Test Drives - problems?

[R8]

Originally Posted by ahausheer

They have no motivation to let you test drive if you are not going to buy.

Except that driving an emotional car can hook someone into buying it. I had no intention of buying an RX-8 (went there to buy a Mazda3), but the evil salesman suggested I take one out while I was waiting, and... 200' down the road and I was getting out my checkbook, lol.

[waylonrobert]

Originally Posted by ahausheer

Pffff, I walked in to a Subaru dealer and checked out the BRZ. A salesman asked if Id like a test drive, I said no because it was out of my price range and I would likely get the FR-S. I also said explicitly if I drove it, it would just be for fun and I didn't want to increase the miles on someones car. He appreciated my honestly and said feel free to sit in it and check it out. 30 seconds later hes like, hell lets take a ride around the block. Probably went a half mile at most, odometer didn't even turn over. This dealership is well known for customer loyalty and if I ever get a Subaru ill go there.

Also, salesmen dont get paid at all if they dont make a sale, they only make commission. They have no motivation to let you test drive if you are not going to buy. That would put them in back of the ''line'' so to speak and could ruin their whole day.

A good salesman knows that finding an emotional weakness is an excellent strategy for closing a sale. A test drive affords that opportunity. At any rate, the salesman at the dealership didn't even ask me if I was interested in buying, so he had no way of knowing.

Originally Posted by R8

Except that driving an emotional car can hook someone into buying it. I had no intention of buying an RX-8 (went there to buy a Mazda3), but the evil salesman suggested I take one out while I was waiting, and... 200' down the road and I was getting out my checkbook, lol.

Very true. I've known plenty of people who were emotionally attached to a car after a test drive, and ended up driving it home. In fact it just happened last weekend to my cousin.

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by thill

Yeah, I don't see how any dealer can expect you buy a car without test driving it first. BS sales move. Find another dealer. At the end of the day we are taking about a $25-28K Scion here, not a $200K exotic Euro car where only a handfull are being produced...

Not really! If a Scion dealership only has 5 FR-S and all FR-S have a deposit, do you really expect them to offer test drives. Most of them probably have deposits and the best thing to do is call around.

[waylonrobert]

Originally Posted by RRnold

Not really! If a Scion dealership only has 5 FR-S and all FR-S have a deposit, do you really expect them to offer test drives. Most of them probably have deposits and the best thing to do is call around.

Well this would have been a different story had the salesman told me that the FR-S' they had were all spoken for. He didn't though.

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by waylonrobert

Well this would have been a different story had the salesman told me that the FR-S' they had were all spoken for. He didn't though.

That's because they only have 3. If you had your payment ready then would they let you test drive it? If they are hard pressed on it, don't even bother, move on.

[waylonrobert]

Originally Posted by RRnold

That's because they only have 3. If you had your payment ready then would they let you test drive it? If they are hard pressed on it, don't even bother, move on.

This goes back to my point - I don't think I should have to pay or reserve to test drive. I don't buy any major purchase without trying it first. At any rate, never once did the salesman try to "sell" the car to me - he just said he couldn't let me test drive it because of a directive from upper management. He let me sit in the car and inspect it, but that was the end of it.

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by waylonrobert

This goes back to my point - I don't think I should have to pay or reserve to test drive. I don't buy any major purchase without trying it first. At any rate, never once did the salesman try to "sell" the car to me - he just said he couldn't let me test drive it because of a directive from upper management. He let me sit in the car and inspect it, but that was the end of it.

He's actually do you a favor! I actually like these type salesman vs a salesman who won't leave you alone or won't STFU.

I'm sure everyone and their momma wants to drive the car w/out any intention of buying it. With only 3 cars on the lot, I don't blame them. I'm sure the bigger dealerships like Longo or Carson might be more flexible. Have you called around?

$$ talks, bullshit walks!

[n2oinferno]

Looked at a couple of them last week with a friend of mine who is also interested in purchasing. They had an Argento manual and Asphalt auto chilling in the parking lot, neither a color/transmission combo we really wanted, but hey they were there. It was late and I had a 2.5 hour drive home, so the guy said we could come back next (this) week and test drive if we wanted to.

Went up there Monday and the salesman was out with another customer, so we waited about 10-15 minutes for him. Both cars are in the showroom. Someone approaches us and says he's still out, but wanted to know if he could help. I told him we were offered a test drive if we came back this week and wanted to know if we still could. He said sure, he'd get someone. A minute later yet another person approaches us and asks to copy our DLs. He comes back a minute later with "that" look on his face and says the manager only allows people test driving them if they're buying today, and because he doesn't know what the other salesperson told me they can't let me drive it. In a nutshell, no test drive. Sucks, but I just told him I'd go to Subaru instead then. He stuttered a second and apologized a few times, but we walked out.

Funny thing is, they're getting a white/auto like my friend wants relatively soon according to their site. He'll might go with the Scooby now though instead since they decided to go back on their word.

[Brett]

I test drove mine. I'd never buy a car I couldn't drive first. I was looking at used Boxsters a few years ago, and the salesman let me take a spin in a brand spankin' new 911 turbo just for the hell of it.

Save the trip across town and call around until you find someone who doesn't suck.

Good luck.

Brett

[skylin3gtr013]

I went to a dealer almost two weeks ago just to check out the FR-S in person - no intention to buy yet, just to size up the car and get initial impressions. I told the salespeople up front that I was just there to look that day but they still asked if I wanted to test drive it. Ended up declining though since I'd feel bad putting miles on someone else's car; the thing had less than 10 miles on the odometer if I remember correctly, and it was the only one they had in stock.

[thill]

Originally Posted by RRnold

Not really! If a Scion dealership only has 5 FR-S and all FR-S have a deposit, do you really expect them to offer test drives. Most of them probably have deposits and the best thing to do is call around.

Go back and read the OP. I agree, dealer should not let anyone test drive a car that already had a deposit. But that is not how I read his experience. And buying a car without ever having driven it is just ridiculous.

[K2]

Here are the dates and places of upcoming Scion FR-S FIRST DRIVE events. It's not a real test drive, but it is real seat time.

June 23
Columbus, OH

June 30 - July 1
Chicago, IL

July 14
Nashville, TN

July 28
Kansas City, MO
Blue River Performance Driving Center

August 4 - 5
Dallas, TX

August 11
Houston, TX

August 25
San Antonio, TX

September 8
Phoenix, AZ

September 14 - 15
Salt Lake City, UT

September 22 - 23
Sacramento, CA

September 28
Portland, OR

October 13 - 14
Carson, CA

[poormans_LFA]

any smart car buyer isn't gonna take the "buy it then drive it" bogusness from dealers. I won't. I remember when the Camaro SS first came out, it was the same BS, "this is a HOT car, not many are being made and we're not allowing test drives to keep the miles low". I get the keeping the miles low part, but if a customer really cares about that stuff they'll just order a car that will have been SOLD by the time it hits the lot where no one other than dealer personnel will be able to drive the car. I'm not going to buy ANY car without driving it. let the hype ware down and in time you'll be able to go on a more than decent test drive, and if they act like they're doing you a favor by being all arrogant: walk. it's that simple.

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by Kimsey47

I have the BRZ, but I'd imagine you're going to see this A LOT from both sides. I'd say you're basically going to have to be in the position to say yes or no after you've already displayed you can afford (credit etc) to purchase the car. In my case I'd pre-ordered and did all my paperwork before actually driving the car. Had I changed my mind we'd torn the paperwork up, but I was sold.

Lol same thing here, i got the test drive after i signed. I was having second thoughts but they went away as soon as i was behind the wheel.