Gary Thomson and Middletown Driving School

02/07/2026

11/12/2025

Middletown and Gary Thomson Driving School were established over 25 years ago in the Monmouth county area. For the last 20+ years, our instructors have devoted time to teach student across all age groups by providing exceptional instructions. We offer customized sessions for clients with many different needs. We specialize in teen driving. Call today 732-450-1400

03/14/2025

Nobody knows driver safety like our instructors. Safe driving is achievable by all with the proper awareness, training, and action. That's were we step in. It is so important to set rules for our teen drivers, let us help you today.

Call Today 732-450-1400

08/04/2024

Crazy Schedule?! Not to worry we have afternoon, evening and weekend lessons available... Call today 732-450-1400

01/31/2024

𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒂𝒇𝒆𝒕𝒚 𝒕𝒊𝒑 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒔

store an emergency kit
keep an ice scraper/brush in the car
change to winter wiper blades if necessary
Check all four wheels for winter

“All-season tires or summer tires are going to harden up at about 45 degrees,” says 𝑮𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒕𝒐𝒏, an 𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒆𝒓 at 𝑮𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝑴𝒊𝒅𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑫𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒔 in 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒚 , 𝑵𝑱. “When the rubber hardens up, you lose your grip on the road, even in the best of conditions.”

Winter tires are designed specifically for the rubber to stay soft and pliable and grip the road, even in extreme temperature conditions where it reaches 20 below zero.

1. A handy rule of thumb: If the air is cold enough to see your breath, you should have winter tires on your vehicle.

2. Understand winter road conditions.
Everyone must anticipate that less-than-ideal road surfaces will result in reduced grip, and drivers will need to brake earlier. “For a new driver who just got his license in April, that driver has become accustomed to driving on a nice dry surface with perfect grip,” says George. “Now you may be suddenly faced with less-than-perfect road conditions and grip.”

3. Drive for conditions, not posted speed.
An obvious winter driving tip is that getting around in winter can take longer, so adjust your speed to conditions instead of trying to maintain the speed limit. Traction control, stability control, and anti-lock brakes help you control your vehicle. These tools “will not help you very much if you are exceeding speed for the conditions,” says George.

4. Learn how to brake on winter roads.
It’s important to learn how to use the brakes safely during bad driving conditions. If you feel like you are going too fast, warns George, adjust your speed gently. Take your foot off the gas, as slamming on the brakes may cause the car to skid. When you do use your brakes, do so gently and earlier than you would in non-winter conditions. Driving slowly is important during the winter; drivers can lose control of a car when they hit the brakes hard on an icy road. This is true even on cars equipped with safety features, like anti-lock brakes and stability control.

5. Look where you want to go.
Practice situational awareness, especially in bad driving conditions, and look up over the front of your vehicle instead of down at the road. “Sit back in your seat, with relaxed body language, instead of hunching up over the wheel,” says George . “Keep your eyes as far down the road as possible, scanning from left to right, so you have as much time as possible to respond.”

6. Practice with an adult.
A new driver’s first experience with winter driving should not happen during a major blizzard. Under close supervision, let your teen practice slow speed maneuvers and braking on a wide open snow- or ice-covered parking lot. Consider limiting your teen’s driving on slippery conditions to daylight hours until your new driver has gained experience.

08/24/2022

Who’s diggin’ the new labeling on the cars ?!
Another great job from our labeling guy …
The kids seem to dig the new looks

09/06/2021

Thanking my crew today! With all the changes they never disappoint. Middletown and Gary Thomson Driving School were established over 20 years ago in the Monmouth county area. For the last 20 years, our instructors have devoted time to teach student across all age groups by providing exceptional instructions. We offer customized sessions for clients with many different needs. The training can focus on city or Highway driving depending on your needs utilizing dual brake and safe automatic vehicles. We specialize in teen driving. Call today 732-450-1400

03/17/2020

With the closures of all DMV's we are working diligently on rescheduling and working all lesson situations out. Thank you kindly for your patience as we sort through each and every child at this time. Between 3 schools there are hundreds of children coming through the schools and we are handling families one by one. Like all of you, our driving school family eagerly awaits more clarity and certainty and looks forward to welcoming your children back 100%. Until then we hope you and your families stay healthy and safe. Please know you are all in our prayers. Thank you for being a loyal customer! We look forward to giving you the best possible full service driving school again very shortly. Feel free to call 732-450-1400 with any questions as I will rarely go on FB during this extremely busy time rescheduling all our families.

Best,
George

03/09/2020

When my daughter thought she was so cool hanging out in the challenger!!!! DADDY THIS CAR IS SO COOL and RED!!!
Goes by too quick!!

11/04/2019

Our Instructors love what they do and it shows through the ongoing friendships we have with our past and present students and families.

11/03/2019

Learning to drive takes hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to achieve an adequate level of mastery. Our driving schools recognize this and explicitly include a partnership between the school (which provides the high-quality training) and the parents/adults (who provide the supervised practice, which reinforces this training). Two-way communication is important.

Middletown and Gary Thomson driving schools provide all of our students and their families with areas in need of deliberate practice, while students and their families in most cases inform us about driving challenges and we most certainly take this seriously and go over that in addition.

Our schools do not rush this learning process. We take this very seriously. Including myself. I too have a daughter. The kids are the top priority. Although the classroom portion of the program is important, behind-the-wheel training is critical. Not all drivers are the same, and some will need extra practice in certain areas. We have always and remain to teach at your teen’s particular pace.

Our lessons consist of 3, 2 hour lessons. When scheduling the road test the refresher is most definitely a 30 minute refresher both in car and going over things before your childs road test. We do not rush or jip any child of this refresher. The most we do is 2 children in the car the day of. Our instructors are some of the best there is in Monmouth county. They have been helping local children for 15+ years. There is a reason for this. I am sure our behind-the-wheel training is thorough and my instructors are respecful. These driving lessons are all planned out ahead of time based on the teen driver’s experience to date.

Please know that I am in my 20th year. Your children are my top priority now and always. We have thousands of children that come through. We are positive that most of your children have all had a good experience here during a nervous time for some. I am glad that you have all allowed us to be apart of this journey with your children.

10/27/2019

If more than one vehicle arrives at a four way stop simultaneously, which vehicle goes first?

ANSWER: Always yield to the person on the right