Test drive not allowed

[melvimbe]

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...

You're correct in that you aren't going to fully know a vehicle to you spend more time with it, but you absolutely can learn something from a test drive that you can't tell by just sitting in it. I bought my Raptor used at a Ram dealership. Drove a Ram Rebel then the Raptor, and the difference in ride was notable.

Regarding the issue being denied a test drive, never happened to me personally. That said however, I've never asked for a drive when I wasn't considering buying as I don't want to waste the salesman's time. I think if I gave the impression that I was just ******** around, I might be denied. Even then, you'd think most customers who are denied once never buy there again.

I will say that I felt a bit guilty for going to 4 different dealerships before I bought, 3 Ford and 1 Ram. However, the first salesman called me every day after the visit, even though I told him I'd be on vacation the following week. He lost it there. Second Ford was where I was going to buy if I bought New. Third Ford was to look at some Roush. Last was the Ram dealership where I found my used Raptor.

 

[zudnic]

Wow! This just ridiculuous. The dealer I ultimately purchased my '19 Raptor from gave it to me overnight. Honestly, that's what sold it for me!

It would be worth mentioning your experience to the sales manager. I can't imagine that's the type of attitude they want their dealership to be known for.

 

[K223]

Found my truck at a local dealership within a day or two after it was delivered. I was looking around online over the weeks and just kept monitoring inventories. Had a few emails with the salesman who responded to my online inquiry. So I made an appointment to go see it a couple of days later. Obviously he must have realized I was half way serious about it. But he pulled it around after I got there and wanted me to go for a test drive before we even discussed anything. I’m like let’s do it. Hell it was just barely unwrapped yet. Anyway I did buy this truck from them as it had what I wanted and was a good experience. I kind of get the feeling this dealer would have let me test drove one if I just came off the street as well. I did have the family with me.

I will comment a test drive doesn’t always do it. It can queue you into some highlights and lowlights, but that can take more time once you own it. I already knew all about the truck, and what it could do. So I was good with a limited test drive.

I did pick up on the accelerator delay as I was in normal mode. I figured you will need to put more foot into it to light the turbos, but no matter. Obviously now I know the behavior of these trucks.

I would say shop around or ask to drive if your serious.

 

[zombiekiller]

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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depending on where you are in texas, i can recommend a half dozen good dealers that will make you happy. ( in particular around the dallas metro)

shoot me a PM if you'd like to get hooked up with a friendly.

Else, Roll through texplex on a raptor day, or swing by texas motorworx. Someone will do ya a solid.

If I'm there I'll let you test drive mine, but you break, you buy. ( and I'm going to need slightly more coin than a stock raptor for mine. )


I've rolled into a ferrari dealership in a loud ass 2000hp hot rod that was awaiting a trip to the paint shop, but needed the motor broken in.

If you didnt know what you were looking at or didnt know cars, you'd think it was a pile. ( especially with 4 different wheels due to it heading off to paint the next day).

Guess what? I test drove a 488 without an issue. 90% of it is acting like you belong there. No, I didnt buy the 488, I ended up buying a gt350R instead. ( because they are way more of a visceral driving experience).

For reference, I'm 40, about 70% covered in tattoos including full sleeves, almost full legs plus a visible hand tattoo. I'm also white and tend to cuss a bunch if I'm not in a professional meeting.

I showed up in board shorts, flip flops, a tshirt from some offroad parts company with a backwards hat and grease under my fingernails.

I've since been back to that same dealer ( who sells other exotics as well) in my raptor. The same sales guy was there and was more interested in test driving my raptor than anything else (which I thought was pretty cool and I had no intention of actually leaving a deposit on an SF90 stradale, so I took him for a ride).

but, i still can't wait to go back and ask to "test drive" an SF90, which I have every intention of trying to pull off.

 

[melvimbe]

90% of it is acting like you belong there.

I don't think this means you have to know everything about the truck either. Having done some research to know what color, packages your interested in helps to let them know you've thought about it, but you don't have to quote stats or anything.

I've since been back to that same dealer ( who sells other exotics as well) in my raptor. The same sales guy was there and was more interested in test driving my raptor than anything else (which I thought was pretty cool and I had no intention of actually leaving a deposit on an SF90 stradale, so I took him for a ride).

That was similar to my experience at the Ram dealership. The sales guy was more excited about test driving a used Raptor (he'd never been in one before) than I was.

 

[zombiekiller]

I don't think this means you have to know everything about the truck either. Having done some research to know what color, packages your interested in helps to let them know you've thought about it, but you don't have to quote stats or anything.




That was similar to my experience at the Ram dealership. The sales guy was more excited about test driving a used Raptor (he'd never been in one before) than I was.

to be fair, very few people have seen a full carbon fiber raptor, especially one on 40s. I was actually shocked that a Ferrari salesman even cared about a CF raptor and actually knew a bit about suspension on off-road trucks.

I get asked for joyrides on a fairly regular basis.

 

[Sage0607]

Same thing happened to me. Went to test drive a 13. Told me “we don’t let just anybody drive the raptors and I needed to get prequalified” I turned around and told him to have a good day as he chased me down. I drove down the road to find another 13 which ended up being roush supercharged and bought it with no hassles and with a test drive. I stopped by the other dealership afterwords to show the other salesmen my truck. I think I proved my point you have to take the tire kickers to sell a truck

 

[melvimbe]

to be fair, very few people have seen a full carbon fiber raptor, especially one on 40s. I was actually shocked that a Ferrari salesman even cared about a CF raptor and actually knew a bit about suspension on off-road trucks.

I get asked for joyrides on a fairly regular basis.

I'm going to have to go back through your build thread. Didn't realize you had a CF body!

 

[TheRegMan]

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.

Yep.
No test drive for me. Didn't bother me in the least some of you guys are thinsy skinsy. It's a truck what are you going to get out of a 15 minute test drive. The dealers just dont want miles on them it really that simple.

 

[CigarPundit]

Yep.
No test drive for me. Didn't bother me in the least some of you guys are thinsy skinsy. It's a truck what are you going to get out of a 15 minute test drive. The dealers just dont want miles on them it really that simple.

It’s not a matter of being thin skinned. It’s a matter of not dropping $75k on a car without driving it. I took multiple test drives from different dealers before buying. I knew I wanted a Raptor based on what it was, how it looked, and what I had read and seen, but if I drove it and thought it was gutless, or didn’t like the size, or the feel, or the ride, or the brakes, or....

Obviously you can’t get the same feel for a car with a test drive as you can get from ownership and daily driving experience, but you certainly do get information you would not otherwise have from a test drive. I don’t give a crap whether the dealer likes it or not. No test drive, no deal. Full stop.