Purchase without a test drive?

Remember my dad buying a car without seeing it from across the country and having it delivered to him. Didn't end well. Brakes were knackered and he was lucky it didn't kill him. No way I'd ever buy a used car without a test drive.
 
Well I went against my better judgment and went ahead and purchased a vehicle without a test drive. With the end of lockdown no where near in sight I've taken the gamble.

So far so good but ideally need to take it on a longer drive for peace of mind too. Only couple of snags I've picked up on so far is 2 of the alloy wheels have imperfections that you couldn't pick up on the pics and video, but other than that looks in seems to be in fantastic nick!
 
so when it arrived, did you not look it over ?

did you sign to say "unchecked" or anything ?

if you call them, and tell them the wheel (or wheels) are kerbed they might give you some money back
 
ShiWarrior said:
so when it arrived, did you not look it over ?

did you sign to say "unchecked" or anything ?

if you call them, and tell them the wheel (or wheels) are kerbed they might give you some money back
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Well it was a main dealer so went to collect. Spent about half hour going over it and noticed the alloys straight away so mentioned it and they said they would fix. Hopefully got it booked in this week for the work
 
the last 3 cars i've bought i did so without a test drive.

the first was from a car auction. and got the opportunity to give it a good inspection before bidding. you also get a 1 hour slot to test it out after you've bought it. in which the auctioneers will give you a full refund

the second 2 were from not main dealers, but indy-type dealers.

the first the dealer wanted me to have a test drive, but because of his insistence i was pretty confident that it was going to be ok. anyway had there been any problems i would have used the warranty he provided.

the second was a bit less than ideal, but the issues it had were all related to plans i had for it: suspension bushing being the main issue, but i was going to put it in to have the suspension swapped out and while it was in i got the bushings all sorted out
 
I bought a car last week 100% online. Never saw the car until the dealership delivered it on my driveway.

You actually have more legal rights doing it this way.

That said, the car was practically brand new (pre-reg 0 miles) so didn't have much to worry about.....an older car, mmmmmmm
 
I've just done this, and bought a 10 year old car from a dealer last week.

I did plenty of research on both the car (and common issues) and the dealer (e.g. online reviews from multiple sources, checked on Companies House etc.)
Spoke to them several times on the phone.
They did a full in-depth walk round video of the car for me, including starting it up, going over all of the equipment to show it working, went through the service book etc.

If I wasn't 100% happy with any of the above, I wouldn't have gone through with it.

Car arrived exactly as expected, great condition, runs perfectly, everything present and working, so for me a good experience - I would still have bought it if I'd had a test drive (well, actually I probably wouldn't have even looked at it, because it was further away than I normally would have wanted to travel).

Will admit I was a bit nervous before it turned up in case there was something wrong, but as TheOracle mentioned, you do have more rights this way - it is treated as a distance sale, so covered by the 14 days return for any reason.

Would I do it again? Probably, but would very much depend on the circumstances:

Pros
  • Covered by CCR - 14 days return for any reason
  • More choice - if you're buying in person then you're stuck either staying local or having to travel long distance (e.g. taking time off work, travel costs etc.). Maybe not such an issue for viewing/testing a single car, but if you want to take a look at multiple options at opposite sides of the country then this can start to be a problem. With "click & collect" then the location doesn't really matter (except for potential delivery costs).
  • Logistically easier - again related to distance, if the car is getting delivered, you don't need to worry about the logistics of getting there to drive it back, e.g. public transport/getting someone to give you a lift etc. (obviously not an issue if you're trading in at the same time).
  • Easier to "walk away" from negotiations - you haven't invested time & money (other than looking at the ad and a phone call/email) into getting there, test driving etc. There's no more reason for you to go for "that" car than any other one online, and if they start with the "hard sell" you can just hang up/block the emails.
Cons
  • CCR is irrelevant if the dealer is dodgy and does a disappearing act with your money - do your research!!
  • Easy to hide or gloss over flaws with the car - photos/video are only going to show visual/audio condition, and not how the car actually drives, whether the aircon works, whether it stinks of ashtrays and mouldy wet dog
  • Is this the right car for you? It might seem ideal on paper, but the actual experience of driving it might be completely different - probably wise to at least test drive the same model if possible
  • Extra costs for delivery
  • Can be harder to negotiate as you haven't been able to see & identify any flaws in person
 
Not a car but I've bought all 4 of my motorbikes this way and the only one that was a bit crap was the 1st one but this was down to me getting all excited about passing my CBT and just wanting any 125 I could find ASAP.

