Foothill Driving School

Folsom, United States

4.4

Open now

15 reviews

Contacts

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Telephone:
+1 916-984-7574
Website:
www.foothilldriving.com
Address:
326 E Bidwell St, Folsom, CA, 95630
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.7 miHistoric Folsom
1.2 miGlenn
2 miAir Shutle Intel
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Today

Today 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Open now
Local time (Folsom) 14:48 Thursday, 12 June 2025

Business hours

Monday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday –
Sunday –

Description

Specialties

We offer one on one lessons with friendly and ultra-​qualified driving instructors. We have a former DMV examiner on staff, for the best test preparation in the business. We also have an active firefighter who also trains firefighters in driving big Class A and fire vehicles. In all we have 7 instructors with a combined 47 years of experience.

We follow a great lesson plan which has been created over 23 plus years in the business. Every year it gets better!

Other schools? Maybe not. Many schools follow an awful practice called «Piggybacking» students. They don’t want to pay instructors for travel time between lessons, so they have their students drop off the previous student and pick up the next one during lesson time. So the entire lesson has no plan. Just whatever comes up on the way from one student’s house to the next. Doesn’t an actual plan work better? Where we might do 10 right turn yields, 10 U turns, 10 merges, etc in a lesson, they are doing 1 of each if they are lucky!

History

Established in 1989.

This school was started in El Dorado Hills mostly serving Oak Ridge and Ponderosa High School.

In 1994 we moved into our current location across the street from DMV in Folsom. We now serve the entire area from Shingle Springs to Fair Oaks, and from Folsom to Granite Bay. And everywhere in between!

Meet the Business Owner

Dave P.

Business Owner

I have 3 boys with my wife Kitty. We love camping, baseball, fishing, and just about anything outdoors.

My father started the driving school in 1989, when he was a teacher at Oak Ridge High School in El Dorado Hills. At that time it was operated out of an office in his garage! I took it over in 1994. We moved the office into Folsom across from DMV and we have been there ever since.

I have taught over 10,000 students myself to drive defensively, courteously and most of all safely!

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15 reviews of Foothill Driving School

