I Drive Smart Inc

Fantastic experience: I will recommend I Drive Smart over and over again. I had some questions and when I called they were very helpful and friendly and the instructors we had were fantastic.

Fantastic experience: I highly recommend I Drive Smart to friends and to my patients. My own sons were also clients. My oldest passed the driving test on the very first try with flying colors (hoping the next one does too!). The opportunity to learn how police officers think and what they are looking for is invaluable for all teenagers. The officers were firm and very professional in their instruction. Driving is the most high risk activity most of our teens will undertake, and I appreciated that the officers were kind but also conveyed that driving safely is a responsibility. The school was also very flexible about times for the classes.

Negative experience: There are only three sessions for behind the wheel training available and if my daughter needs more, then we have buy another package, which is already expensive. I recommend looking at other schools if you want more than 6 hours of behind the wheel session.

Fantastic experience: I enrolled my daughter into this program very recently due to the fact that it seemed more focused on making sure the student actually knows how to drive safely. Many other schools, the instructors only care about the money and as long as the student doesn't cause an accident, all is well, not this school. The instructor in I Drive Smart are all professional, communicate to parents areas to improve upon and how well the student is progressing. There is an in-classroom portion that must be completed before getting on the road but there is choice of an online, self paced option or face to face. The on the road classes can be scheduled at a time that works well with the student and can be as close together or as far apart as needed. My daughter became more confident behind the wheel and at the end, passed her test. This school is well worth the money. I can't recommend them enough.

Fantastic experience: Thank you for a fantastic experience!

Negative experience: I used both of the teachers who worked in the severn location and both were rude and seemed chauvinist

Fantastic experience: I cannot thank officer Jess P1043424 enough. I signed up for 7 supplemental sessions for my daughter at I drive smart and she was assigned to officer Jess. He not only thought her everything she needed to know to pass her road test on her first try. He boosted her confidence to become a better driver. He showed her the mechanics of a car and gave her the confidence she needs to drive in the highway. I know everything she learned is because of officer Jess. I will recommend officer Jess to all my friends

Fantastic experience: Can't say enough great things about our sons instructor Jason. I'm so glad we decided to use iDriveSmart. Jason was the perfect instructor who gave him the confidence he needed. Would highly recommend them to everyone.

Fantastic experience: The teachers are all really patient and kind. As someone who had previously gone to a different driving school, I can see the quality of difference. At the other school all they taught me was to go straight, we didn't go into the nuances of driving rules and different situations that aren't covered in the permit test. So I was a very nervous driver. I Drive Smart was really great about making sure I knew the rules of the road and how to apply them in real life situations. I'm a much more confident driver and highly recommend. I know people mentioned issues with the online bookings, but I had no problems. If you read their instructions and follow the rules it is very simple and easy to use.

Negative experience: The online class was easy to schedule and attend and informative (according to my son). That aspect would give them four stars. The rating is brought down to zero because of the behind the wheel aspect which I would give a zero. The in person driving however, I would give a zero. The first lesson my son had the instructor admonished my husband when he came to pick my son up by saying our son was wholly unprepared for driving lessons... uummm...yyyyeah...that is the entire point of driving school! The instructor went on to state that our son needed more time behind the wheel with us before sending him to driving school. I guess I missed the whole point of signing him up for BEGINNERS driving lessons! Worst... getting an in person appointment is almost impossible. At this date (3/30/23) there are only 2 available appointments both in September 2024 and both at 9am-11am on a weekday while my son is in school. Nearly all the appointments have been during the day during school hours. I really feel like I have been ripped off.

Negative experience: I think I'm a pretty reasonable consumer. But when my son couldn't find his I Drive Smart instructor at the designated meeting place (first time he tried this location), there was no obvious way for him to get in touch with the teacher. It was after hours and the IDS website stated that phonelines close after 4:30 PM. So he was penalized as being absent. A very well stated request my me for a one time forgiveness to the staff/manager gave a very generic "sorry" and "it's penalizing to the other kids who make it to the class on time". Oh, this was a woman named Christen. This was the first time my son had such an incident, and he was trying his best to do the right thing. I think the response was pretty heartless. I'd advise caution to anyone considering these people for their children's lessons. Don't expect a "human" response from management. Disappointed. I don't usually leave any reviews, but felt compelled to report this ridiculous behavior. Lester Zuckerman, MD Oh, the I Drive Smart response is to recharge the $100/session fee. So don't believe them when they say there's a 50% discounted replacement. And don't you think all students should have the phone #'s of their instructors so that these kind of mistakes can be avoided? Or how about giving the students an on-call number for when they run into (predictable) trouble? And.... as a business person who serves clients every day, I think that any hard & fast rule that doesn't forgive a single error by the user encourages me to return to never do business with the same people again. What a fall-back position they have.... "that's the way we do business". Buyer beware... read the fine-print. Very nice ! There's a reason this is a 3 star business.

Negative experience: Given the erratic, unsafe, and illegal ways I see IDS branded vehicles driving around Loudoun County, I can’t imagine the instruction quality to be up to par.

Fantastic experience: I wanted to say thank you for helping me with my driving. This school did not disappoint and everyone was great, they taught me on everything I needed. They even went over what was on the driving test in DC for me, pointed out what I needed to work on. Was able to practice and got my license on the second try!!! Thank you to all my instructors.

Positive experience: I agree with the other reviewers that it is very difficult to schedule in-person driving lessons. Many of the available sessions are during the school day or are months in the future. I was told when I called about this that I should just watch for last-minute openings sent out by email and schedule them that way. But those go very fast. Often, by the time l logged in to get those, they were already gone.

