Test drive

[why?]

Cars.com is a great place to find cars both at dealerships and individuals.

But you are looking at this the wrong way. Hunt for the local group, either on here or on facebook. There will be someone that will let you take a drive of there car and they will know where to drive it. I'm sure a case of beer or a $20 will be worth it.

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by Kgm32

I am in the early stages of buying a new coupe and i can test drive Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, RC350s, Corvettes and z370s on my lunch hour and not have to make a day of it. I like the looks of the BRZ/86 but if I can't find the time to test drive one so be it.

The 86 is a completely different experience compared to the cars you've listed. It's a lightweight momentum car. I think the best comparison to any modern day car would be a Miata.

What have you driven in the past?

What @why? said above.

[GrantedTaken]

Drive the hour.
Why is this a thread?
We need more pugs!

Sat
7am wake up
7:15am leave.
8:15 test drive
8:30 leave
9:30 eat breakfast start your normal day.

[raisingAnarchy]

Originally Posted by Kgm32

Well the original intent of the post was to question how toyota and subaru expect to sell any of these cars if there not available to test drive especially in a market the size of Detroit but extraskanky turned it into being about how far I will or will not drive. I said in one of my earlier posts that I would drive to Ann Arbor, the closest dealership that has one, if I can find the time and I was all set to fly to Miami earlier this year to buy one of the last remaining new blue Genesis Coupes remaining until the deal fell through, so distance is not the issue.

As to your question is the car not worth it the answer is IDK. It would be nice if I could go to one of the near by Toyota or Subaru dealerships and find out. I am in the early stages of buying a new coupe and i can test drive Mustangs, Challengers, Camaros, RC350s, Corvettes and z370s on my lunch hour and not have to make a day of it. I like the looks of the BRZ/86 but if I can't find the time to test drive one so be it.

I'm sure Subaru and Toyota would love nothing more than to make more sales with the BRZ/86 platform, but it seems that a couple of things are happening here. Someone mentioned already that we're caught in between deliveries of the 2017 and 2018 model years, so the cars are really just on the way at the moment.

The second thing is that the dealers are responsible for local inventory. Subaru/Toyota can't make a dealer buy a car from them to sell, or have any say in what options the dealer orders their car with. I'm sure it doesn't help that you're in Detroit where I'd guess that "buying American" is more important to your area, and the people that do want an imported car likely want AWD.

I'm from Cleveland OH so I'm seeing the same thing. BRZs are rare, and when I do see them at the dealer, they're often the test drive mule with 450+ miles being sold as new. People are afraid of RWD cars in the north for some reason too, convinced that the car can't move in winter time if it doesn't have AWD, regardless of the tires equipped.

[wild03]

Originally Posted by extrashaky

[wild03]

Originally Posted by raisingAnarchy

..Someone mentioned already that we're caught in between deliveries of the 2017 and 2018 model years, so the cars are really just on the way at the moment...

Is this true? It would seem that the 2019 should be the ones rolling out by late august, no? I saw a few 2019 models at the dealer but none BRz, mostly WRX and their suvs.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Kgm32

Good to know guess I move on and get the rc350.

Meh never mind Extra he get's a bit crotchety sometimes. I wouldn't want to drive an a hour around Detroit unless I had to either.

[Hot-Lava_Dave]

Originally Posted by Kgm32

How many here were able to test drive a BRZ before purchasing? I can't find one within 100 miles of me (Detroit area). The nearest 86 is even an hour away. Not sure how they sell these cars .

I'm in MI and Suburban Toyota in Troy commonly has 86 models to test drive.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by Kgm32

Well the original intent of the post was to question how toyota and subaru expect to sell any of these cars if there not available to test drive especially in a market the size of Detroit

Okay, I'll answer your question directly. Toyota and Subaru do NOT expect to sell many of these cars. They are a niche car with limited production numbers. The people in this car's niche market willingly travel several hours to test drive one. Without whining about it.

Local dealers don't like the cars because there are very few trim levels and options. One of the goals for a car salesman is to sell you as much car as you can afford. If you come in looking at an Impreza, can I upsell you a WRX? If you settle on the WRX, can I add options onto your order to wring more money out of you?

Having additional trims and options can also be used as additional bargaining chips to deflect your attention away from bad price or loan terms. If they have a customer complaining about the terms, they can offer to throw in relatively inexpensive options to sweeten the deal.

Dodge has mastered this in a ridiculous fashion with the Charger and Challenger. Go look at the builds on those things. You have pages and pages of different versions of the cars, with different option packages, different stand-alone upgrades, literally hundreds of combinations you can build. Someone starting out expecting to pay $35K can easily find himself financing a $50K car instead after a few rounds of add-ons and some slick talk about monthly payments.

With the BRZ, you basically have two trim levels without many differences between them and very few options to add on. Either you want the car or you don't. That means a Subaru salesman's only real upselling opportunity is to offer you a test drive in a WRX instead (which is what my salesman did), but that rarely works in his favor. The Toyota dealer really has nothing at all to offer as an upgrade, since Toyota has locked itself in perpetual competition with GM to see who can produce the most boring vehicles on the planet.

So the margin on the BRZ and 86 remains low, and there's not a lot of incentive for the dealership to order many of them. If you want to drive one, you'll have to find a dealer willing to keep one on the lot.

But that's okay, because a serious buyer for this car will be willing to make the drive. Without all the tearful hand-wringing.

[AnotherSlowAE86]

I've bought and sold a lot of cars in my time. I've never been denied a test drive on anything I've inquired about. I've been invited by salesman to drive cars that were $50,000 and up. Stuff clearly out of the budget I told them I wanted to spend.

I suspect this is due to me dressing nice, having a high credit score and a history with the dealerships of buying cars. If you look like somebody to be taken seriously, more than likely they'll take you seriously. Granted my experiences are mine and yours may vary.

[why?]

Too true, I drove 2 hours and had a horrid dealership experience where they did not announce they were redoing their parking lot and 90% of their cars you couldn't drive. I still went back the next week to drive the car. Then The salesman was an imbecile who had no clue and would never have been able to sell anything outside of a Subaru or Toyota dealership because of their rabid fan bases and loyalty. I told him to go screw and bought a car somewhere else.

[AnotherSlowAE86]

Originally Posted by why?

Too true, I drove 2 hours and had a horrid dealership experience where they did not announce they were redoing their parking lot and 90% of their cars you couldn't drive. I still went back the next week to drive the car. Then The salesman was an imbecile who had no clue and would never have been able to sell anything outside of a Subaru or Toyota dealership because of their rabid fan bases and loyalty. I told him to go screw and bought a car somewhere else.

Glad you went some where else. I think a lot of car salesman forget that you can find a car some where else with ease. Unless the car is rare, then there's absolutely zero reason to put up with any bullshit. Even if it is rare.. my tolerance would be low for any trouble from a sales person.

[Clutch]

The first (Subaru) dealership I ever visited was Carlsen Subaru in Redwood City, CA. They don't let people test-drive BRZs or WRXs because supposedly any mileage would deter potential buyers in that demographic


I test-drove and purchased my car elsewhere

[Brooklyn]

Back when I bought mine in 2013, in my area at least, at least one Subaru dealer did not let me test drive the car which lead me to believe that they were either trying to deter non-serious buyers from just test driving for fun, and/or wanted to create some hype that this was some sort of rare super car. I'd be interested to know if this was the case nowadays.