No registration required
Place rating: 2
Pittsburg, CA
Called to make an appointment and they are booked. Also they were unable to check to see if they could pick me up to start the Lesson Also I was hung up on.
Place rating: 5
Stockton, CA
The only stick shift driving school for miles around (I made the drive out from Stockton!). Setting an appointment had to be done over the phone by leaving a message because stick shift classes aren’t handled through their online website. Setting up a 1.5 hour standard lesson was a breeze and they even fit me into their schedule at the end of the week.
I had my lesson with Dave in an older Toyota truck and while I can’t claim to be professional after our class, I definitely feel 100% comfortable with driving a manual car now. I tried having a friend teach me in college and let’s just say that we didn’t even make it out of the parking lot. Dave is incredibly patient and has a route in the parking lot that will ease you into learning how to utilize the clutch. After a few laps around, he was confident enough to let me take it out into the street and his patience and positive attitude continued to benefit me as I began to feel more and more comfortable learning to drive the car. 1.5 hours really does fly by but you get practice in real world driving conditions by shifting through gears, reversing, parking, and uphill/​downhill starts. I don’t think anything was really left out and I definitely left a satisfied customer. Highly recommended!
— Going into the class with a blank slate would probably benefit you the most. I watched too many youtube videos to prepare myself, but I think this just interrupted the lesson. Trust Dave and just go with the flow. You won’t be referencing what you «think» you learned from an online video and things will go much smoother.
Place rating: 5
Rancho Cordova, CA
They didn’t fail me at all I learned a lot from my first session from Dave, my second session is from Johnny and literally he told me everything I need to know too bad he’s not there anymore but I was really comfortable when he was teaching me. As of today I just took my driving test with Bruce and I passed the test with 3 minor errors which is the dmv instructor told me I did great and those are just really minor ones nothing to worry about. Thank you foothill from scheduling, payment, teaching, and patience you guys did great I got my license now!
Place rating: 3
Folsom, CA
Our experience has been great as far as the instructors and the time behind the wheel. What *isn’t* great is their scheduling system. I went online at the beginning of the month, to schedule a time for my son to have a class, and there wasn’t one single time available for the next 8 weeks at a time he wasn’t in school. I called and emailed the school about this, but they never responded.
Finally I stopped in, and the person there was able to set up another lesson, so at least we were able to get the sessions we paid for without waiting another couple of months, but beware of how hard it is to schedule driving times during the school year.
It’s too bad about this issue, because otherwise this is a first-​rate company with knowledgeable, helpful driving instructors.
Place rating: 5
Folsom, CA
Foothill Driving School is by far the BEST driving school in the Folsom are. Their instructions are wonderful. Dave went over and beyond what he had to do to ensure my daughter was able to get her last 2 lessons completed prior to her 16th birthday. I would hightly recommend using Foothill Driving School. Dave was so easy to work with.
Place rating: 5
Sacramento, CA
I took a 2 hr stick-​shift driving lesson with Dave last month and he was such an awesome instructor. My husband and I had recently purchased a stick-​shift sport car and I had never driven a manual transmission before (of course, I didn’t want my husband to have all the fun driving it while I was left out so I was determined to learn). My husband had taught me the basics on how to drive it, but we were limited to practicing in an empty parking lot because I was inconsistent in my ability to get into first gear without stalling. And since we didn’t want to burn out the transmission of our car, my husband signed me up for a lesson with Foothill.
The initial practice I had on our car definitely helped, but Dave has an amazing teaching skill that makes you really feel at ease. I know that trying to teach someone how to drive a manual transmission can be pretty frustrating, but Dave was his calm, laid back and patient self the entire lesson. By the end of the 2 hour lesson, I was driving in traffic, on the freeway, up and down hills and parking in crowded parking lots… Without stalling :) Thanks for the great lesson, Dave!
Place rating: 5
Sacramento, CA
The staff at Foothill Driving School is so patient and explains everything perfectly for new drivers! It takes a lot of the fear out of being behind the wheel for the first time! Good job and thanks, FDS!!!
Place rating: 1
Folsom, CA
Not very punctual. They missed an appointment and never bothered to even inform us about it. we just kept waiting in front of their closed office for 1 hour and no one showed up!
Update: 07/​29/​2014
After calling like 100 times, finally a lady picked the call at the foothill driving school office. She was so rude and was not even sorry for their mistake. Since I had not used any of their service, I asked for full refund. But they say they dont refund according to their policy! And she suggested that I either have to use their service (after all these) or go to another service provider, but no refunds!
PLEASE DONT USE THIS DRIVING SCHOOL. There are other better service providers around this area. please research.
BTW. There are lot of 1 star comments below ( Unilocal has hidden it). Please go through it before making you decision to use this school.
Place rating: 5
Folsom, CA
Signed up online for DMV drivers package (not pay as you go). Registration was easy, efficient. Reserving classes via their website was easy, filters were useful and worked great.
Bart is my child’s instructor. Feedback was good and accurate after the first lesson. He is slightly void of a sense of humor, but he clearly was taking his job seriously.
Would definitely choose this driving school again.
Place rating: 5
Folsom, CA
Finally a driving school that offers a class for a manual transmission! It is so important to have this experience and I’m so happy Foothill Driving School offers this.
I brought my daughter here all the way from Elk Grove because I value a well rounded driving school such as Foothill. Thank you for being progressive.
–Lena
Place rating: 5
Lahaina, HI
Appointments are easy to schedule online. Instructors are always on time for appointments. They also provide a good foundation for students learning to drive.
Place rating: 5
Vacaville, CA
Great driving lessons. My daughter was very nervous about driving, but they started off nice and slow, built her confidence, and turned her into a great driver. I liked each of her instructors and she did too. She said they were a lot more patient than I am! Good experience overall.
Place rating: 5
Winters, CA
What a great experience! The staff is professional (and so nice) and they really care about doing things right! Thanks Foothill!
Place rating: 5
Folsom, CA
Just back from the DMV with my licence :) :) Pretty sure nerves would’ve gotten the better of me if the owner, Dave, had not accompanied me to the DMV — didn’t have to think about anything but the test (took my test in the school’s car, so everything was in perfect order) — the pre-​test practice run helped a lot! Thank you Dave !! :)
Would definitely recommend this school to my friends — they’re very professional and the entire experience has been very pleasant!
Place rating: 5
Orangevale, CA
I could not feel more comfortable having my daughter learn to drive with Foothill. They do their best to work around our crazy schedule and are very professional and nice. We have two more kids that will be driving in a few years and I would highly recommend this driving school.