Chevy refused a test drive

[fdcg27]

IDK.
Rarely have I looked at any car new or used and not had the keys just flipped to me.
Were I interested in a vehicle and been told by a salesman that I couldn't take a joyride in a truck that is realistically no more than medium priced at actual retail, not sticker, I'd have given him a throwaway remark to the effect that I know where I won't be buying my next one.
The dealer is there to serve you. Your buying from them today, tomorrow or next year is what pays their bills and keeps them in business.
A test drive is never a favor. It's marketing at its most basic.
It can be difficult to resist the appeal of a new vehicle one could use and that one could afford to buy.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I had a motorcycle dealership I was looking at bikes at refuse to let me even sit on a particular bike, and it wasn't sold. Guess they were afraid people would scratch it or something. Went to another dealer, sat on the bike and bought it. Called the first dealer and told the store manager about it. They probably don't care anyway, figuring someone else will come by and buy eventually.

 

[sxg6]

I didn't read through this whole thread, I just wanted to say something very similar happened to me many years ago. I was at an acura dealer, and I wanted to test drive a used car they had on the lot, an infiniti g35. The sales person was great, no issues with her... However, when she went to photocopy my license, the sales manager was with her when she came back. He basically asked me if I liked the car, would i buy it today, or something along those lines. I said I wasn't going to make any promises. He said he wasn't going to let me test drive the car then. I was furious. The sales woman appeared to be on my side, super apologetic, wanted to let me do it, but he wasn't having it. He eventually gave in and let me take it for a quick test drive.

 

[HM12460]

A bit unusual for Berger. They are a high volume dealership. Similar incident happened to me at Toyota of Grand Rapids, just a few blocks down the road on 28th. st.

 

[Panzerman]

I always hear that question are you going to buy today, what do have to do to get you to buy today line. I always tell them I don't ever spend that much money without sleeping on it. I never noticed it having any bearing on the test drive.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
I have no love for dealer salespeople but if you don't have an intention to buy, you're just wasting their time asking for a test drive. Yes he was unprofessional with his reaction but just asking him in the first place was somewhat pointless.

So you have to "buy it today" to get a test drive? That's throwing all your bargaining power down the drain. When you give give away your right to go elsewhere it's not going to be "discount city" where you are.

What 'bargaining power'? To bargain for what? He had no plans on buying the truck!

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
No test drive? Not buying the car. Period.

I cannot fathom what these idiots are thinking.


I like the ads that say "No test pilots".

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
On the last dealership purchase, on a Sunday at 630PM (banks closed), I wrote a personal check for $5000 as I always do. Finance guy is a total dunce. Goes on and on and on about how he will come repo the car himself, and send the Sheriff to arrest me for writing a bad check if it bounces. Tells me he doesn't like taking personal checks, and that he is DEAD serious. If I write a bad check, the Sheriff is coming to arrest me. At the time I was a Sheriffs deputy, so I highly doubt that I would throw away a $55K a year job plus benefits to write a $5000 bad check. Idiot. His attitude almost nuked the deal.


Last time I used a personal check, it was for 10k, it was a small independent dealer that went to the auctions. He basically took it without any questions, although we knew the same people and I was a referral of someone he knew. I was ready to bring a bank check too but he told me to just bring a personal check.


When my uncle bought his Ranger, he was going to get the exact price, then get a bank check. The seller told him he would take a personal check, which made my uncle happy. Well, for about thirty seconds...he then realized he didn't HAVE any checks, and hadn't written a check in years. (He paid with his debit card.)

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Yeah, I heard the same thing over my gun store rant that I need therapy too. Some people just handle eating a [censored] sandwich better than others.
When we were looking for a Dodge Challenger. The local Dodge dealer where I bought my truck 10 years ago, the sales manager came out and told us take a New Challenger Scat Pack home drive it to work if we don't like it bring it back, no hard feelings. My wife said No she felt funny about doing that, I was all for it. We ended up buying the car but this wasn't the first dealership that did this.
Several times I did take a Cadillac for the weekend.
We bought some, just returned others. No pressure or issues as promised.


When I bought my Magnum, I looked at a couple of other cars...and was offered a CTS for a weekend. I was a casually dressed guy (work pants, boots, and a sweatshirt, more than likely), driving a 14-year-old Caprice station wagon. I wasn't able to test-drive a Hemi Magnum (dealer didn't have any in RWD), but was offered a Charger (a loaded R/T Road-Track) for a weekend.

