Golden Stars Driving School

It’s such a shame to see all the other negative reviews and I understand these things happen, but Tim is a such a great instructor! I am 25 years old and should have gotten my license ages ago but I get anxious and nervous at times behind the wheel. Fortunately I found Tim and he helped me prepare and pass my driving test the first try! I was very worried I would not pass since I only practiced with a relative who didn’t really point out my mistakes. It’s really important to get a professional instructor to identify your errors and help you correct them. After even just a couple sessions I learned SO MUCH from Tim and because of him, I wasn’t a nervous wreck and had the tools and confidence I needed and I passed my test. I would strongly recommend him, and he has the best rates around and you will get more than your money’s worth. If you are reading this Tim, Thank YOU!

My 16 year old twins took the required lessons and passed their behind the wheel tests st DMV on the first try. Tim conducts his business in a very professional manner. He returns phone calls quickly and efficiently. I liked that he has a very accommodating schedule, is prompt, and makes the kids feel at ease. A big plus, is that he picks up from school, then ends the lesson at home. I feel my children learned so much and had an overall great experience.
Thanks Tim!

Tim is great as a driving instructor. He trained me from not knowing how to drive til passing the driving test in 1 week. It is a bit hard to book his time but it is worth it as he is great. By looking down other comments saying his car is old, I mean did you expect to have a 2017 mercedes for students to crash? as long as the car works I think it’s fine. This is the best instructor in town and I strongly recommend him.

Tim is alright. He knows what he’s talking about but the car is a little nasty. Makes you sit on seat covers, which I get, but they’re gross and stained. Fortunately he was cool with me, but he was very rude and insulting to one of my girlfriends who went to him. I got my license bc of him tho. Aye

Horrible experience. Have wasted 4 days waiting for Tim to come and kick off my classes. Every day he moves the timing from one slot to another and never shows up or answers to texts until the next day. Extremely unprofessional.

Great driving instructor, whenever I requested my appointment Tim was able to get me in on that time and day. He was also able to take me the day before my test to practice a review driving test. Everything that was on the test was taught to me by him. I would definitely choose this driving school again.

A recent arrival to these shores, I enlisted the help of Timothy to teach me the local rules of the road rules and help prepare me for my driving test. Over the course of 3 – 4 hours driving instruction he quickly ironed out the bad habits I had picked up over 20 years driving in my home country and taught me the correct procedures for situations I was previously unfamiliar with (like turning right on red signals for example). He is firm in his instructional manner but this helps you quickly get to grips with the techniques he’s teaching you. He’s also a very friendly guy and made the whole process actually quite enjoyable. I’d highly recommended Timothy to anyone in the area who is looking for a reputable, results-​driven driving school.

First of all, if I could i would give 0 stars. Bad communication, not professional at all. It all started great. I took my first two lessons and everything was going fine. He gave me good tips and ways to make my driving experience better. And then when i finally needed my third lesson i called him seveal times and he wouldnt answer. After about two days of calling he finally answers and we schedule an appointment. The appointment was at 7. He shows up to my house at 6:50 and i wasnt home just yet. He then proceeds to leave without calling me or texting me. I called him more than 20 times after but no answer. I called from 3 different phones around 40 times total but no answer. A week later he finally answers saying that he didnt feel like waiting and that «i was playing games». Terrible service, sooo unprofessional, and very disrespectful. Dont get fooled by the cheap price. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SCHOOL!!!

Very bad experience with this school. Don’t call this guy for lessons. Please read first and then judge.
First he made my son wait two weeks for training. Then the night before, he called and said we need to push lesson from 12 noon to 530pm. What? He called at 5:30 pm on the training day waiting in front of a different address? Wow! where did you get your credentials, Kmart? If you cant find an address how can you teach?
When he found the address, mind you late 15 minutes he refused to have my son get in the car for the lesson before payment. I’m not kidding. He then questioned my wife why should he trust us to pay him after the lesson. My wife offered to write the check for my son to keep and after two hours (and no less lost time looking for address) of driving instructions he would surrender the check to the instructor. Fair enough? No he said, that’s not how he does business.
Call any school and they’ll tell you payment is after lesson. I am sorry Mr instructor I am an immigrant too; but I’m here now and I do what Romans do. Keep your culture home not with your customers. Why should we trust you Mr. Driving school instructor with our payment, or our son for that matter.

Sent my daughter’s permit number, name, scheduled a driving lesson, received Tim’s confirmation. Day of lesson he acts like he’s never heard of me. Sent him screen shot confirming our lesson and he still tried to tell me he had no recollection. Reschedule? Not on your life.

I contacted Tim when I failed my first vision driving road test. Not surprising since I took my first and last test at the age of 17. Tim was both encouraging and meticulous in his expectations and advice. He obviously understood what the DMV testers would be looking for. After 2 lessons with Tim I had every every confidence that I would pass the test and, yesterday I did. I will have to do this again in 2 years and Tim can expect a call for a refresher.
I highly recommend Tim and have already given his info to friends.

For first lesson he was ok. For second lesson he told me that if I will listen to him I will pass the test. for all the four classes, he made me drove in and around the block for 1 hr in and around the city and not to the testing site and through out that time he will be on phone calling or texting. Rest of half an hour he made me drove around the testing site and the remaining hour again around my home. DMV told me that they will take me to freeway but the instructor was just not ready. Its instructor job to make you comfortable but dont worry he will not make you. He showed me pics and made me read the rule books. can anyone please tell him that driving is just not theory. its more of a PRACTICAL. I insisted on Parking and he told me all the time next time. It never came. My driving test is tomorrow and I am not in a state of mind to take it. Thanks to my instructor. When I insisted him on taking me to FReeway he was a bad mouth. I just needed help on entry and exit the freeway. I spoke to him after 4^th class, he told me if you will go you will fail the test. You need lot of practice and you drive funny. So total time waste. After first class he raised fee by $ 5 and after 4^th class he doubled the fee for driving test to which he agreed upon but started denying it. I dont know when I am ready to take the test next time. I wasted more than $ 250 with him for four classes. My friend was being told the same thing by him YOU WILL FAIL THE TEST. I mean we can fail on our own. Why do we need to spend money for the same.

