Top Driver Driving School

Negative experience: One of your drivers move directly in front of me on rt 34 Oswego. I turned right on a red light , he was in left lane behind me, as soon as I made my turn, he was directly in front....just missing my vehicle. Driver and instructor appeared to be from India. It was roughly 1000 to 1100. The vehicle was light in color, gray. In the area of Meijers store.

Fantastic experience: Top Driver provided an overall excellent driving education for my son. Their program is well designed and they live up to their motto of teaching driver intelligence. There were a couple of hiccups with the classroom experience and the in-car driving scheduling; however, Mr. Kraft (the director of the Lombard office, I believe) was responsive, respectful, professional and never made me feel out of place for reaching out to him with these issues. Regarding the classroom experience: My son did not particularly enjoy his classroom instructor in Wheaton as she was somewhat patronizing. The initial parent/student meeting at the first classroom session was supposed to be about 30 minutes but she dragged it out to over an hour and required each student to read a paragraph from her PowerPoint slide out loud in front of the entire group. Mr. Kraft was able to take my concerns back to the Wheaton office afterward and hopefully that situation has improved. Regarding the in-car driving scheduling: We paid for the Diamond program in order to benefit from the advanced in-vehicle lesson scheduling. With this program, you are supposed to be able to schedule your lessons about two weeks in advance of students in the Silver, Gold and Platinum programs. This is accomplished by calling customer service as early as the first business day of each month. This started out a bit counterproductive for me because the driving instructors often do not provide their availability to the schedulers that early; instead, availability is released closer to the middle of the month when the other program participants are able to schedule. I realized that not many people must participate in the Diamond program because Mr. Kraft made himself available at the beginning of each month to help coordinate my son's lesson scheduling. Generally this is done with the customer service department; however, given our participation in the Diamond program, Mr. Kraft worked directly with me over email/phone and got us scheduled at times that always worked well for us. My son was initially terrified to do the driving lessons, but his initial drive with Ms. Russo gave him self-confidence and eased his anxieties. My son was so reassured that he ended up doing every driving lesson with her. Ms. Russo had a calming presence and knew what to say to make each experience pleasant and educational. We were very lucky to have found her and benefited from her teaching skills. Top Driver is now certified to facilitate the Secretary of State road test. My son had his test with Mr. White. We weren't sure how well he did after the test because Mr. White didn't say much and disappeared to tally up his score. He revealed with an unprecedented level of excitement, however, that my son received the best score of any student he had had do the road test since they started facilitating them about 4 months prior! My son was so proud of himself and now takes his driver intelligence with him each time he drives. I am not a paid reviewer; I am not an affiliate of Top Driver; I am not benefiting from this review by any means. Mr. Kraft, Ms. Russo, Mr. White and the helpful customer service agents all deserve an A+ shout-out for helping my son happily accomplish his goals on a schedule that worked for us. Thanks to Top Driver in Lombard!

Negative experience: IF UR ASIAN PLEASE DO NOT ENROLL HERE, I AM AN ASIAN STUDENT MYSELF AND I HAD A RLLY HARD TIME HERE!!

Fantastic experience: We had a great experience with top driver and will use them again next time around. Dave White was fantastic! Very thorough and will use them again because of our personal experience with Dave.

Fantastic experience: My grandson received excellent driving instructions at the Lombard site. He is a careful driver and has taught me several important "rules of the road."

Fantastic experience: I highly recommend Top Driver to parents looking to provide their child with Top Quality Driver Education. The Instructors both in the classroom and in vehicle have been tremendously helpful with teaching my daughter to be a safe driver. I want to specifically acknowledge Mr David Parker as one of those outstanding educators teaching our children to be safe and competent behind the wheel ! Thank you Mr Parker and Top Driver!

Fantastic experience: My positive experience has been with the in car instructors. They have been so patient and taken the time to provide excellent feedback on where my son needed to focus. Shout out to David Parker specifically though the other instructors also showed the same patience.

Fantastic experience: The pandemic threw a wrench in a many business operations these past two years. Top Driver was bogged down by a back-log of young drivers postponing their drivers tests which led to scheduling scarcity. When we had an issue regarding scheduling, we reached out to the Lombard manager and he always responded with very friendly and prompt communications -- resolving our issues within 24 hours. We really appreciated the friendly tempo they maintained during these tense times and were very happy with our experience overall at Lombard Top Driver.

Fantastic experience: One of the best driving schools around

Fantastic experience: We have had two children go through the program and have a third child working through it now. The instructors and program do an incredible job at preparing young drivers to successfully navigate the road and we have appreciated the flexibility of the program during COVID times!

