A1 Driving School

Excellent experience with driving instructor Matthew Campbell, clear instructions, very adaptable, concise, patient and brilliant support. Highly recommended.

I had Kevin King teach me to drive a manual. He's excellent! Very knowledgeable and with his teachings, I never once stalled during our first session. Would absolutely recommend A1.

My son has had his second lesson with James. James is super friendly, patient and explains what to do really well. Highly recommend James and A1 Driving School - thank you,

Kevin is an amazing instructor! I’ve taken months of lessons with him from being a complete beginner driver who’s never held steering wheels before to a now confident restricted licence holder!He is very patient with any mistakes I made and have always encouraged me to build my confidences on the roads. Every minute he taught me was definitely worth it. Thank you, Kevin for a life long skills you’ve given me!

I passed my full NZ licence today (19 July 2023). :-)It only took me 11 years. ;-P I needed to convert my overseas licence, which I passed in 1998 in a manual car, by passing the NZ practical test for a full licence. Eleven years ago I failed twice, mainly as a result of being overly nervous, and that meant my supposed full licence had a condition that I needed to be accompanied by an experienced licence holder. Not much of a full licence.Then I spent 10 years overseas driving on the other side of the road, mostly in automatic cars. But for the past two years I hadn’t driven at all. On returning to NZ, I still needed to pass my practical test for a proper full licence.I decided I needed some lessons in order to get accustomed to driving again, driving a right-hand-drive car on the left side of the road, and driving a manual, as well as to hopefully overcome my nervousness.I chose Auckland’s A1 Driving School after reading an article that listed it as one of the five best driving schools in Auckland. A1 is also one of the few driving schools that offer lessons in a car with a manual transmission, having two instructors with manual cars. On top of that it was one of the very few schools that would pick me up from and teach me in the central city.A1 is very popular and instructors are often fully booked weeks in advance. I chose Mr. Ned Music as my instructor, not only because he had some open bookings, but because I had a good feeling about him.I was right. Ned is a fantastic teacher and mentor, with decades of experience, and he’s a really good man. He’s able to give confidence even to nervous students. I had nine lessons with him in just over two weeks. I had the first five lessons in Mt Eden, and as I booked my test for Glen Innes, I had the remaining lessons there. Nervousness continued to be my main problem. I was particularly hesitant pulling out into spaces in traffic. I also had a few lapses of concentration that if I was going to have it was good that Ned’s car has dual controls.Anyway, today I sat my full practical test and passed! Thank you, Ned!!! I simply could not have done it without your help and patience. I unreservedly recommend Ned to anyone looking for a driving instructor. And having driven in many countries around the world, I think it is still essential to have the skills to drive a manual car.

Vidya's so calming and makes it such an enjoyable experience. For someone that was brand new to driving, and very nervous at that, I've been highly recommending him to all my friends since my first lesson.

I had a couple of sessions with A1. Initially, it goes well, later they demanded to buy more sessions, and then only then will allow using their vehicle in the test. One day before the test had a session with one of the driving instructors and he scared me wherever possible, and also he advised I am not ready for the test. The session was supposed to be 1 hour, but he finished around 35 mins and demanded to pay the full amount. His explanation was there was traffic so he can't reach his next session. Had an argument and finally got the refund.The most important thing was, while in the session he took entire control of his car ( brake and accelerator), and I felt I was simply sitting in the driver's seat. seems no use.very next day, I passed my driving test and whatever the instructor said was untrue". He forcefully to buy 10 more sessions. I passed because of not A1 as I went with another independent instructor and whenever he was not available

I am glad I chose Rick Sherriff to prepare for my license! He is highly knowledgeable about safe and efficient driving (particularly with steering and parallel parking which I previously found difficult), and I have become a confident driver thanks to his help. I had previous driving instructors who became aggravated whenever I made an error, but Rick was always calm and offered great and honest advice which helped me pass my test. Thanks A1.

Christo is a great driving instructor. I have learnt to drive from scratch under him. He makes parallel parking seem like a piece of cake. He also has extensive knowledge about roads and my lessons are filled with trivia. I feel confident hitting the road because of him.

I took lessons with 2 instructors and didn't find they suited me and I took 5 lessons with James, he's awesome very positive person cracking jokes whilst maintaining professionalism, had a hard day and James cheered me up, he's a good vibe very skilled at teachingMinus 1 point because their availability isn't great maybe 2 spots in 2 weeks and you don't want to get a new instructor because they have different teaching methods and the booking online is very stone age website needs update, would be better if they had all the availability on one page instead of starting a new search from every instructorWould I recommend? yes James is the best