I’m looking to buy a used car privately, but I’ve never been able to drive the model I’m interested in. I don’t feel right asking a private seller for a test drive since I don't want to waste their time, but would you say it’s okay to go to a dealership just to test drive a car without intending to purchase from them?
Test Driving without Intention to Buy
djl4 on 06/12/2024 - 19:27
Comments
- 1
- 2
I'd test drive a new one first, then test drive the used one so you can ensure it performs relatively similar. Just test driving either of these without the other doesn't make sense to me.
yeah i think thats perfectly fine and thats what I did. however, my intentions were different in the sense that I wanted to gauge whether I wanted to purchase or not and this would be a future decision to make and would be something that I'd have to sit on for 6 months.
I see a mixture of replies here, sure wasting a salesman's time on a test drive sounds morally wrong. But this is sales, it's a brutal world, there are many people who can jump in the sales job. One of the things I would say that would make a salesman stand out, is not pandering me, but being positive and being genuine, as well as providing the benefit of the doubt. Even if you supposedly had a test-drive-im-going-to-waste-your-time-radar, they should probably think about this as a lead's generation process as well.
Suppose the customer isn't the OP, but a person who has been curious about car X, they had no intention of buying the car, but they have the capacity and freedom to do so. If the salesman can detect that and still treated this customer with respect and allowed them to test drive and educated them about the car, maybe the customer would suddenly go, it's not a bad car, and I've had a positive experience from this salesman.
I am certain every single person has had these experiences once in their lives, whether its cars or buying other goods, and knowingly even if you could get it slightly cheaper elsewhere you were impressed by that salesman's approach.
Of course, you can test drive any car at a dealership. I went to Subaru, and one of the salespeople was awesome—they even asked me if I wanted to test drive a car without me bringing it up. I don’t understand why some private sellers don’t want buyers to test drive. You’re selling the car, and it won’t be yours in the future. Simple as that.
Nearly 100 comments and not a single one from OP.
'Nearly 100 comments and not a single one from OP.'
normal these days - politeness to strangers as a forgotten formality with internet generation who are used to thumbing 200 messages a day and forget what they last responded to
I see it as answering a question for other future interested folk - so no loss …
Think it's rude to test drive the car of a private seller with whom you have no intention of doing business with.
As for public dealers in legitimate car yards- go for gold!
- 1
- 2
I've test driven multiple private seller cars. I was polite and respectful and worked out the best times to do it between us. I didn't get the feeling that they were annoyed or anything. In hindsight, a couple of them didn't even ride with me. They just knew where my own car was parked.
I've also had a dealer outright offer to set-up a test drive on a car I told him I had no intention of shopping for because it wasn't what I needed and that I had just wandered into the showroom to look at because it looked good.