Test drive not allowed

[Ruger]

Park Assist is one element of the Starship Package...

 

[nmp1]

i get the dealers trying to weed out the tire kickers and avoid having the miles racked up on new trucks. i went to 12 different dealer when my father and i were looking for trucks to see all the options and colors in person. i found when i talked to the sales person for a while and showed them i knew what i was talking about, they were open to test drives and several offer me one.

 

[Bigeffr]

I went to purchase my new 2013 at a local dealer here in the DC area and was told the same thing. I told them I was ready to buy but would not purchase unless I could sit in it running and at least drive around the lot. They said no way. So instead of 15 minutes from my house I drove an hour to another dealer and they let me test drive around the lot and they got the sale. I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with profiling or anything like that but just that individual dealers policy. I was pissed but I got over it and have purchased several vehicles since then from the local dealer.

 

[MEATSWORD]

I've never had an issue with test drives(100k+ car) ,even wearing IDGF attire.
I would go elsewhere they don't deserve your business.

 

[Sethrad]

Happened to me with Audi back when I lived in LA. I made an appointment to test drive an RS7. I showed up in my normal weekend gear...jeans, cowboy boots, t-shirt and chains. Mind you I drove up in a BMW X5M and if he’d have noticed, maybe it would have turned out differently. They turned me down and wouldn’t let me drive the car (even with an appointment to do so). I told the dealership general manager to F*#k Off and that he’d never see me, my family or my clients ever again. I sent a note to one of my neighbors, former President of Audi North America and told him what happened. He was, of course, irate. Said that he would take care of this and me. Told him not to bother taking care of me...but that the GM at the dealership had to go. I don’t know what happened, and I really don’t care, but I’ve never purchased another Audi, my family hasn’t purchased another Audi and to my knowledge, none of my clients purchased another Audi. Shit cars. Shit resale (the worst of any high end German brand). Shit company. I purchased a handful of AMG’s since that day.

Bottom line, any of us can and will get profiled by some incompetent sales *******. Find another dealer, one with integrity and consumer friendly policies.

 

[hawksphan]

When I was Raptor/truck shopping a few years ago the salesman at my local dealer initially told me that they do not test drive performance vehicles: Raptor, Shelby, Focus RS, etc.

After test driving a new Lariat, and talking for a while he started to soften his objection to test driving a Raptor, but there were none in inventory so I did not get to drive one anyway.

I was also a 22 year old who just graduated engineering school and got a good job. I was absolutely judged for being young and that I could not afford the truck; however, after normal conversations and being polite the salesman new I was a legitimate potential customer.

I ended up going the Gen 1 route and bought mine with low miles from a different dealer out of state.

I still have not driven a Gen 2...

 

[Redleg]

I have never test driven a vehicle before buying one. What are you going to learn in 10 or 15 minutes of driving?? You pretty much learn about a vehicle over weeks not minutes. I’ve driven vehicles of friends and said I’m getting one, bought one, and months later hated the way it drove. Case in point, go test drive a Nissan GTR. I drove my friends when he got his, went and bought one, and let me tell you, you’ll hate driving that thing around town..great if you only drive on freeways or go cruise it, but drive that thing to go do chores and you’ll first **** your own face. So just my two cents...

 

[Beinkounter]

Happened to me at my local ford dealership in SoCal. I told them the chances of me writing you a check for $75k based on your opinion of how it drives are close to zero. They did offer me a used raptor to test drive. Ended up buying from somewhere else. I think it has to do with Ford dealers being used to selling mid range to low range vehicles, and so they arent like a benz dealership who are used to selling expensive cars. To some ford dealers, having a $80 truck on their lot is a really big deal and not something they are comfortable doing.

 

[Sal Sandoval]

I had a few hours to kill between appointments today, so I stopped at the nearby Ford dealership to test drive a Raptor. I was hoping to compare a 2019/2020 with a used 18 or gen 1. Well, they had plenty of 19s but told me that they don’t do test drives of the Raptors because of they are Performance vehicles. Has this ever happened to you? My first thought was, how do you sell any if you don’t test drive them. They did let me sit in one to see how my butt fit and if I liked the trim compared to the King Ranch.

Shell shocked, I asked if they had a used one I could test drive. Turns out, the used one they had was being demo by the GM who wasn’t in yet.

I left with an appointment to come back the next day to test the used raptor.

Maybe I was profiled as not worthy for the test drive; clothes not nice enough, my age, nationality... who knows. It was probably because I pulled into the dealership in my Prius [emoji23]

Oh well, probably not buying from them as I’ll shop around via email and negotiate with several to order what I want.


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[pbtjrlmrt]

The same thing happened to me and no...it's not about money, age, nationality or anything else generally. The explanation I got was that the Raptor is so popular that by the time it sold it would have a thousand miles on it from all the test drives people want to do. They asked me if I would want to buy a new Raptor with over 1k miles on it from demo rides and obviously I said I would not. It makes sense to not let just anyone test drive something as popular as the Raptor because they would get so many people that had no intention of buying doing test drives just to satiate their curiosities.

After having a discussion about cost and walking through what a deal might look like they did eventually allow me to test drive the vehicle. Basically once they were convinced I was serious and that a test drive was the deal breaker they finally relented and allowed me to drive it. LOL...As it turned out I didn't buy from them but I did use the deal I struck with them to buy from a different dealer for below MSRP.

Each dealer will be different but it's not unusual that they limit test drives in order to keep the miles down for whomever the new owner eventually is. Personally I think it's smart.