Extended Test Drives

[Moley RUFC]

I ordered a Alfa Guilia (sadly not going to see much Earlier than November) and the lease company I've ordered through sorted me a Thursday to Tuesday hire of the Speciale model that I'm getting.

Edited by Moley RUFC on Sunday 23 July 08:54

Edited by Moley RUFC on Sunday 23 July 08:55

[Bebee]

What it looks like inside when dark, how it lights up.

If it calls to you while watching TV, you can't stop think about driving it.

If your back aches.

If your ears are humming.

How it looks in the dusk light.

If you get up early to take it for a ride.

If you haven't been home in ages, wife is calling to see where you are.

Two hours is not long enough to get fully acquainted with a car, a weekend is pushing it, a week is acceptable, it is after all a big purchase that has to be the right purchase and might be long term.

I'd suggest that more cars are sold on the basis of long extended test drives.

So please, pretty please, with sugar on top, give us the fking car for a week! (££££££)

[HTP99]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Because their cars will be supplied by a fleet company who will be buying 100's or even 1000's of cars a year, not one every few years.

[em177]

I bought my house after a 3 minute walk around it. I've never test driven a car before purchase (apart from the odd used car down the road and back)

Maybe I'm odd.

[Moley RUFC]

Agree with this. I ordered my new Guilia without even seeing one in the flesh let alone driving one.

[MarkwG]

Fast Bug said:

They'll be covered by your company insurance. There is a cost to them that the supplying dealer picks up, however usually the volume of cars ordered absorbs the costs.

I think we get charged around £400 or so for booking one of the manufacturers demo vehicles. The cost includes delivery/collection, hopefully a handover of the controls and fuel.

Well the cover note invariably comes from the lease company - who pays for what is between them.

[berlintaxi]

Bebee said:

What it looks like inside when dark, how it lights up.

If it calls to you while watching TV, you can't stop think about driving it.

If your back aches.

If your ears are humming.

How it looks in the dusk light.

If you get up early to take it for a ride.

If you haven't been home in ages, wife is calling to see where you are.

Two hours is not long enough to get fully acquainted with a car, a weekend is pushing it, a week is acceptable, it is after all a big purchase that has to be the right purchase and might be long term.

I'd suggest that more cars are sold on the basis of long extended test drives.

So please, pretty please, with sugar on top, give us the fking car for a week! (££££££)

Seriously? How much do you think it would cost manufacturers and ultimately buyers to run a huge fleet of demonstrators so you can see what it looks like at dusk? If it really matters that much go and hire the equivalent model for 48 hours.

[Fast Bug]

I think some of you are very lucky you don't have a job where they just give you a car (no choice) for 3 years

[16v stretch]

My other half sells cars that range from about 60k to 150k,

She recently had a request for an 8 day test drive in one of their 100k+ cars, the guy had just got out of prison for strangling his wife, and lives in a bedsit/halfway house.

Plenty of stories from her of people getting an extended test drive then using it to take the kids to Legoland, or do a John O Groats - Lands End run it, a few where they want it an extra couple of days "to show the rest of their friends it".

One chap has had so many extended test drives that he's now been told if he even wants an accompanied drive, he has to complete a purchase order and leave a substantial deposit.

When I bought my infiniti, the extended test drive sold it, I was interested in either that or a Lexus IS300, and Lexus were struggling to even give me a 10 minute drive, my BMW, I didn't drive it until after I'd bought it.

[surveyor]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

To be fair, when I went into a dealer as a company car driver, the level of interest in even talking to me was nil.... If the manufacturers did not sort out loaners no one would.

[Fast Bug]

surveyor said:

To be fair, when I went into a dealer as a company car driver, the level of interest in even talking to me was nil.... If the manufacturers did not sort out loaners no one would.

As a company car driver, retail sales guys will have very little desire to talk to you as they know they can't sell you a car. You need to speak to the fleet sales people, even they may not be able to supply you a car though as some lease companies order via preferred suppliers (dealers that give them the greatest support level and/or rebates/kickbacks).

The best route for company car users is to speak to their fleet manager who should be able to arrange extended demos via their supplying dealers. I have demo cars delivered all over the country for some of my customers drivers, this is why we use the manufacturers demo fleet, the costs and logistics of using your own demo fleet would be far too much

[kizzz]

Went to a well known Lotus dealer near Guilford who before going through any boring bits of the purchase, gave me the keys and told me to go for the rest of the day. Even got told where the best roads were.

I did ask that i usually had to sit through a boring talk about the car before given the keys, his response was that the car sells itself and there was nothing more he could add that would sell it.

He was correct and got himself an 80k purchase. I think more dealers could learn from him.

[PixelpeepS3]

As someone previously mentioned - we also spent less than 20 minutes walking round the house we just bought (which cost x10 that of the car) than we did in the i3 before deciding to buy it.

odd isn't it..