Many thanks to Tim, I cleared my behind the wheel test in single attempt without having any driving experience. I had a phobia of Driving any 4 wheeler, for me its a miracle.
Tim is a great tutor, after getting my license many of my friends got training from TIM and all of them had got their license in 1^st or 2^nd attempt.
I strongly recommend Tim.
Sandeep Verma

Timothy is a very good teacher. My younger daughter just completed her six hours with Timothy and passed her drive test. My older daughter also took lessons from Timothy and both she and I were pleased so I used them a second time for my younger one. Scheduling the third 2-​hour appointment was difficult but it’s likely because of the volume of business coming in. No fault of Timothy. He has a small business. I would suggest scheduling all three appointments ahead of time so you are all set. As a teacher, Timothy is reliable, experienced, skilled, pleasant and not threatening. I strongly recommend him.

I was driving in outside of US for 10 years, after coming here driving in US road was very difficult thing because I should obey lot of rules :-). I got Tim reference from one of my friends, first driving lesson with Tim was not so smooth, he smashed my ego of I know how to drive, he is bit aggressive but he taught me good driving habits. He corrected some of the mistakes which I was doing, he taught me to read signs, scan road side and made me to understand why safe driving is important. He did mock-​up behind the wheel test many times with me and pointed out what my driving mistake. 3^rd lesson with Tim gave me lot of confidence, Now I got my licence. Thanks to Tim.
I am giving 4 stars to Tim because he is cost effective (just 60 $ for 2 hours, other people are charging 180 $) and his way of coaching and time discipline, he was always on time.

It seems that people only write reviews when they’ve had a bad experience. My son had a very good experience. Timothy has been doing this a long time (so he must be doing something right!). No complaints, would recommend to anyone.

My daughter had 3 two hour sessions with Timothy for $ 59 cash each session. She did not pass her driving test today. I’m usually really good about reading Unilocal reviews before I patronize a business but I’m not sure where my head was with this one! After the last lesson, she drove worse than before. At one point, Timothy said she was hopeless! (not kidding!) Please do not use his services.

Just moved to the Bay Area recently and had to take my driving test and also needed a car to take the driving test with. Came across Golden Stars driving school and I took my 2 hour refresher course with Tim, which was great with the driving lessons. Told me what I had to improve on, tips on what to watch out for when taking the test.
Took the driving test about 2 hours ago and I passed, with ZERO points off =)
Overall it was a great experience, and Tim was a good instructor.
I would recommend Golden Stars driving school to someone who needs to learn how to drive.
Only bad thing was that Tim forgot to mention to me that renting the car for the DMV test cost additional $$ and not included in the total cost of the lessons even though when I enquired about the price I mentioned about renting the car as well, but the most important thing was that I passed =)
Pros:
Easy to set up times for driving lessons
Good instructor — informs you of mistakes and how to correct them, what to watch out for when driving, always on time when picking me up for lesson /​test
Great price
You will most likely pass =)
Cons:
Didn’t communicate on extra cost of renting car for DMV test.

I’m 28 y.o. but didn’t have the license and never learned to drive. I had a lot of free time this summer, so decided to finally do it. I called several driving schools asking for price and how long will it take to learn to drive good enough to get a license. So, this school’s fees were among the lowest and Tim (instructor) said that it will take 6 – 10 hours of driving to be ready for the driving test. Wow! Remember: I never ever driven before. Well, I only had to pay for one lesson at a time, I decided to give it a try.
Honestly, the first lesson was a bunch of disappointments. First of all, Tim came to pick me up 40 minutes late. Then, I was put behind the wheel, without any explanations of how do you do what (yes, I was that dumb about driving and cars). Then, I was circling some residential area for an hour or so, without any understanding of what am I trying to learn or do. I usually prefer to get the idea first and only then get to practice. Somewhere around 1hour into the lesson though, he explained that I need to get the feel of the car, told how to steer properly and so on. This is when it all started to make sense.
After three lessons I was arrogant enough to make an appointment with the DMV for the behind the wheel test and told Tim about it. The next two lessons were very «serious» and specifically aimed at passing the driving test, but still we did not forget that I have to learn to drive good too :) Tim told me a lot about correct attitude when driving, taking the right of way and such stuff. It is true that sometimes Tim is harsh and can get angry, but being far past my teens I can handle that :)
Anyway, after total of 5x2hr lessons I took the DMV’s behind the wheel test in instructor’s car and passed without any problems the first time! Thanks, Tim!
P. S. I’m giving 4* instead of 5* only because it is really hard to schedule the lesson and you have to be really flexible about your own schedule to get the lessons, say, once a week.

I would not recommend this company at all. My daughter had appointment after appointment canceled. Timothy cut her second 2-​hour lesson to one hour, telling her that the next lesson — her third, would be a 3-​hour lesson. When she reminded him of this the third time, he didn’t remember, so the lesson was only 2 hours long. She did not pass her behind the wheel driving test and we are now stuck having to wait for another appointment with the DMV. I would look elsewhere and not waste your child’s time or your money on this school.