The next 2 were fine and the 4th one is due to be delivered in the next week or 2 but all round I have no issue buying this way.

Being covered under the CCR makes it basically hassle free as long as you don't buy from Dodgy "Dave" from Bradford, always pay the deposit by credit card as well for extra peace of mind.
 
I'd have said yes (I bought a 17 year old car from Japan in 2018 without any issue) however I've had a close escape today and a lesson learnt.

Went to pick up a December '19 car with 2600 miles on it this morning. A main dealer approved car with under 3k miles on the clock should be spot on, right?

WRONG :rolleyes:

After a 100 mile drive down to the dealership I get there, look over the car, looks fine, notice some scratches on the N/S piano black trim which wasn't great. Initial alarm bell. Yeah, I can polish that out and there is not a mark otherwise from my brief walkaround. Do the documents, get the keys and sales bloke disappears for something or another. Interior spot on, no issues, but notice a bit of condensation at the top of the passenger window, and the door rubber isn't aligned. Neither is the door - its dropped by about 3mm and the bottom rubber looks to be catching on the side skirt. Big alarm bells. Salesman comes back, I say 'we've got a big problem here' point it out, so he takes it into the workshop. They say it needs a body shop to sort. On further looking, bumper to wing is fine, but wing to bonnet is slightly out compared to the O/S, so my head is now telling me O/S minor accident damage.

I walked away - annoyed at now being £50 out of pocket for fuel/M6 toll, potentially one month loss on new car tax, 6 hours of my weekend wasted and now have the messing about with not having ownership, tax or usage of my family car until sorted. At least insurance was instantly sorted online...

Very disappointed in myself naïvely expecting better from a main dealer in this day and age.
 
Mike9000 said:
I'd have said yes (I bought a 17 year old car from Japan in 2018 without any issue) however I've had a close escape today and a lesson learnt.

Went to pick up a December '19 car with 2600 miles on it this morning. A main dealer approved car with under 3k miles on the clock should be spot on, right?

WRONG :rolleyes:

After a 100 mile drive down to the dealership I get there, look over the car, looks fine, notice some scratches on the N/S piano black trim which wasn't great. Initial alarm bell. Yeah, I can polish that out and there is not a mark otherwise from my brief walkaround. Do the documents, get the keys and sales bloke disappears for something or another. Interior spot on, no issues, but notice a bit of condensation at the top of the passenger window, and the door rubber isn't aligned. Neither is the door - its dropped by about 3mm and the bottom rubber looks to be catching on the side skirt. Big alarm bells. Salesman comes back, I say 'we've got a big problem here' point it out, so he takes it into the workshop. They say it needs a body shop to sort. On further looking, bumper to wing is fine, but wing to bonnet is slightly out compared to the O/S, so my head is now telling me O/S minor accident damage.

I walked away - annoyed at now being £50 out of pocket for fuel/M6 toll, potentially one month loss on new car tax, 6 hours of my weekend wasted and now have the messing about with not having ownership, tax or usage of my family car until sorted. At least insurance was instantly sorted online...

Very disappointed in myself naïvely expecting better from a main dealer in this day and age.
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That's what worried me, I was looking at cars upto 3 yrs old. Anything could be wrong at that age.

I've chickened out and ordered a pre registered car that I wanted originally but took sometime to find at a price and spec I was happy with.

Even that has had issues, the dealer can't register the car because the DVLA have a block on that model currently due to being behind with the emissions testing/updating the systems. So I'm unable to pick the car up and have no idea when the block will be removed.
 