[PomBstard]

PixelpeepS3 said:

As someone previously mentioned - we also spent less than 20 minutes walking round the house we just bought (which cost x10 that of the car) than we did in the i3 before deciding to buy it.

odd isn't it..

Fair enough. We spent around 30 mins looking at our current house. Then arranged a structural and pest inspection, a valuation from the bank, and then 2 weeks of negotiation on the price. However, we had also looked at around 80 houses over the previous 3 months, including getting through the aforementioned work with 2 others, during which time we managed to narrow down not just the locality but the streets that we were interested in. But maybe I'm just a bit picky about what I borrow money against.

As for extended test drives - the local Holden dealer was excellent - found me a VF SS wagon at 24-hours notice to take home for a day. Really do like those cars, but the lack of manual was a turn-off - all Commodores before the VF could be had with a V8-manual combo. Also the local Volvo dealer was happy for me to have an XC90 for a day/night.

Bought neither as the extended test drives let us see what we really wanted in a car, and we weren't prepared to spend $50-70k on something that wasn't what we wanted. So, not worth it for the dealer, perhaps, but helpfulness helps with word-of-mouth should any care.

[Rod200SX]

It's a weird one, no right answer in my opinion and will in most cases come down to the individual/sales team.

I looked at a used Audi S4 (b7) last year and only got a 20 minute accompanied drive, which really wasn't much use as the only interesting (even interesting is pushing it' roads nearby are some slow b-roads or a 50mph limit dual carraigeway.

On the other end of the spectrum, my dad went away on his bike for the weekend two weeks ago. Stopped past BMW on his way out of town to have a look at a KS1600 to potentially replace his k1300s. Not even looking to drive, his bags full of his and his partners clothes for the weekend etc and the salesman at the dealer let them take it away for 3 days for their trip. No deposit, just a check of insurance, let them swap over the pannier and away he went.

[oldnbold]

kizzz said:

Went to a well known Lotus dealer near Guilford who before going through any boring bits of the purchase, gave me the keys and told me to go for the rest of the day. Even got told where the best roads were.

I did ask that i usually had to sit through a boring talk about the car before given the keys, his response was that the car sells itself and there was nothing more he could add that would sell it.

He was correct and got himself an 80k purchase. I think more dealers could learn from him.

Big difference from wanting an extended test drive in a white goods euro box though isn't it.

[Swanny87]

Pay for the insurance and do a car swap with a mate?

[RB Will]

Which would be ok if anyone I know had the car I was trying to get a good drive in. I know a guy who did this with a mates superbike and he dropped it on its side. In fairness to him he got a loan and bought the bike.

I would be happy paying for fuel and a day or twos insurance if a dealer would let me have the car.

[willfmair]

An amusing comparison would be buying a pint;

weekend test drive - whole pint,

quick test drive with the dealer - tasting glass at the bar,

A bar man would never let you take the whole pint back to your table so you could have sip before deciding if you want to buy the pint and trust you to bring it back.

That two hour drive option is the 1/3 of a pint - very generous and plenty enough to see if you like it.

- No I didn't read the whole thread (I'm supposed to be working!).

- Yes I realise that buying a car is nothing like buying a pint (I'm only messing with the OP).

[jamieduff1981]

PixelpeepS3 said:

As someone previously mentioned - we also spent less than 20 minutes walking round the house we just bought (which cost x10 that of the car) than we did in the i3 before deciding to buy it.

odd isn't it..

Yes, but I suppose you walk around a house knowing that eventually you're going to change all of the seller's décor, carpets and put your own furnishings in, and furthermore it's expected that everyone "modifies" their house whereas with a car you're kinda stuck with the performance, the colour, the seats, the interior styling etc. With a house all you're really wondering is if it feels like you can work with it. With a car it actually has to be right.

I've never asked for extended test drives but have been offered and accepted a few anyway. I find them useful, but can fully understand why dealers may be reluctant. In my admittedly limited experience of them, they put me off the car more often than they've sold it.

As with all modern cars, even the fast ones are pretty boring if we're honest with ourselves and get very samey and predictable after a few miles. Cars that weren't so tediously unchallenging to drive would be called flawed by journos and the inept so we get what the market wants really. After a weekend with a Mini Cooper S you hand it back thinking "It's a nice car but now that the novelty has worn off, it's just an ordinary hatchback and not actually worth the extra money over the basic model". A weekend is long enough to get bored enough with most modern cars - even the performance ones - to decide it's not worth the money.

Another way of looking at it is that you either want the car or you don't want it after a 20min test drive. If you want it after that time, an extended test drive can only reduce the prospect of the dealer getting a sale because you'll more likely to find something you don't like during the extra time or simply get bored with the car.