Test drive etiquette

[TonyTony]

I went to Toyota and straight up told the guy I didn't want to buy the brand new £27,000 GT86 demo but I had seen one I'm interested in elsewhere and I wondered what it drove like.

He let me straight out on a test drive and switched seats with my mate who drove it back.

[unrepentant]

sealtt said:

I can only imagine the sales guys in here are dealing in low commission products. Hence why they don't have any value in spending much time with any individual customer, especially one that is not high % likelihood of conversion. With high commission products / brand then there is much more motivation to spend time with any low-mid % chance buyer.

No, you're completely wrong again. With high grossing / high commission products there is much more motivation to be smart with your qualifying so that spend your quality time with buyers and less time with shoppers. If for instance you spend 3 hours with a shopper you may well miss a buyer, that's why you qualify. The skill is being able to tell the difference so that you can sell to a buyer and give a shopper what they want and need without appearing to hurry them. I've had customers who I've exchanged 50 emails and spent 2 work days on in selling them a car and I'm happy to do it. I've also had customers with whom I've spent hours and hours after the sale doing repeated hand overs (there's a lot of technology on these cars, especially if the customer is 87 years old as one lady was this week) and I'm happy to do it. For my customers I want to be their car guy and I'm prepared to spend a lot of time with them. It pays off as I have many multiple customers and lots of referrals. At the same time I want to be able to give them my time and not spend it with someone going round the city test driving cars they can't afford and have no intention of buying for fun.

[Eynham58]

Am currently in a 10 day test drive with a Hertz rental car http://www.hertzcarsales.co.uk/ ? There are a few negatives to contend with like it's hard to get the exact car you want but their pricing is good and pushy sales.

[Ste1987]

Eynham58 said:

Am currently in a 10 day test drive with a Hertz rental car http://www.hertzcarsales.co.uk/ ? There are a few negatives to contend with like it's hard to get the exact car you want but their pricing is good and pushy sales.

Seems like a good idea, that. Wonder if other rental companies will do same? I know dealers tend to buy ex-rental cars for used stock and offering them at good prices, but clearly not as good as buying from the rental company direct