Negative experience: This is absolutely ridiculous. My parents paid $400 for 8 classes. She has had 3 classes since august. I understand that they’re schedule is busy. But we schedule our times. We call the day that we’re told in order to get classes as soon as they open. Yet. They don’t communicate when needed. They’re drivers DON’T show up. This is the SECOND time this has happened. This is absurd. This isn’t a 50-100 dollar class. All this money for them to not even show up? My sister had her class today, December 3rd, 2021 from the time 8:15-9:15PM. I Waited outside of my home to make sure they showed up along with my sister at 8:05PM. It is now 8:45PM and no teacher instructor of any sort. No cars stopped in the front or the back. No notice of any sort. This is a poor quality company. This is the last time I will be going to this business and definitely won’t be recommending this to anyone.

Negative experience: My daughter is a driver student, she had her first lesson a couple weeks ago. The instructor was amazing, very respectful, patient and super nice to her. Today, she had her second lesson with an instructor called David who was from the beginning very rude to her over the phone because he got lost (we live in a townhome). While my daughter was driving they were having a small conversation about other kids that go to my daughter’s school. He mentioned a girl that is friends with my daughter and he asked her if she “knew” her or if they were actually friends (my daughter’s Latina and her friend is Caucasian). My daughter told him they’re close friends. He said he didn’t think my daughter could be friends with her because my daughter’s friend looks like a “good girl” ??? When my daughter explained to him that they’re both in all AP classes, she is a cheerleader, plays the violin and has been in orchestra for years THAT’S WHEN HE WENT “Ohhhh I didn’t think you could. I am very very upset with this driver. My daughter did NOT have to have this bad experience with this instructor. She is a paid costumer and deserves respect like every other kid. I will be calling the office first thing in the morning to make sure they know what kind of people they have working for them. UPDATE!!! I don’t know if this feedback has anything to do with my current situation but AFTER I WROTE THIS REVIEW, THIS IS THE SECOND TIME THE DRIVER HAS YET TO SHOW UP TO MY DAUGHTER’S CLASS. I paid $400 for 8 classes. And she only has taken 3 in all this time. 3 months and only 3 classes out of it while we would call the day that we were told to call to schedule future classes. AWFUL AWFUL SERVICE!!!!

Fantastic experience: Both of my sons have participated in the driver's training program through Top Driver in Lombard. My older son was in the middle of his in class training when the pandemic shut down in person classes. Top Driver pivoted very quickly and provided the opportunity for him to complete his classes on line. This was followed by in car driving that was professional and safe. He happened to have the same in car driver for each of the six sessions. This individual (I think his name was "Joe".), was fantastic. He was encouraging, constructive in his feedback and overall, gave my son great confidence in his driving. My younger son is currently participating in his driver's training and has begun the in car driving. We had a problem with securing his learner's permit, due to the Secretary of State's limited access, which pushed back my son's availability for in car training. Jim Mihalovich, the Senior Director/General Manager of the Lombard location, worked with us to extend my son's time to complete his in car driving sessions. I have recommended this Top Driver location to numerous friends and will continue to do so based on having two very positive experiences. Thank you!

Fantastic experience: Flexible hours. Instructor Gerald made driving lessons fun, exciting, and informative

Negative experience: I completed Behind the Wheel with Top Driver back in November. This past week I went to the DMV and was told there was no online or physical record of me ever completing the Top Driver course. We immediately called and we were on hold for 7 minutes and we even drove over to find nobody in the building. When we finally talked to someone they told us it had been sent to the DMV in November and they never updated it. Which I doubt considering the DMV is run by the government. The Behind the Wheel of Top Driver is great. But I’m disappointed with the lack of care regarding my information and the completion of the class.

Fantastic experience: Fantastic. Professional. Gerald and the team were amazing with our kids. They are much better drivers now. We recommend this location.

Fantastic experience: Learned how to drive here! Nice school, professional staff, love the flexible schedule.

Fantastic experience: Best instructors like John Gaus and Fredi who taught me in-vehicle training.Never driven a car before,the first training i took with Fredi i went on the road even on the high way. good job Fredi. My training with John was also great because he was patient with me and paved my way to succeed in getting my Driver's license. Best school ever.

Fantastic experience: Great experience for my daughter. Top Driver kept us well informed of what was required. Very easy to schedule drives. Would recommend!

Fantastic experience: Professional instructors. Flexible times to do in car lessons.