Only one place refused a test drive...the salesman I talked to was willing, but after about ten minutes, he could not find a dealer plate. (He was quite apologetic, and said the manager should be back from lunch soon with a plate.)

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I had a motorcycle dealership I was looking at bikes at refuse to let me even sit on a particular bike, and it wasn't sold. Guess they were afraid people would scratch it or something. Went to another dealer, sat on the bike and bought it. Called the first dealer and told the store manager about it. They probably don't care anyway, figuring someone else will come by and buy eventually.


That first place sounds like the type of dealer that still has a new 2015 in the showroom.

 

[bunnspecial]

Originally Posted By: Panzerman
I always hear that question are you going to buy today, what do have to do to get you to buy today line. I always tell them I don't ever spend that much money without sleeping on it. I never noticed it having any bearing on the test drive.


Here's another sort of funny one along those lines.

A dealer in town has a Jag S-type R on their lot. I've thought about buying it, but the thought of a 100K+ supercharged Jag does scare me some. I've "tire kicked" a few times but haven't driven it.

In any case, the local credit union(where I do all my banking) has a big car sale every year. Basically all the dealers in town bring a bunch of cars out, and of course are ready to deal. One of the "attractions" to get people out there to look is to sign up for a decent sized cash drawing-I think this year it was $2500, and you could get up to three additional entries for test driving cars. I made no apology about the fact that I just went out there mostly to sign up for the drawing and also to just see what the dealers in town had without having to make an effort to visit every lot.

All of that aside, I was looking at the S-type. I really didn't WANT to talk to anyone-I was just looking in the window, walking around, etc, but a salesman came up anyway with the keys. He was SUPER high pressure even though him I had just seen the car and wanted a close up look at it-I was straight forward with the fact that I wasn't going to buy it that day, didn't want to drive it, and after I thought about it I knew where to find it. He kept asking me what it would take to get me to buy it that day, and I kept saying "I don't make 5 figure purchases without thinking them over." The car was stickered at $10,995 and after I'd said that about a half dozen times he said "What if I could get it down to $9,995-then it's not 5 figures any more." I told him that he was splitting hairs, I'd still be five figures out the door, and that it was too much for an impulse buy. When he started chasing me, I finally said "I was serious when I said I'd come and look at it one day this week, but with the way you've acted I don't see any scenario where I'd buy this car" and finally I managed to leave.

BTW, that was 3 months ago, and the car is still sitting on their lot. If it weren't for elephant in the room of an old supercharged car, I'd probably go talk(guessing it would be a lot cheaper than $10K now) but it's just not the right car for me right now.

 

[ArcticDriver]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I had a motorcycle dealership I was looking at bikes at refuse to let me even sit on a particular bike, and it wasn't sold. Guess they were afraid people would scratch it or something. Went to another dealer, sat on the bike and bought it. Called the first dealer and told the store manager about it. They probably don't care anyway, figuring someone else will come by and buy eventually.


I see the policy of no test rides to be far more common with motorcycles than other vehicles.

Go figure.

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I had a motorcycle dealership I was looking at bikes at refuse to let me even sit on a particular bike, and it wasn't sold. Guess they were afraid people would scratch it or something. Went to another dealer, sat on the bike and bought it. Called the first dealer and told the store manager about it. They probably don't care anyway, figuring someone else will come by and buy eventually.


Some people (not you) are posers and daydream of buying motorcycle and salesmen don't like it.

What kid of motorcycle did you buy ?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Originally Posted By: ZeeOSix
I had a motorcycle dealership I was looking at bikes at refuse to let me even sit on a particular bike, and it wasn't sold. Guess they were afraid people would scratch it or something. Went to another dealer, sat on the bike and bought it. Called the first dealer and told the store manager about it. They probably don't care anyway, figuring someone else will come by and buy eventually.


Some people (not you) are posers and daydream of buying motorcycle and salesmen don't like it.

What kid of motorcycle did you buy ?


That was back when I bought my 2000 Suzuki Hayabusa. Still have the bike. I never test rode one before purchase because I knew the performance, etc is what I wanted based on reading reviews and owner comments. I just wanted to see how the bike felt sitting on it before I bought it. I never asked any dealers for a test ride.

