ABS Driving School Nanaimo — Damon Zollinger’s Pricing & Packages
6160 Kenning Place, Nanaimo · ICBC-certified & bonded · Mon–Sun, 6 AM–10 PM · “Always Be Safe”
💰 Published Pricing
🚙 Free Pickup
🕕 6 AM–10 PM Daily
ABS is a solo owner-operator school — Damon Zollinger is both the instructor and the business owner, similar in structure to Henderson in Kamloops. The difference here is the review pattern: unlike Henderson’s genuinely split reputation, everything we found about Damon specifically is consistently positive — calm demeanor, clear guidance, and patience with nervous students come up repeatedly across independent sources.
One specific, detailed review stood out: a student who had failed the Class 5 road test multiple times elsewhere credited Damon with identifying the exact small mistakes causing the failures and fixing them before their next attempt — a genuinely useful signal if you’ve been through the test before and it didn’t go well.
Published Pricing
The math here is straightforward: the Beginner Package works out to $135/lesson, while the Basic Package comes to $128.60/lesson — and the Basic Package also throws in a 45-minute warm-up drive and complimentary use of ABS’s vehicle for your actual road test, which you’d otherwise pay for separately elsewhere. Unless you only need a couple of lessons, the Basic Package is the better value on both counts. Prices shown exclude tax, and last-minute or late bookings may cost more.
What ABS Actually Offers
Rules of the Road to Parallel Parking
Covers the basics through to test-specific skills like parallel parking, for students of all ages.
Wide Daily Hours
Open 6 AM to 10 PM, seven days a week — one of the widest windows we found among Nanaimo schools, useful if you need an early or late slot around work or school.
Road Test Booking
ABS will book your ICBC road test for you and provide their vehicle, with pickup and drop-off included.
💡 Already failed the road test elsewhere?
One specific, detailed review describes exactly this situation — a student who’d failed Class 5 multiple times at another school, and credits Damon with pinpointing the specific small mistakes causing it. If that’s your situation, it’s worth mentioning directly when you book so lessons can focus on it.
What the Reviews Actually Show
- Damon is named consistently and only in positive terms across the sources we checked — calm, clear, professional, and extensively knowledgeable are the recurring descriptors.
- At least one detailed account describes a genuine second-chance success — a student who’d failed elsewhere multiple times, passing after working with Damon on their specific mistakes.
- We found no negative pattern for this school, unlike Henderson (split reviews) or the unnamed-negative-instructor pattern at Streetwise. As a solo-instructor operation, that consistency is a genuinely good sign, since there’s no “which instructor did you get” variable to worry about.
By the Numbers
Common Questions
Is Damon the only instructor?
Based on what we found, yes — he’s listed as the business owner and is the only instructor named across reviews and the school’s own site. That means consistent teaching style, but no alternative if the fit isn’t right.
Which package should I book?
Unless you only need a couple of lessons, the Basic Package ($643 for 5 lessons) is the better value — it’s cheaper per lesson than the Beginner Package and includes a free warm-up plus their vehicle for your road test.
Is the $35 road test fee included in the packages?
No — it’s a separate fee that applies regardless of which package you book. Factor it into your total budget.
Can I book an early morning or late evening lesson?
Published hours are 6 AM to 10 PM, seven days a week — one of the wider windows we found in Nanaimo, so early or late slots are more realistic here than at some other schools.
I’ve failed my road test before — can ABS help?
At least one detailed review describes exactly this scenario with a positive outcome. Mention your specific history when you book so Damon can focus lessons on what went wrong last time.
Who This School Is For
Straight answer: ABS is a strong pick if you want consistent, well-reviewed solo instruction with published, easy-to-compare pricing, or if you need early-morning or late-evening availability. The combination of transparent pricing, wide hours, and a genuinely consistent (not mixed) review pattern makes this one of the more straightforward choices among the Nanaimo schools we’ve profiled.
The only real limitation is the flip side of consistency: it’s a one-person operation, so there’s no backup instructor if scheduling gets tight or the teaching style genuinely isn’t a match — though nothing in the reviews suggests that’s been a common problem.
Contact ABS Driving School — Nanaimo
Nanaimo, BC V9T 6R5
absdrivingschool@shaw.ca
6:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Info compiled from ABS Driving School’s official website (absdriving.com), including its published prices page, and independent review sources. Confirm current pricing and availability directly before booking.
