City Auto School

This review is specially for instruction Matthew. I have taken a lot of classes at city auto to prep for my road test and thus I have be taught by a couple different instructors. They were all okay but I just never sticked with any of those until I met Matthew. He is the most patient and down to earth person ever. Whenever I had any question, he would answer patiently even though some of the questions were pretty stupid. Sometimes if I still didn’t understand he would draw pictures to help me better understand it. I failed my road test for the first time with another instructor but passed the second time trained by him. I still went training with him even after I got my license to prep for my road trip. One thing that really touched my heart that after I got my driver license, there was Boston bombing, and he texted me to see if I were ok. Even till today, which has already been more than two years since I got my license, he would still send me holiday greetings though I am no longer in Boston nor taking classes with him. He really is such a genuine person. If you are in Boston and ever needs a driving instructor, Matthew is the man. Thank you so much Matthew!

They’re awesome! Teachers are helpful and patient, and taugnt right to the points!

I love it if you wanna pass test please come here. I just studied 3times. It’s hard.

Took 2 classes and 2 roadtests with the school. The teacher is nice, instructive, detail everything to me. For the road test, u may need to wait for the pickup, no worry you won’t be late for the test and the sponsor is familiar with the road test officer. The femail sponsor took me to Braintree was great. Peter is a talktive and nice officer there.

Took one lesson from them and go to the road test with 2 other people. The instructor gave us a lot of advice and all of us passed. Easy and helpful. Nice instructors to help. Highly Recommended. Thanks City Auto School

When I decided to apply for a driver license i find a couple driving school online. After comparison I chose city auto driving school. It turns out to be really wonderdul. The teachers are rich in experience and responsible. The staffs working in the office are very nice too. I always call to make a appointment for class. They did their best to provide us a satisfying service. Before taking my road test, they gave me a lot of useful advices. Now I got my driver license. All I want to say is thank you for everyone in this school. I would tell more friends about this great school.

I had 5 lessons with Fei and he is nice and friendly. The school is also very friendly and welcomed for asking them questions. Call them earlier for appointment to the coach and I didn’t find any problem with them. They provide cars which are quite easy to handle. I am now in the RMV waiting for my licence and I recommend this school to all people who want to get their licence, especially for those who speaks Cantonese. THANKS AGAIN!

I took 10 classes from this school and I never drove before. Matthew is a very nice instructor. He points out mistakes politely and even if you make same mistakes he explains things repeatedly without getting tired of it. I took 1 class from other instructor and he was bit harsh so avoided him afterwards.
I would recommend this school but would advise to choose instructor wisely. In my case I got along with Matthew so took most of the classes with him.
This school is less expensive compared to others and slots for lessons are available one week prior. Happy that I chose City auto school and passed road test in first attempt.

I approached them after I could not clear the test in my first attempt. I am fairly comfortable with driving but needed some training to please examiner which I got enough on taking couple of classes with them. I got to practice all the regular routines and can say they have good people to train you.
I would recommend this place if you are looking to clear road test.

Thx 2 the sponsor, who is a coach in this school. I was very close to fail. She told the officer that the truck driver in front of me shouldn’t pull over and back up while there are so many cars on road. So the truck driver and I were both wrong. The tester agreed and let me pass.

I can’t complain, because I got my permit quickly and efficiently. This place is a little sketchy and you’ll probably get a different instructor each time, and they won’t hold your hands, teach you how to drive (just how to pass the test), or be all that helpful. However, I came to them with the impossible task of learning to drive and taking my test in 3 weeks, and they succeeded. Plus they’re cheap. So if you can handle the sketchiness, and don’t want to spend a ton, this is your place.

Took 15 classes here. Three with Raymond and the rest with Zhou. Both of them are
dedicated teachers. I am a first time driver and I passed the road test today at my first attempt. I do not often write reviews on Unilocal，but this time I want to give a five-​star score to City Auto. Tips：1.It is better for you to book classes with the same teacher. 2. Ask your teacher which RMW is the most suitable for you to take the road test.

