroom instructor and the behind the wheel instructor, Colleen went above and beyond. We will be sending our two other children to excel when the time comes.

Fantastic experience: Excel Driving School was an excellent choice for my wallet and for my son. They have a variety of class packages to fit any budget, as well as several locations and time schedules to meet the schedule of the most busiest of teenagers. I found the class instructors, and customer service to be courteous, friendly and knowledgeable making the learning process for student and parent easy to understand. Mike Droba the driving instructor and was always available to answer questions via text and easy to schedule with; he was patient and made my son feel quite confident while driving. Furthermore, their website is simple and easy to navigate. Overall, this school met my budget needs and provided my son with a great Drivers Ed learning experience.

Fantastic experience: Awesome teachers

Fantastic experience: Highly recommend Excel Driving School. They have lots of class options and easy to schedule drives. Great experience. Worth the investment.

Fantastic experience: Jim Churms is an awesome instructor. He taught both of my girls to drive. Thanks Jim. Everyone reading this I would recommend him to teach your kids how to drive!!!!

Fantastic experience: Excel was great! My son had Colleen for his driving sessions. She was terrific! Very patient and great at explaining everything he needed to know while driving. She's a great instructor! Highly recommended!

Fantastic experience: The whole process was easy and staff was very communicative. My kids drove with Jimmy and he was great! Scheduling behind the wheel time was a breeze, even with twins going back-to-back.

Fantastic experience: My son had a good experience. The instructor was great. She was very friendly. The office was responsive and returned all calls. The person responsible for the scheduling driving classes was very professional. I would like to advice, though, to plan driving lessons ahead of time. My son had to wait for about 3-4 weeks before his driving lessons.

Fantastic experience: Both of my sons got their driver's license thanks to the training from Excel. They enjoyed their time with their instructors.

Fantastic experience: This was the second child I used this school for. My second child experience was completely during the pandemic and it was just as good. They were easy to work with, quick to pivot, and Miss Lori was an excellent driving instructor who had an easy texting procedure with the kids to schedule drives. I send everyone to Excel.

Fantastic experience: Love taking this class, it prepared me well for my drivers permit test and I have learned a lot so far

Fantastic experience: The first of our five kids just completed the driving course at Excel. Even with the limitations due to Covid, the online classes and the in-person driving experiences prepared our son to pass the driving test on his first attempt. More importantly, he learned to respect the privilege of driving and the rules of community transportation. Kudos to Mark for being a patient and encouraging instructor!

Fantastic experience: We are from oak park river forest area. When all the craziness started my daughter doing drivers ed this summer was cancelled. Found excel online and ray the owner was beyond helpful. Local driving schools here were ok but this place is top notch. They are opening one in oak park too. So definitely go sign up and know your kids are in good hand.

Fantastic experience: EXCEL did a great job getting behind-the-wheels done during a pandemic--they were responsive, flexible and did everything they could to get my daughter's drives in over the summer. My daughter drove with Mark, who was strict but taught her everything she needed to know to pass her driving test. We were very happy with the classroom work, too, and the overall experience. Thanks, Excel!

Fantastic experience: My two kids (son and daughter) loved their instructors; and we felt this was a five star company and experience.

Fantastic experience: Excel is a great driving school & Bill Kokontis is the best instructor e-v-e-r!! I would not send my children anywhere else.

Fantastic experience: Our son liked the instructors. Easy to schedule the behind the wheel. Worked well with our schedules.

Fantastic experience: Good program, easy website to navigate as you set up behind the wheel drives and observes online. Our daughter liked Mr. Bill - the teacher. Good guy. Overall great experience.

Fantastic experience: This is the second time that we enrolled in Excel for driving school. Shout out to Ms Lori, she is fantastic!

Fantastic experience: My daughter had a great experience. Ms Lori was awesome!

Fantastic experience: Excel's program is organized, the website is easy to follow, and the teacher was great. Anytime we called with a question, we immediately received the answers to our questions. Great program!

Fantastic experience: Miss Lori was a superb teacher! She has a cool sense of humor and an interactive classroom.

Fantastic experience: The instructor is calm, engaging, and positive. Lori can read me and adjusts her lessons accordingly.

Fantastic experience: Great driving school! Have used it for 2 of our sons. Very convenient to LTHS South Campus so they were able to walk there right from school. Instructors were great and availability to do drives and observes was very flexible. Will definitely use again when my daughter turns 15.

Fantastic experience: My son and I loved the experience. Patrick and Bill were Great. If I had one request, It would be to expand to the Elmhurst or Lombard area. This was a little out of the way but we made it work :)

Fantastic experience: The instructor was encouraging and calm, a good driving instructor.