Eagle Driving School

I don’t know who this Huy Tran is but I think he’s gone. We should remove the posts that’s about him and ignore him.
This company is ran by a guy named Anthony Pun. Anyway, on to my story. I’ve been driving for about 15 years or so. I just one day decided to learn stick/​MT because I wanted to get a car and make sure i’m versatile enough where I would be able to drive both.
This guy is the most patient and soft spoken person in the world (when it comes to teaching cars). He has over 25+ years of experience. He taught driving since he was in HK and moved here and continues to teach people how to drive stick.
(off subject, but wanted to add) MT driving is a lost art, and needs to be reimplemented into this society. This way we can weed out all the horrible drivers.
Back to the review, so I wanted a 4 hour lesson. Anthony, lets me know that usually there’s a 2 hour session and we’re always good to go, but me knowing myself I wanted the 4 hour session. He took me under his wing and begun the lessons.
Let me tell you, the way he taught had the simplest concepts I heard of. This blew away what I thought was going to be difficult. I tend to over think things since I’m an engineer. Anyway, the 1^st few moments of learning the concept he let me take a test drive in his old tacoma. This was a fun vehicle to drive and I recommend learning manual transmission on a truck (since the clutch is so much stiffer).
Within 30 mins, we were going around in circles and he’s slowing letting me in on new concepts. He’s consistently calm and never yells at you. He’ll understand you and tell you what you are doing wrong, but also let you know repeatedly if you’re doing something correct. Both negative and positive reinforcement (now I sound like a dog trainer), saddly this is needed. You need to know when you are screwing up and when you’re not. Even when it doesn’t feel like you do, he’ll tell you exactly what you are doing wrong so you can make sure it doesn’t happen again. He points out your weaknesses and your strengths in the car ride. This is exactly the teacher you need and want.
He’s EXTREMELY patient, and he’ll never yell at you. He had me so use to driving, at the end of the lesson he told me that it was natural for me. Compliments yes, but he’s also very good at telling you exactly where you needed to improve. I had to improve on me letting go of the clutch a lot slower. There would be times where the car would jump a bit during the shift, but with his lessons I was able to keep in mind where I needed to adjust, and what i needed to do.
Very happy individual with Anthony, and I would recommend him to ANYONE.
For all the negative reviews with Huy Tran, no clue — never met him, never would want to – I hope he got fired to be honest. Always, ALWAYS, request for Anthony.
Price I got for going directly to his meeting place was 130/​2hrs (260 total for me).
All well worth it, I just bought a used 2000 celica GT and have been driving it like it was my car for ages. I still catch myself screwing up, but that’s just due to experience and routine.

I met with Anthony yesterday to learn manual transmission… I’ve always wanted to learn, and since I visit Europe, it’s good to know.
I was a little weary when I read the reviews on here, but Anthony was fantastic. He was very patient and taught me everything I needed to know — starting, stopping, parking, uphill, downhill, turning corners, freeways, etc.
After 2 hours, I feel confident enough to drive anywhere with a stick. The truck was kind of ghetto, but I understand since so many newbies are learning on it.
Thanks again Anthony!

For $ 125, I got to practice driving stick (fine, relearning how to drive stick) for ~2 hours with Anthony. He was very professional, patient, and helpful throughout the entire lesson and we covered a lot of material. We practiced just starting and stopping, driving on the freeway, starting on hills, parking on hills, and everything in between. He also provides the car which is very nice (trust me, finding a manual rental car in SF is close to impossible and a lot of other instructors require you to provide the manual car for the lesson).
I felt a lot more confident driving my manual rental car in Europe (on the Autobahn, no less!). Definitely recommend Anthony as an instructor.

Hello Fellow Unilocalers,
I have a different experience from others on here, so here it goes.
I called Eagle driving school two days before my behind the wheel test and Anthony was my driver’s instructor. He is honest, very honest w/​his opinion about driving test, exams etc. Honestly, I learned more from him than another instructor from a different school. Prices are reasonable and he is polite. I kept messing up because I was nervous about driving (I have driven before), and he instructed me on the rights & wrong.
At the DMV, he sat with me and waited. We had a long wait bc of DMV back up and he was still patient. He made sure that he saw me through the whole exam. He made me relax and stop gripping the wheel. To make a long story short, all of his knowledge (even though I got frustrated at times) it paid off in the end. On the test, I found myself driving the way he taught me and I passed…
Anthony is the Best Ever and you will enjoy his funny stories too.

Avoid Eagle Driving School (there are different business addresses listed but they use the same phone number)
‘Lee’ was late for every appointment and some had to be canceled. He seemed nicer on the phone. In the car he just sat there, sometimes I think he slept because he lay back with his eyes closed. Each lesson we would go to some salon where he would go in and talk to some girl for 10 – 20 minutes. He even had another kid in the car driving during my appointment so I had to sit in the back. We didn’t do any parallel parking and he didn’t seem interested in teaching any driving skills, just drive around quiet streets and back to that salon. I have told everyone I know who needs their 6 hours to avoid this school. It’s pathetic.

I believe my younger sister was under the instruction of Huy Tran when she was learning how to drive as well. This was years ago, and at the time, he was a freelance driving instructor. He charged my parents $ 400 up front and promised he would work with her until she got her license.
He was a total ***hole. He screamed at her often and made her cry. When she failed her driving test because he sucked at teaching her, he started violently throwing things around to intimidate her. Then he just fled with our money and never came back. She ended up getting her license under the tutelage of another instructor we had to hire in his stead.
Horror story: A friend of mine told me that Huy was teaching a pregnant girl how to drive. When she frustrated him, he dropped her off in the middle of nowhere and drove away. She had to walk to a pay phone and call her husband to pick her up.
This guy is a serious piece of sh** that needs the pants sued off him!

I think this place only accepts Chinese or Vietnamese people (because their driving classes are in those languages), and I am half Vietnamese (but I still understand the language.)
Anyway, so I called them up and I scheduled a date and time. The guy that is supposed to teach me, Huy Tran, came late. I shoulda have known that this was the way things were gonna be in the future. but I let it go because this was his first time picking me up and stuff, so he may have gotten lost or something. He took me out driving, only for about 35 minutes, and he didn’t tell me what I was doing wrong or right. I thought it was strange he only took me out for such a short time.
The other times I scheduled with this guy, he has been over 30 mins late, or he just didnt come at all. I call him, and he claims to have forgotten, he had something else to do, or he just doesnt pick up the phone. When he does pick up the phone, I just end up yelling at him. This usually gets him to come on time the next time, but you have to keep doing it often. Eventually, I gave up calling him for driving lessons because he obviously doesn’t care. You can tell he hates his job, and he’s only doing it for the money.
He takes you to do the driver’s test at the Richmond DMV because he says its the easiest place to get the liscense. The time before the exam is the only time he’ll be a good teacher and actually INSTRUCT you on what you’re doing right/​wrong.
In general, he’s not a thorough teacher, he gets angry with you if you do something wrong, and an overall frustrating person to deal with. I’m VERY glad I will never have to see him again. I think people would be better off going to the driving school thats from the DMV.
DO NOT waste your money here!
EDITED TO ADD (May 6, 2010):
I’m very glad that they got sued and got reviewed on Ch. 7 news. They deserve to be sued and I hope this will show everyone that this is a terrible business. Also, I dont know what Lance is talking about. What everyone else is saying about this instructor is not «misleading» or «slander.» It is an exact description of what is going on during the partial lessons you receive from Huy Tran. Learn to drive from someone who cares, and who deserves your money. This guy deserves sh*t.