Negative experience: Disorganized and inflexible.

Negative experience: PLZ MAKE SURE DO NOT TAKE CLASSES WITH THIS SCHOOL!! Just mark my word go somewhere else!!!

Negative experience: It is close to impossible to schedule the behind the wheel sessions. We had to drive 25 minutes each time to a location that had openings. The instructors were friendly, competant and trustworthy but it was a huge hassle to try to schedule dates. If you had to reschedule a date, it could be 2 months out. Also, the classes are a joke. The teachers are super dry and boring. Also, if you log in to class even 10 minutes late (tech issues or any other reason), they will not let you in (virtual class) and you have to reschedule, which is just as difficult to schedule as behind the wheel. Scheduling classes & BTW has been a complete hassle and way more difficult than it needs to be. If i had to do it all over, I would go to a different company.

Negative experience: The website was horrible and didn’t work

Negative experience: When my son wanted to complete the Behind the wheel portion, Idrive had no availability for at least a month and jo available dates to schedule. They refused to refund half of our payment for that portion even though they had no availability. We then used Aloha Bob which was easy to work with, flexible, and had driving time available. Would not recommend Idrive and will not use them again. Edited to reply: Thanks for the response. Don’t think it was a miscommunication. My son completed the classroom portion. As noted in my initial review, it was the behind the wheel portion that Idrive could not timely complete. At the time, there was nothing available on the calendar for more than 30 days. And no information on availability father out. Confirmed by email and phone. That is why we moved to another company to complete it. Was disappointed, but would have been satisfied with a refund for the BTW portion.

Fantastic experience: I Drive Smart was extremely helpful, both when I called their customer service and when I was taking the lessons. When I was deciding which driving school to choose, my biggest concerns were how the instructors would teach and how much I would get out of the lessons. I am extremely satisfied with IDS for both points. One of the instructors I had was patient, informative, friendly, and professional. He never yelled, and was always ensuring that no one inside the car or outside of it would get hurt. He handled all of my questions well, and taught me a lot about different aspects of driving. I learned a lot during the lessons, and have gained a lot more confidence while driving thanks to IDS. I would highly recommend them!

Fantastic experience: A life saver, possibly literally. My daughter gained confidence, instructors were consistently professional, friendly, knowledgeable. She passed the exam and I’m very grateful to the friend who referred me to them.

Fantastic experience: I just finished all my classes and in cars a few days ago, and I have my test tomorrow. I have to say, i never expected the whole permit process to be so smooth and stress free, and each class was both informative and anxiety free. Loved the class sizes and getting to know my classmates and instructors along the way. There’s also those extra points of affirmation and correctness when you’re being taught by police officers. I also loved that missing a class or in car was really forgiving in the sense that you could reschedule a few days ahead and not lose any money.

Fantastic experience: Our daughter took the Behind the wheel with idrive smart and they were outstanding. Calm, organized and thorough. She felt they prepared her very well for driving in Virginia. We signed our son up, hoping to do the classroom with them as well as the BTW training. It turned out it didn't work with his schedule & we had to cancel. They were very polite, helped with the computer class registration & we kept the BTW training & without a fuss, they refunded the difference. So polite & helpful. Highly recommend this business and the instructors.

Fantastic experience: Professional, taught very well but quite expensive, that's all you need to know.

Fantastic experience: I Drive Smart was an overall great experience. Their instructors were engaging and easy to talk to. They fully guided me on my way to getting licensed. They were also super flexible, their website allowed to reschedule quickly and easily when I had a conflict.

Fantastic experience: Ours is a VERY SATISFIED I Drive Smart alum family. My now-19 year old son completed the IDS course in Maryland during the summer between his sophomore and senior years in high school. Now it is time for my 16 year old daughter to learn to drive and to be perfectly honest, that thought scares me a little. Which is why I am absolutely over the moon that I Drive Smart has branched out to bring their unparalleled level of driver's training to our new hometown in southern California. Well, they're not exactly in our new home town, more like a 90 minute drive south of us. IT'S WORTH IT! That is how good these folks do their job: as a busy entrepreneur, mother, wife etc, I did not even think twice about the distance when we learned about IDS in SoCal. They are THAT good. And the need for my daughter to become an excellent driver is THAT important. A bit of background: We were introduced to IDS when they made a presentation at my kids high school on Silver Spring MD. I was impressed with the program philosophy, instructor experience and materials this program offered. That police officers teach the course is a bonus on several levels. My daughter is eager to drive but not so much that she is really engaged in the process when I chauffeur her around town. As opposed to her brother who asked thoughtful questions about the mechanics, laws, and culture of operating a motor vehicle each time he we got in the car. As he progressed through the IDS training his questions became more sophisticated, his Behind The Wheel confidence skyrocketed without approaching arrogance, and his respect for the responsibility of driving a car was obvious. I mention this to illustrate my upcoming point: THE PRESENCE OF I DRIVE SMART IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS THE ONLY REASON MY DAUGHTER (FABULOUS AS SHE IS IN SO MANY OTHER AREAS) GETS TO PURSUE HER DRIVERS LICENSE. IDS is the only program with which I feel completely safe entrusting this huge responsibility of guiding my daughters evolution from passenger to responsible, safe and excellent driver. This is a position I take with with 100% confidence after witnessing the competent and yes, smart - very smart - driver that my son became. We have only great things to say about this course. Yes, it was among the more expensive options back in Maryland, but it was much cheaper than the hours therapy or pounds of cheesecake required to otherwise calm my nerves as my cherished children grew into drivers. I Drive Smart is one of the best decisions made by our family!