Team-BHP - Would you pay for a longer duration test-drive?

The test drives offered at dealerships leave a lot to be desired.

1. They are usually short. I was barely given a km test drive of the celerio.
2. Dealing with the over enthusiastic and factually incorrect salesmen takes away the little remaining time that we need for a satisfying drive.
3. Poor conditions of cars and limited variant availability.

I have seen a couple of my friends using zoomcar for test driving their shortlisted cars. They find it much better as they get a lot of time for it.

That left me wondering if it makes more sense to pay for 6/12/24 hour test drive? That way its a win-win, the dealer can maintain his car, owner gets a real feel of the car before the purchase decision.

Skoda does extensive test drives. In fact they even insist your regular driving route and bring the car for a drive to your work (which i believe is the regular driving route).

On request they even let you drive on highway. Thats how exactly i fell in love with Superb.

Honda does in pockets based on sales guy.

The worst part of test drive/ride is motorcycle. KTM 390 for example was horrible letting you test ride for 100meters. Idiots.

I didnt bother about their demand and the sales guy was pillion. So he could only hope i get back in time. I took a nice big ride testing even the brakes. He was upset but i could care less for if i am buying it i want to test it.

Sorry state is the super bikes. YOu just hope thats the bike that will suit you :)

6/12/24 hrs is fine. But if i am the dealer my price would be 5000/8000/12000 for the time period for a simple reason that you dont misuse this facility and are serious about buying it.

Will you be ready to pay that much ? :)

I won't pay for it! Test drives are normally short, and they serve the purpose well. It gives you a idea on how the car actually drives on normal road compared to paper specs. A 10-15 minutes drive on mixed road conditions is all i need to judge a car well for road manners.

Majority of test drives for cars above 10L were satisfactory for me. The recent example is Mahindra Scorpio from Gurgaon dealership, they let us drive on our choice of roads. What's intolerable at times is over enthusiastic sales person, best choice is to ignore him.

I'd rather pay to have a more sensible sales person.

Would definitely not pay. The dealerships already extracts a lot of money under different names (handling charges, rto charges, expensive insurance etc) and I would not want to pay more money to them.

Mostly for in demand models during weekends, the crowd is so high that the test drives become a joke. The actual Creta TD last week which I did was supposed to be just around a km (I missed the U Turn and hence got a longer ride). For such models, allowing paid drive for several hours would mean waiting days or weeks for a TD slot

I have noticed that if you drop in during a non peak time, most dealers are willing to give extensive test drives.

In this age of cut-throat competition, I believe I'll be doing the manufacturer a royal favour by buying its car. As such, expecting me to pay for a test drive is kind of cute.

Reminds me of when I checked up with the local VW dealer regarding the Polo GT TSi. "Saar, this is the TSi. Special model. We dont give test drive of Polo TSi. People who buy TSi want only TSi. They dont ask for test drives". OK. Thank you. Ta Ta. Bye bye. The good folks at Honda got full benefit of this attitude.

Regardless, I prefer asking salespeople to bring the car to my place instead of me going to the showroom. This way, their insistence on a particular route or duration gets done away with by default and I get also to confirm if the vehicle fits in my driveway or scrapes its underside on the ramp.

Thrice I took TD of VW Vento and twice of Polo at Navsari VW showroom. Never once did the sales guy show any sort of discomfort. It was pretty satisfying because he respected the fact that it is someone's hard earned money being invested into a car.
It feels great when we deal with such a well mannered person. Who needs to pay when we have better sales personnel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chintu_91 (Post 3766761)

Good Point. A well informed sales person will understand the need for a good quality TD. When I was in the process of buying my TSI, I was confused between the Polo TSI and Vento TSI. I did 3-4 TD's of the Polo TSI in VW Whitefield Bangalore. The SA was very accommodating and understanding.

Also had to go to another showroom (VW Palace Cross) to TD the Vento TSI and there also the SA was a knowledgeable chap who understood my dilemma and helped with multiple TD.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VW2010 (Post 3766576)

Skoda does extensive test drives. In fact they even insist your regular driving route and bring the car for a drive to your work (which i believe is the regular driving route).

