Reviews for Hampshire Driving School LLC
Write a reviewHours
Monday: 2:30 - 5PM
Tuesday: 2:30 - 5PM
Wednesday: 2:30 - 5PM
Thursday: 2:30 - 5PM
Friday: 2:30 - 5PM
Saturday: ClosedSunday: Closed
Tips
parking: street
Ratings
Google: 3.1/5 Facebook: 3/5Hampshire Driving School LLC
6 Temple St, Nashua
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This driving school is a great place to send your teens to learn how to drive. Instructors are helpful and care about their students and try to make sure they know the rules of the road and how to manage problems while driving and to get their license successfully. Would recommend to all!
So, here's a place not a lot of people talk about. Of course, I have a feeling that's probably because driving schools are one of those places no one Yelps about unless their experience was somehow incredibly negative. As we've recently enrolled our son into driver's ed, I felt it was high time someone gave an honest opinion about this place. Well, after you fork over the initial $800+ for this 2 month-long course, they immediately require the parents (yeah...BOTH parents, if applicable) to attend what they call a "parent's class". This is normally scheduled right before the student's first class. What this consists of is the head teacher dude pretty much explaining what the students will be learning; along with some handy tips on how not to freak out your own child trying to learn the ways of the road. Basically, "don't scream at your teen behind the wheel" type stuff. Anyways, this is a one-time meeting that lasts about an hour and a half. This felt a bit longer than necessary, but whatevs. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Alright. One thing I need to get out of the way right now - I HATE their parking lot. Like, I really, REALLY hate the way this parking situation is. Let me explain. As you can already tell, this place is located smack dab in the midst of downtown Nashua; one of the most pretentious and pathetic attempts at emulating the brimming and overpriced sprawling metropolis known only as Boston that I've ever seen. This means inexorably being left with the grueling choices of either paying for parking (yuck!), shamelessly squatting in the reserved residential parking across the street, OR...driving just past the school's entrance to take two right turns and utilize the undersized parking lot located in the back of the building. It's worth mentioning this parking lot is shared, ostensibly containing approximately 6 wasted reserved spaces for...something. Oh, and be sure to take your sweet ass time maneuvering throughout this parking lot so as not to accidentally nick someone's car door. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this design is intentionally set up to "test" the students. As for the course itself, it's pretty routine, really. My son seems to have acquired the basic skills and knowledge needed to pass the state test. Which, judging from the majority of drivers around here, doesn't seem like it'd be all that difficult to pass with flying colors anyway. Now then...there are a couple other things I find quite vexing about this course. Recording driving hours: In the beginning, they let you know there's an app which allows the parent to record their teen's driving hours automatically whenever you accompany them for a driving session. Just one problem though - you can't actually submit these hours at the end of the course as proof of time driven. Nope. Instead, they STILL make you painstakingly hand jam the hours onto a physical paper copy of the driving sheet. May I ask...WHY?! What's the point of having an app that does this automatically when we can't even use it as proof of hours driven? Whoever drafted this course needs to hop in a time machine and travel forward in time to the 21st century PRONTO! Parking: I know I touched on this a bit already. But I also want to mention the incredibly tiny parking spaces, accompanied with a one-way exit (which almost everyone violates by entering into the ostensible DO NOT ENTER sign) near the street entrance. ALSO, also....the paths going around the parking lot aren't really one-way. So, when you pull around the back, you may find yourself nose-to-nose with a car coming the opposite direction as you're about to turn in like I did at least once. This parking situation is stupid, avoidable, and fixable. Just force everyone to enter and exit the same way with signs like the rest of the country streets do. It's easy! The only other caveat to be aware of is the fact that driving and observation hours are almost totally impromptu, apparently. Which mea
I went here in the early 2000s for drivers Ed, and per the reviews it seems that a lot of the same nonsense I experienced back then is still going on. A lot of the driving instructors were rude, disrespectful and obnoxious, and a number of them discussed how they had previously lost their drivers licenses for various reasons and/or were recovering alcoholics - not exactly the kind of people you want teaching kids, never mind doing in-car driving instruction. The “classroom” is dirty and run down. When I went here, the cars you drive for instruction were all at least 10-15 years old. There were all sorts of extra fees and charges for every single little thing. They...read full review