I did however test ride the 2016 Yamaha XSR900 I bought last summer. Of course the dealer was trying to get me to commit to the purchase if I took the test ride, but I told them I'll decide to buy it or not after the test ride ... I ended up buying it that day.

 

[Astro14]

All of you guys talking about bargaining power and fair treatment are ignoring the fact that the OP told the salesman, up front and plainly, that he had no intention of buying the truck.

Ever.

So, why should the salesman let him drive it?

Seems reasonable that wear & tear on their demo vehicle, not to mention their salesman's time, should be for potential buyers. Neither the time or wear are free...

 

[RooflessVW]

^ Yuuuuup!

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
All of you guys talking about bargaining power and fair treatment are ignoring the fact that the OP told the salesman, up front and plainly, that he had no intention of buying the truck.

Ever.

So, why should the salesman let him drive it?

Seems reasonable that wear & tear on their demo vehicle, not to mention their salesman's time, should be for potential buyers. Neither the time or wear are free...


No, he said he was not buying THAT DAY. Reread tbe first post!

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
Originally Posted By: Astro14
All of you guys talking about bargaining power and fair treatment are ignoring the fact that the OP told the salesman, up front and plainly, that he had no intention of buying the truck.

Ever.

So, why should the salesman let him drive it?

Seems reasonable that wear & tear on their demo vehicle, not to mention their salesman's time, should be for potential buyers. Neither the time or wear are free...


No, he said he was not buying THAT DAY. Reread tbe first post!


You're right - I re-read it.

He said that he wasn't buying it that day.

So, here's the question - what, exactly did he say?

Because every time I've been interested in a car, and chatted with a salesman, the salesman has offered the test drive. I've test-driven lots of cars, and turned down test drives when I wasn't serious, or didn't have the time.

I'm curious why the OP was treated that way.

Now, I will say this; when I used to park my 1990 4 Runner out front of a car dealership, I could make it all the way to the parts department without being bothered, but when I park my S-class out front, I can't even make it to the door of any car dealership without a salesman approaching me...

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle


No, he said he was not buying THAT DAY. Reread tbe first post!


Everyone says they're not buying today. A real salesperson changes that to today, an order taker does what happened to the OP.

I ran into this buying a hot tub, the guy asked me no less than a dozen times if I was buying today, and in other statements like "but you're not buying today". I was so annoyed I wouldn't have taken the thing if he gave it to me - went to his competition that he bashed and bought there. Funny thing, the guy in that store never asked if I was buying today, but got me to ask him if I could buy today!

 

[Mr Nice]

Image is everything. A Benz driver your age is affluent and has money to spend.
Guy in old truck is on a very limited budget, salesman don't want to bother.

I had airbag recall and a few salesmen offered to show me new Hondas, I said no thanks.

 

[Astro14]

Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Image is everything. A Benz driver your age is affluent and has money to spend.
Guy in old truck is on a very limited budget, salesman don't want to bother.

I had airbag recall and a few salesmen offered to show me new Hondas, I said no thanks.


True - the image (which is a superficial and specious estimation of money to spend) matters because sales people are going to focus on those with whom they think they've got the best chance of a sale.

I will say that I walked into my favorite Toyota dealership (excellent folks all around, Charles Barker Toyota on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach), on two successive days, dressed basically the same (leather shoes, jeans and polo shirt) and with my son, to get Toyota Parts.

I remarked, on the second day, as we parked the S600, "watch, we won't make it to the front door before somebody says hello"...and I was right...it was a great data point - no other variables besides what I drove to get there...

If a salesman approaches me in a dealership and I am honest, they usually want me to take a drive. For example, "yeah, I'm thinking about getting my daughter a car when she graduates in a few months"...there is a test drive offer. I'm not buying that day, I was crystal clear on that, and I'm not even thinking about this model...but they want me to get in the car.

Now, at the Maserati dealership, with the S-class out front, a test drive was offered, and I declined. I was honest with the guy (and my son was with me again) when I told him, "he's going to college, and it costs about as much as one of your cars, so, while they're beautiful, I'm really not in a position to buy..." The guy appreciated my directness...again, the test drive was offered...

So, what's the difference with the OP? Dealership policy? Jerky salesman? Appearance? Something he said that triggered the guy?

Maybe, if you have to ask for a test drive, they're not that interested in you, or they don't think you're a viable prospect...I've never had to ask...