I think this school is paying people to write good reviews for them using the money that they scamming from their students.
I AM TRULY AND PURPOSELY ADVISING PEOPLE NOT TO COME HERE.
Here are the reasons why:
1) Instructors ALWAYS show up LATE. To your LESSONS, and then to your ROAD TEST. When they show up late to your lessons, the time of your lessons are ridiculously cut shorter than what you paid and expected it to be for. Another thing is that this makes the driving test proctor very mad and angry on the day you have your road test, and your chances of PASSING gets very low. Not just that, but when the proctor tells them they are 30 minutes late, they give the proctor a very nasty attitude, and that triggered the proctor to say he could cancel the road test for everyone on that day.
2) They WILL BOOK YOUR TEST in ANOTHER TOWN that you are not from. For example, if you are from Quincy and you want your test to be in Quincy, they will book the test for you in Watertown. It does not matter how many time you keep telling them and making sure that they know where you want your test because they will purposely put you somewhere else.
3) Their method of doing business is to get a lot of students together, teach them fast, and squeeze them (5 – 6 people) in one car for a road test on the same day. They honestly do not care if you pass or not because they are only aiming for the money in your wallet, not aiming for good customer service.
4) You have to be able to speak Chinese if you want an advantage to passing on the road test with them. Otherwise, your lessons are going to be very basic and simple. In other words, they will not teach you their best techniques.
5) I have spent a total of about $ 500 with them (about $ 200 for lessons, and about $ 240 for the road tests), and failed 3 times with them. But, after I paid another school $ 300 to take lessons with them, I learned more, learned the real techniques, and I even passed the road test right after I had failed going with CITY AUTO SCHOOL the week before.
IF ANYONE ACTUALLY WANTS TO LEARN HOW TO DRIVE SAFELY ON THE ROAD WHILE ALSO LEARNING HOW TO PASS THE ROAD TEST TOO, THEN FIND ANOTHER SCHOOL BECAUSE THIS ONE WILL NOT CUT IT FOR YOU. If anyone wants me to recommend the school that I turned to after I failed the road test with City Auto, then send me a message, and I will gladly tell you who I went to so you can save yourself the time and money. The school I turned to after them, actually only focus on you one-​on-​one, and it will only be you on the day of the road test. That is big difference.
I do not know how I can be more convincing here to help anyone to turn around before it is too late if they are considering this school. I give fair and honest ratings, therefore, if anyone can just take my advice for it, I will be very happy that I have saved another human from spending all their time and money here.
Please read all the low ratings first before the good ones, and then reconsider the school.

I highly recommend this driving school. It’s in a great location and not too far from Broadway Station (Red line). The staff at this location were all friendly and extremely helpful. I took a total of ten classes and also booked my road test with them. I would recommend both Matthew and Wei for instructors. Matthew is a great instructor he gets you out your comfort zone. Its a grantee that you will learn so much ! and yes I am a proud graduate i got my license this past thursday :) Classes are affordable + flexible schedule. Two thumbs up !!!

I just passed my road test today. I think the teachers of the school are so friendly and they teach you everything you need to know to take the road test. ^_^

This driving school is great and easy to find in southie. The women in the desk are nice n friendly and tell you everything you need to know to apply for classes and such. My friend and I attend classes together on Saturdays and separate classes during the week. Classes together is very informative and cool, separate classes are great too. That one on one time is important and helps u focus more! Wei and James are who we see and they are awesome. Friendly and good at teaching at a pace that is easy for anyone to grasp. They have packages as well as single payment classes! The package of classes comes with the road test, saves u about $ 25-​$ 30. Overall great place and road test next month! Excited n nervous

The survey is very good and details. Before the road text, the teacher will teach the knowledge very patiently. I pass the road text very easily because the school!

I moved out of MA one year ago and they just called me said i had a road test next week, which is ridiculous. In fact, in order to make money from people who want to take the road test in a short time, this driving school use its learners’ permit information to reserve space for road test without the permission of the permit holder. I once register a road test through Massrmv web myself, and the day I went to Quincy for road test, the stuff told me that my appointment was canceled the night before, obviously me myself won’t cancelled it, the only reasonable projection is the people who have my permit information log in to the website and canceled it, and i only gave my permit information to this driving school. Besides, from the reservation record I got from RMV, there are two pages long «reserve-​cancel» history, you can guess who did all these?

I’ll add to the growing trend on Unilocal of giving James a virtual high-​five. He was great and was genuinely focused on teaching me how to drive, as opposed to teaching me the specific things that a Road Tester would be looking for just to pass the test. You can tell that he’s genuinely dedicated to teaching people well when he consistently points out things that you could improve upon and doesn’t just say it once to have said it. After 6 lessons with him, I took the road test in Watertown and passed on the first try (during the epic February 2015 Boston winter). Before James, I had Kyle for the first 4 lessons, who was an okay instructor but let a number of things slide (smooth braking, etc.) that James was much more inclined to catch and grill me on. Another perk of going with James: he just might include you in his autobiographical book about being a driving instructor for more than 2 decades! Be sure to come with ideas for a title, he’s been asking me for a good one!
I was initially worried about the women in the reception from some of the earlier comments here, and honestly did not perceive there to be any issues — they certainly beat my expectations formed through reading negative Unilocal interviews. One positive example was my first lesson, where the instructor couldn’t make it because the road test had run longer than anticipated. I have never seen anyone apologize so profusely: the secretary seemed very embarrassed by this and said she was sorry at least 3 times. She was even surprised when I didn’t start yelling at her (I mean why would I? It’s not her fault). All in all, helpful and competent staff.

I’ve had enough of this school. And it’s not because I failed the road test.
One star for some of the instructors. James is funny and my favorite. Kyle is a decent teacher too but I only had him for the last class. The thing is that they are all completely different and follow no discipline. I just realized that no one taught me basic rules after 9 classes.
The ladies in the office, rude. They have no intention to be nice. And they can never book a road test for week days or explain how it works.
Here comes my road test last Saturday. There were 40 people, all from this school. After waiting for 3 hours, I was nervous to death. More than half didn’t pass. A nightmare.
I just switched to another school cuz they could schedule a road test for 2 weeks after. City told me that they couldn’t confirm until one week before the test. The lady was mad hearing me switched. But come on, what am I supposed to do?