How to blag a test drive?

kip02 · 6 Jan 2007 at 00:38

NathanE said:
I'm not claiming to :/ Anyway I think you'll find not many people will disagree with Fox's statement. It is quite true.

It is true, when looking for my current car (Grande Punto sporting

)me and my dad would go looking round for the best deal at a couple of dealerships. Sometimes we would take my old car (T reg base spec saxo) and sometimes taking my dads (06 Lexus 220d) and the responce from some of the sales people was shocking depending upon which car we turned up in.

Some places we didn't even get achknowledged and even if we approached them they would wouldn't seem interested, no matter how we were dressed.
Once i wasn't expecting to go out to a dealers and wasn't dressed how i would, but we were passing and bored so we popped in, they were waiting at the door because we turned up in a Lexus :rolleyes:

[TW]Fox · 6 Jan 2007 at 12:19

kip02 said:
Once i wasn't expecting to go out to a dealers and wasn't dressed how i would, but we were passing and bored so we popped in, they were waiting at the door because we turned up in a Lexus

They try and judge how likely you are to have the money to pay for what you are looking at.

They do this by:

Age
Appearance
Smartness
What car you arrive in.

If you turn up on the bus, looking 18, with a hoody, you won't even got spoken to. If you turn up, aged 40, in a suit driving a 740i, they won't be able to do enough. Sometimes a few of those factors on their own are fine - suit but average car, or reasonably old yet average car, or young and scruffy but nice car.

I wasn't dressed particularly smartly when I took the ST220 out, but when he asked what I drive I pointed at my car in the carpark rather than told him what he was - so he assumed it was an ST24.

Conanius · 6 Jan 2007 at 12:48

I've got to be honest, I only ever had test drive 'issues' at Mitsu, who refused to let me take out an evo without paying for day insurance.

I usually arrive in jeans and a t-shirt, in my car (Focus Zetec, 03 plate... at the time, not been out for any test drives since I got the puma in april I dont think) and I got varying service... Thinking back, these are all the test drive I can remember

BMW-Mini - Cooper + Cooper S testdrive, both accompanied
Citroen - C4 VTS - 1 hr unaccompanied
Ford - ST150 Fiesta, ST170 Focus, Puma (which I bought), Focus TDCi(which I bought), Mondeo Ghia X (which dad bought)
Honda - Civic Type R + s2000 - both unaccompanied, ctr for 1 hour, s2000 for 3 hours
Hyundai Coupe 2.7 V6 - Refused !
Mazda - RX8 'high power' - 1hr unaccompanied
Mitsu Evo - Refused !
Peugeot - 206 GTI 180 - accompanied
Renault - Clio 182, accompanied
Seat - Ibiza PD130 sport - accompanied
Skoda - Fabia VRS - accompanied
Subaru - 2002 WRX Impreza - accompanied
Toyota - MR2 + Celica T Sport, accompanied
Vauxhall - VX220 Turbo - accompanied
VW - Golf v6 4 Motion, accompanied

....
can't think of any others off the top of my head, thats at ages between 20 and 21

Scania · 6 Jan 2007 at 12:57

[TW]Fox said:
If you turn up, aged 40, in a suit driving a 740i, they won't be able to do enough.

I've found that being 35 and wearing ripped jeans & Pink Floyd T-Shirt and arriving in my 728i has'nt caused any problems - yet!

I had great difficulty getting a test drive of an Audi A6, (my brother in law asked me to tell him what I thought of one, before he bought his....) despite turning up in my mums 318i yet when I'd just bought my 728i back in August '05, I promptly drove it to a car dealer in Taunton, Somerset and spend a very lairy & enjoyable afternoon blasting around in an e39 M5 (£22k , about the same as the Audi in terms of purchase cost)

The most surprising test drive I had was at a Scania (truck) dealers open day a few years back, I went out in a £140k rig & trailer yet nobody checked to see what class of licence I actually held !!!

Strange indeed. :confused:

Fusion · 6 Jan 2007 at 12:58

[TW]Fox said:
If you turn up, aged 40, in a suit driving a 740i, they won't be able to do enough. Sometimes a few of those factors on their own are fine - suit but average car, or reasonably old yet average car, or young and scruffy but nice car.

Us average joes might expect a terribly affluent individual to turn up to test drive a car in a suit, but I don't think they do. I'd imagine that they go dressed as they would for any other out of work activity, casually.

As you say though, a middle aged guy that happens to turn up in a 645ci isn't coming to play around, however he's dressed.

[TW]Fox · 6 Jan 2007 at 12:59

Fusion said:
Us average joes might expect a terribly affluent individual to turn up to test drive a car in a suit, but I don't think they do. I'd imagine that they go dressed as they would for any other out of work activity, casually.