ZG002 said:
I've chickened out and ordered a pre registered car that I wanted originally but took sometime to find at a price and spec I was happy with.
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You should be OK with a pre-reg but don't guarantee it means there won't be any issues with it. My pre-reg Leon (10 miles on the clock) had;
5 bird poop etchings
4 noticeable scratches
A down to the primer scuff mark on the rear tailgate (looked like something had been rubbing against it for some time)
Small dent in the rear bumper
Interior scratch on the handbrake button
Broken load cover clip (a PITA as the whole side of the boot trim has to come off)
Swirled paint all over

It was a work car and I wasn't going to get anything better with my £15k budget from my employer in the timeframe I had but I'd have been gutted getting it if it was a personal car, especially after the ridiculous number of times the salesman had to mention that it was a "new car".
 
lordrobs said:
You should be OK with a pre-reg but don't guarantee it means there won't be any issues with it. My pre-reg Leon (10 miles on the clock) had;
5 bird poop etchings
4 noticeable scratches
A down to the primer scuff mark on the rear tailgate (looked like something had been rubbing against it for some time)
Small dent in the rear bumper
Interior scratch on the handbrake button
Broken load cover clip (a PITA as the whole side of the boot trim has to come off)
Swirled paint all over

It was a work car and I wasn't going to get anything better with my £15k budget from my employer in the timeframe I had but I'd have been gutted getting it if it was a personal car, especially after the ridiculous number of times the salesman had to mention that it was a "new car".
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Yeah, I'm going to collect it and finalise payment on collection so at I least get to take a look at it before I sign everything, Still has all the protective wrapping on at the moment so heres hoping.
 
I didn’t test drive my 911 before I bought it. I hired someone who knew what they were doing to inspect and test drive it for me. Had to be fully prepared to walk away and lose that inspection fee of course! They picked up a bunch of things that I would never have even thought to look at which were minor and all rectified by the dealer prior to collection. The dealer took my S2000 in part exchange based on my autotrader advert alone at a decent price and didn’t play silly buggers when I arrived. The process took some time, but it was totally worth it and I’d do the same again for anything more exciting than a shopping trolley/family bus. Part of the issue for me was that the dealer was based in Essex and there was no way I could just pop down for a day to test drive it.

I saw a 996 C4S which looked great in the photos, but had mismatched tyres on the rear axle and looked a bit like a polished turd. Dealer said that it was road legal so there was no reason to negotiate the price and didn’t offer a test drive anyway. That was a wasted journey!
 
I wouldn't think twice about purchasing a two year old car from a main dealer without a test drive.

I bet 9/10 test drives are useless anyway - "Well it stops and goes, all good"
 
Sirrel Squirrel said:
^^^ didn't need a test drive to spot that though :D

Seriously though that's very unfortunate, you'd expect better from a main dealer.
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:D Haha, no I didn't, didn't even get to start the engine or even sit in the car so yes, unfortunate, however I took a copy of the AT advert and the only part of the car that there wasn't a picture of was the N/S where the issues would have been apparent. Very deceptive of a main dealer. Its the messing about with DVLA which is really annoying - at least if I don't have the increase in owners sorted I'll have both old and new V5's in my name.

ZG002 said:
Yeah, I'm going to collect it and finalise payment on collection so at I least get to take a look at it before I sign everything, Still has all the protective wrapping on at the moment so heres hoping.
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Good luck! Fingers crossed it'll be ok :)
 
MrsHB is a manager at BCA, fleet management including sub companies like Cinch.

When we ordered and had delivered our brand new Amarok, she went over it with a fine tooth comb, to the surprise of the delivery driver. She spotted things I didn’t notice and made them record a couple of minor defects that were sorted.

The only thing I noticed, about 18 months later was that the car didn’t have stop/start, I had spec’ed virtually all options including blue motion. It had BMT on the log book and even the badge but no button to disable. When I eventually queried it with VW when it went in for its first service, they confirmed it wasn’t fitted. I contacted VW and entered into a long winded battle as i had paid for the option. I ultimately gave them two options:

1) Replace the vehicle with a new car, or identical car of same miles and condition but with BMT.

2) Provide me with a remuneration figure that I had calculated and was happy with and I would keep the vehicle.

They opted for option 2.

It even took them a while to figure it out that it didn’t have it as I had ordered a manual, with diff and diff lock with 19” alloys or something, somehow it was considered a rare spec vehicle.
 
I've bought a few without test drives. All came with main dealer warranties though so felt the risk was pretty minimal. I've also put down deposits on a few that were just concepts at the time.
 
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