What does it take to test drive a car?

[RooflessVW]

What did you drive up in?

Dealers treat me very differently if I show up in my beater 911. They don't even look twice at the new $40k Volvo...

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog

The fastest car is a rental car

 

[OVERKILL]

It's definitely a dealer-specific thing. Years ago when I was indeed a "young punk" and wanted to test drive an '01 Cobra, they would take me out in it, but I couldn't drive it. They would not let anybody test drive the '03/'04 Cobra cars.

My Chrysler dealer doesn't normally allow test drives of things like the Hellcat for liability reasons. Not sure on the regular SRT's. I know nobody was allowed to test drive the Viper when they had a few of those in.

My experience dictates that you want to get friendly with the sales manager (or owner) and explain to him what you are doing. The sales guys don't have a lot of power. I deal with the owner on all my purchases, but I understand that this isn't generally an option.

 

[jeepman3071]

That's pretty ridiculous. I can see them wanting to keep joy riders from getting their hands on it, but #1 I'm sure the dealer techs have already joy ridden it, and #2 I'm going to guess you are over the age of 20.

A family friend had the same experience (granted, he was 24 at the time) when he tried to purchase a BMW M4. Multiple dealerships wouldn't even let him test drive it. He ended up going to Germany and buying one there, which ended up being cheaper and was a really cool experience.

 

[Vikas]

Hold on a second there pardner! You have NOT actually been denied the test drive while you were at the dealership. We all thought they turned you down in person.

Doesn't Alamo/Enterprise have Charger Hemi in their regular fleet of cars? They might even have SRT at some of the airport.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Hold on a second there pardner! You have NOT actually been denied the test drive while you were at the dealership. We all thought they turned you down in person.

Not sure why everyone thought that, but I agree, it was not clearly spelled out in OP. My bad. I did not mean to mislead anyone.

My standard MO is to arrange a test drive before showing up at the dealership so that when I get there, there are no surprises such as "the car is currently being serviced," or "someone put money down and we can't let you drive it," or "the owner's son took it for lunch," or a million other excuses. I guess this standard tactic will not work for this particular car.

Quote:
Doesn't Alamo/Enterprise have Charger Hemi in their regular fleet of cars? They might even have SRT at some of the airport.

Nothing near me.

I don't want to test drive a regular 5.7 Hemi. Totally different car/experience.

 

[IndyIan]

I guess you could just "agree" to whatever their first offer is, just to get into the car and try it out. Then not find it acceptable(for that price) and start negotiating.
Or I bet if you roll up in the Audi in person out of the blue, they would let you have a run in it anyways.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Or I bet if you roll up in the Audi in person out of the blue, they would let you have a run in it anyways.

This. Don't drive up in my F-150.

I've been lucky. When I wanted to buy my Lightning, they were very hesitant about a test drive, but I told them that was mandatory, since I'd have to order one. They had one in stock, which was spoken for. The Infiniti dealer insisted I test drive a new Q60, even though I'm not in a rush to buy by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Or I bet if you roll up in the Audi in person out of the blue, they would let you have a run in it anyways.

This. Don't drive up in my F-150.

Due to our current weather, the Q5 is so filthy dirty, I don't think they'd even notice the 4 rings on the hood.

 

[Garak]

Well, give it a fast wash and show up in it. Or, arrange an Audi test drive, and drive that to the Chrysler dealership, and go in circles.

 

[mcrn]

Maybe you could find a used one online to go test drive.

 

[wtd]

If I can't test drive without going through hoops, I don't buy. A couple of years ago I wanted to test drive the new body style Mustang GT to see how it compared to my 14 Mustang GT. The salesman copied my insurance and then threw me the keys and said enjoy. I test drove it by myself which really did surprise me since I figured he would at least go with me.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: mcrn
Maybe you could find a used one online to go test drive.

I keep looking. There aren't any near me.