They do. It's ridiculous, but they do. And look at the cars we are discussing - we are not on about test drives in Corsa 1.2's. It's S2000's, BM's, etc etc.

blueboy2001 · 6 Jan 2007 at 14:15

You can't judge a person's wealth by their dress.

The richest man I know looks like a tramp, varies his dress between a boiler suit and a donkey jacket with old jeans and drives round in an old X reg Land Rover Defender most of the time. I've known him for years and only ever seen him wear a shirt and tie, and that was at a wedding.

BMW were very funny with him when he bought an X5 for his son but he's used to it now and just gives his business banking mangers card to people and says ring him if you don't think I've got the money!

[TW]Fox · 6 Jan 2007 at 14:27

blueboy2001 said:
You can't judge a person's wealth by their dress.

Nope, you can't. But used car salesman don't seem to get this.

Ev0 · 6 Jan 2007 at 14:49

Only had an issue at a crappy car supermarket where as soon as I clapped eyes on *** car all he could really say was " so you'll buy it now then?".

Otherwise never had to blag one, just ask for one

Haven't tested many cars myself but had no problems with a Xsara VTS a few years ago and practically had the keys for a CTR thrown at me by our local dealer.

My step dad also never had any problems, we just turn up to the dealers in jeans and t shirt and have had loads of cars given to us.

Over the years I'd say three Imprezas, 9-3 Aero, Leon Cupra, 325i were the ones where we were given the keys and were allowed the car for a weekend

lordrobs · 6 Jan 2007 at 14:56

Well I tried getting a test drive in a dress and the old bill turned up. Thanks a lot :mad:

Whilst I know its the way the world works etc. I really don't expect to have to get dressed up to put a large sum of money a companies way. Then again I've only ever started let aone driven a car at a dealers that I was specifically interested in buying so in future I'd arrange any test drives in advance over the phone so my time isn't wasted.

K.C. Leblanc · 6 Jan 2007 at 15:06

L reg Xantia is about the worst car to arrive in.

I went to look at a Hyundai Coupe and a Xsara coupe, when I asked to look inside the Hyundai the guy didn't even try to sell it to me, he just handed me the keys and grunted. Which was probably a good thing, because if he was hovering over me I probably wouldn't have looked in the spare tyre well and found it to be full of water.

I then asked to look inside the Xasara and told him the Hyundai was leaking. He told me this was due to steam cleaning :confused:

and gave me the keys to the Xsara.

I went and looked at the Xsara, he didn't come over, instead he just hovered about three cars away and watched me.

Both of the cars were hemmed i so I couldn't have driven off in them, and the Xsara had a flat battery.

Housey · 6 Jan 2007 at 15:39

The vast majority of sales people in the motor trade, and I use that word extremely loosely, have the selling skills of a tree. Some stand out and are good or even exceptional, but as a whole the vast majority I have dealt with in over 20 years of buying cars have been appalling, I mean an absolute disgrace to their trade.

The cardinal sin of selling is to actually judge a book by its cover, which I learnt when I was 19. I judged a fat bloke who I understood owned some lorries when he walked through the door of my company covered in oil and sweat to talk to me about a computer and some accounts software, it was all very new in those days still and I didn’t give him the respect or the understanding I should have. He left and I walked into reception and said to the receptionist behind the desk “god, did you see the state of him!” She came back with “yes, but did you see his car?” I walked to the window to see him drive off in a 959! Lesson learnt, sale lost, NEVER again!

Sadly though wrongly the vast majority of volume car showrooms will make such a call based on first appearances. Often the sales people will come back with “it’s a numbers game”, or “you don’t have the time to spend with people being nice”, or “you don’t understand the hassle we get from tyre kickers” and I can see their point, but they are just excuses. A few choice questions about the person, and one of those is NOT “can you afford it mate!” will soon sniff out the real punters, or the ones who at least have thought about it.

I could go on and on about this, it’s one of my many passions, but I would bore myself let alone anyone else. At the end of the day if you turn up in a nice car and dress well you will more often than not get treated better. It isn’t going to change anytime soon either.

merlin · 6 Jan 2007 at 21:51

housemaster said:
The cardinal sin of selling is to actually judge a book by its cover, which I learnt when I was 19. I judged a fat bloke who I understood owned some lorries when he walked through the door of my company covered in oil and sweat to talk to me about a computer and some accounts software, it was all very new in those days still and I didn’t give him the respect or the understanding I should have. He left and I walked into reception and said to the receptionist behind the desk “god, did you see the state of him!” She came back with “yes, but did you see his car?” I walked to the window to see him drive off in a 959! Lesson learnt, sale lost, NEVER again!

Been there, done that. I had a guy turn up at my office looking and smelling like a tramp asking me for property insurance on a string of commercial lets. I was absolutely convinced the guy was a fruitcake and didn't have two pennies to rub together.

I got that wrong.