Test driving a car you have no intention of buying.

King_Nothing

Haven't got time to waste testing cars for no reason. If I'm test driving it, I'm already thinking about buying it.

Alanp

I’ve only once ever test driven a car that I didn’t buy, a Peugeot 106. Test drove it and mrs didn’t like it, she couldn’t get comfortable, the salesman did his best to sell it to us but we walked away
The mrs used to work with someone who would do their shopping in town, and then find a dealer ,have a test drive to their house, and decide they didn’t like it, but they had a free ride home, cheek!,

bengalknights

As waamo states cheapest way to hire a car is take a weekend test drive (Done it with Lexus and BMW)

EssexExile

I test drive loads of cars before I buy one, I can't be meaning to buy them all.

Many years ago I fancied a Panther Kallista, second hand, I couldn't afford a new one. I phoned the factory for some information & they got the impression I was in the market for a new one & invited me down for test drive. However when I arrived I suspect they must've realised their error & denied all knowledge of the offer. I stamped my feet like an annoyed toddler & they gave in & let me drive one. I bought a secondhand one soon after, not from them though.

Clive_Woody

EssexExile wrote: »

Many years ago I fancied a Panther Kallista

Was she the one in Thundercats?

pulliptears

We wanted to lease an ioniq, local Hyundai dealer (who did lease deals) was beyond useless so we drove to the one in the next town.

When we got there we explained what we wanted and why we'd come to them. Salesman explained they didn't actually offer lease deals. We were going to walk away but it was a quiet sunday morning so he said to take it out and see what we think. Nice guy tbh, I think the reputation of the other dealer proceeded them

We did order one on lease in the end so Hyundai won out, but we ended up ordering it from the other end of the country rather than the local dealer.

scaredofdebt

I've been test-driving a few cars recently that I might be leasing.


The lease companies are all online so cannot do it through them, so using local dealers.


So arguably I am going to be "buying" the car but not from the dealer, but the manufacturer is probably not too fussed as I am buying one of their cars and not a rivals.


I have asked them for finance figures for comparison as if they can do a good deal I would consider buying from the dealer, but they can't get near to the lease figures, so lease it will be.


If you're looking to PCP a new car, look at the leasing equivalent, some real bargains.

jimbo6977

Only ever test drove 2 cars. One I bought (and still own). The other was a better built, better equipped car, and I'd have preferred it in many ways but the interior space was not sufficient, which was a shame because the dealer had gone to the effort of getting in a demonstrator from the other side of the country.

NBLondon

Way, way back - Rover did an offer to get a year's magazine subscription with a test drive. I was vaguely thinking about changing so I went along and the first question from the sales rep was "Do you actually want to drive or just the freebie?" I made him do the work even though I wasn't really ready to change for another 18 months.

scaredofdebt

In addition to the above I did quite a few mystery shopping visits for VW/Fiat and that involved test-driving a Polo and a Fiat 500.


Obviously wasn't going to buy one but they didn't know that, or did they?


Also did a mystery shopper for Mercedes, didn't involve a test drive but the salesman did sit me in an £80k car (can't remember which) and I did drool over it.



:rotfl:


Finally I did another mystery shopping job around Leeds a few years back, visited something like 12 dealerships various marques and had to haggle prices, that was a bloody long day I can tell you!