Test driving a car

[nordwulf]

I am sure this process is different in many countries and even in different parts of North America.

Here in the US, most of my test drives have been short 15-minute affairs. The worst test drive for me is the one with the sales person sitting right next to me in the passenger seat. While I or he/she is talking, I can't really concentrate on the car itself and the test drive is usually a pre-determined loop around the block. Most of the time, there is no highway driving involved.

A much better test drive is just me or with someone else I know. But I still always have the feeling my time is limited and I have to get back to the dealership asap. If I am gone for more than 30 minutes, If feel the manager is going to come outside waiting for me or call the police to report a stolen car. I know this is not the case but I don't feel comfortable test driving a car for very long.

There is a large used car place from a VW/Audi/Nissan/Volvo dealer close to where I live. It happened a few times where I stopped in there and was seriously looking at a used car. It happened twice where the sales manager offered us to take the car home for the weekend and try it out. I think that's an excellent sales tool. You can drive the car on all your favorite roads, park it in your garage or driveway, see your neighbors look at it and come over for a chat, play your favorite music in it, hookup a music player, really get to know a nnavigation system etc. And most important, drive it for a day or 2 for 100 miles or more. While I didn't end up buying the car (Audi A6) because it just wasn't right for me at the time, I was very tempted because it turned out to be an excellent car over the weekend.

I wish more dealers would offer this. Perhaps some kind of program where you can just rent a car you're interested in. It doesn't necessarily have to be free. I would love to pay something like $100-200 for the weekend to rent the new Saab 9-5. And if you buy the car after the weekend, there wouldn't be any rental charges. This could be the same for any used car.

[SpecialTool]

Last time I bought a new car (last century!) a dealer loaned me an Accord overnight. I ended buying one, but from a different dealer. Needless to say the sales guy from dealerNo 1 was unimpressed, but the other guy's deal was better.