 

[MuzzleFlash40]

I always bring a preapproval letter from my credit union when I’m test driving. They might be able to beat the interest rate with one of their banks but I’m not gonna let them keep hitting my credit until I’m sure that’s the vehicle I want. Then I’ll let them get me a better rate if they can and sometime they do just to get the kick back from their bank.

 

[PimTac]

I don’t think driving up in a new car guarantees a test drive. It may be dealer specific but I’m sure most dealers are on the same page. All it takes is for one person to go and wreck a car to ruin a dealers record.

The salesperson checks how serious you are to buy one. In today’s market, many consumers do their research on the internet and narrow their choices down to one or two vehicles. I did exactly that. The salesman must have figured I was serious because when I went back the following day to test drive, the car was warmed up and ready to go on a brisk 28 degree morning.

I did throw a bone in the works when I saw the car had well over 100 miles on it. They found another one with 11 miles and that’s the one I went home with.

 

[nthach]

I rarely ever test drive cars. Last one I did, Tesla just took my driver's license and gave me the fob for a Model S. Before that, I happened to be at the dealership when a friend was buying a car and I was able to sweet talk a salesman into one.

However, my parents had their car at Lexus for service - they wanted me to pick up their car, the dealer said I was OK for me to drive their service loaner(a 2017 ES350 with everything but Mark Levinson sound and the Lexus version of Toyota Safety Sense P + with rear cross traffic alert) back to the dealer. That is in a sense, a test drive.

 

[Anduril]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
RANT:
I am currently trying to narrow down the field of possible vehicles to purchase. One possibility is Charger SRT. For the longest time, none of the local Dodge dealerships had any in stock. Now, one finally has one. So I want to come in for a test drive to determine if it's even something that I should continue taking into consideration.

The dealer tells me "the only way to pull it out to test drive it is to get a credit application showing that you are a qualified buyer and we need to have already agreed to numbers, terms, and conditions showing that you are going to purchase the vehicle pending an adequate test drive."

Are you kidding me? I realize they want to filter out joy riders, but this does me no good. There is no way I am going to talk numbers or fill out any applications until I first determine that I like the car.

Is this normal?

If that's the case, then I guess I have to cross this SRT off my list.

That's nothing. My grandpa had to walk out of a dealership because they weren't going to tell him the price of a car until after he had signed paperwork to buy it.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: Anduril
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
RANT:
I am currently trying to narrow down the field of possible vehicles to purchase. One possibility is Charger SRT. For the longest time, none of the local Dodge dealerships had any in stock. Now, one finally has one. So I want to come in for a test drive to determine if it's even something that I should continue taking into consideration.

The dealer tells me "the only way to pull it out to test drive it is to get a credit application showing that you are a qualified buyer and we need to have already agreed to numbers, terms, and conditions showing that you are going to purchase the vehicle pending an adequate test drive."

Are you kidding me? I realize they want to filter out joy riders, but this does me no good. There is no way I am going to talk numbers or fill out any applications until I first determine that I like the car.

Is this normal?

If that's the case, then I guess I have to cross this SRT off my list.

That's nothing. My grandpa had to walk out of a dealership because they weren't going to tell him the price of a car until after he had signed paperwork to buy it.


Well they were probably of the school of thought where if you have to ask, you can't afford it.

 

[HemiHawk]

I remember back in 2003 Ford was asking for credit applications for people to test drive the Cobra (Terminator). By today's power standards it wasn't crazy, but I get that they wanted to weed out joyriders. Heck to see one you had to go to SVT "certified" dealers. Now standard Mustang GTs are more powerful.

If its a relatively rare vehicle, I get that they need to do something. But SRT vehicles are not that rare. From what I've heard Chrysler may be the worst about this... I had a friend with an SRT Jeep look to test drive a newer challenger SRT. They wouldn't let him unless he provided a down-payment. He was on the younger side at the time, but already owned and drove an SRT product... He bought a Corvette Stingray and sent the dealer a nice picture of his Corvette.

 

[CKN]

The dealer...their rules. If you don't like their rules find another dealer. Seems pretty simple.