Going for a Test Drive, Input Please.
 

I found a dealer that has a few FR-S's on the lot and I'm going to test drive one or the other.
Anything I should look for in the used units and how did you handle your test drive?

once you test drive, you're going to end up buying the car.

that's what happened to me lol.

Shift at 7000 rpms. That's the fun zone.

Try and get the tac to 9.

Don't simply drive it around a block or two. Try to find some fun curvy roads, or at least roads with little traffic.

After that, drive around the worst roads in the nearby area. If the feeling of the road isn't a negative to you in the area you drive frequently, then I would think your decision will be easy..

I can at least say that the sales guy that I dealt with was cool as shit. He took me to an empty parking lot to thrash the demo around. Safe to say that's all it took for me to sign the papers to have an ultramarine in my driveway since June of 2013.

There is NOTHING that handles as good as this car for the money and practicality.

If you're looking for horsepower, this is the wrong car.

Whether or not you go for this car, get to know your sales person. Don't base your buying decision on the sales person's lack of knowledge or rigid personality. You can always ask for another sales person that will be compatible with you.

Listen and feel for weird noises. Crickets are normal; tapping coming from a valve cover is not.

Put it in 5th when you would normally go to 2nd, feed it throttle, and see if the RPM rises without the car moving accordingly. Make sure the previous owner didn't abuse the clutch excessively. Shift smoothly with little to medium pressure on the stick and see if you feel grinding in the transmission. 1st to 2nd is usually a little sticky, so don't base your judgement on that alone.

Drive over a bumpy road and listen for the suspension to click or creak. Look at obvious bolt heads in the engine bay (top hats, strut bars, etc...) and see if they've been wrenched on.

Drive it for a couple miles on the freeway. See if you can handle the bumpy ride and the noise. If so... buy it!

Ask to drive it 15min. One local dealer even let me keep car for 4hrs!!!

Ask the age of the previous owner, and if the car is stock or not.

I went in to just look and maybe test drive it. Had my heart set on a Fiesta ST, especially since I could get some incentives through work.

Yeah...I was signing papers 10 minutes after driving it.

Don't crash it!

This is so damn true!

I booked an fr-s , and a fiesta ST for a test drive the same day.

The Fr-s was scheduled first. The guy at the dealership directed me down towards a really nice twisting road and told me to get it into third and to not brake.

In that 10-20 seconds of driving down the road my decision was made.

After the test drive, I cancelled my fiesta ST test drive, and by the end of the day I had bought an fr-s.