Thanks to @Shankar Balan who guided me way back in 2012 to Skoda sales person. You are absolutely right. They made me test drive the vehicle (Yeti in that case) throughout Marthahalli ring road, back and forth. The only gripe was they made me drive the vehicle that the sales rep was using for his long drives.

Incidentally, went to royal enfield showroom in Coimbatore 2 weeks back. The sales guy made me test drive 4 vehicles and asked me to drive atleast 5 kms in traffic conditions (for each vehicle). Thought that was pretty nice of him. Infact he did not have a Bullet 500 as it had gone for service. So he sent one of his guys to the service center to pick the regular Bullet 500 while I was driving the classic.

Personally would prefer this "delight" factor a sales guy can give. To me, investing in test drives is similar to oil dredgers investing in drilling the core to seek oil lol:

In a metro like Delhi with options galore , I'll simply walk into a different dealer showroom if my current one doesn't give me a good enough test drive. This works 90% of the times. For the other 10% you have friends, relatives etc... and if everything fails, we have the team-bhp reviews. :)

So, NO - I am not paying for a test drive.

Hmmm my test drive experiences in the last few years of vehicles across a wide range, from Innova to the Nano including the Sumo Grande and the Renault Pulse indicate that the sales guy will humour you if you insist on a different route or a longer one. And in most cases the vehicle was brought to my office or home at a mutually convenient time.

So, nope, I wouldn't pay.

At the same time I must say using the Zoom Car service to test the finer points about your desired car is a very innovative idea. Even after an extensive test drive there will be certain factors you can only experience after buying the car. Is it comfy for long durations? Do you have to frequently adjust the mirrors? Do you feel a back or leg pain after a four hour drive? Is it a pain to back the car up into a tight space? Believe me, I think my M800 was much easier to back up into a tight space than my Nano!

I might pay for the fuel, if need be. Nothing more.

Btw, when I test drove an Etios Liva for a friend, the sales guy did not mind an extended test drive and even insisted I drive it further. When we went again for a second test drive, he happily obliged and we test drove the Liva again with all the time at hand. Experiences such as these will remain with me and when I go to purchase my next car, I know where I'll be going.

The worst test drive offered (?) was by Honda 2Wheelers when I wanted a test drive for the Trigger / Unicorn "Just ride a friend's Unicorn and come back to us", and "This is Honda, why do you need a test drive? People just buy blindly". True story @ Fortune Honda.

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeybee (Post 3766869)

This indeed is a very good Idea hire a car for a day or two and one can check the way the car behaves in all the conditions and eventually take a call.

Cheers,
Pdma.

I would not ever pay. If these people are maintaining a dealership, making fat margins on each sale, each spare, and each service, I expect them to treat a customer like a customer who's going to buy and swell up their coffers. If they want a sale, the customer needs to know what he's about to pay upfront or every month for. Most live with their cars for a couple of years. It is in fact, for most people, their largest investment, in line, after a house.

It's like going to a bose showroom and the staff saying, 'Sorry, packed pieces only; you can't listen to any of what you like'. Why? Why pay for all this retail space, pay bills, salaries, overheads when the customer doesn't know what he's buying?

In that case, I'd rather buy online. Low overheads, only warehouse upkeep and backend support. Translated to cheaper products. I'd love to buy a car I'm in love with, online. I'll probably get it at 20% off! :D

Voted for Test drives are free! No way!

A week ago, I booked my VW Polo TDi and the Sales Executive from Volkswagen Pune West asked me to test drive the car as much as I want. I took a test drive of good 25 km which was a mix of highway and city roads. In fact I test drove the Polo atleast 3 times before finalising the car. Everytime I was asked to drive the car till I'm satisfied with the drive. Also the test drive car had full fuel on all the three occasion and was well maintained also.

So I guess some manufacturers are indeed giving proper test drives. Personally I feel the customer is entitled to a thorough test drive as it is his hard earned money and how the car drives is one of the most important factor in decision making.