Test Drive Duration

[Steve101]

How long would you reasonably be expected to test drive a car before dropping £32k ? I had a quick drive in a trophy and now want a longer drive on motorway and mixed driving, also so my wife can test drive it too. My local dealership told me I can only have 1 hr only which I think is unreasonable ? What experiences have others had ?

 

[Deleted member 9692]

How long would you reasonably be expected to test drive a car before dropping £32k ? I had a quick drive in a trophy and now want a longer drive on motorway and mixed driving, also so my wife can test drive it too. My local dealership told me I can only have 1 hr only which I think is unreasonable ? What experiences have others had ?

If you need longer, tell your local dealer that you would need longer test drive to make a decision. Tell them how long you need. I can’t see that I would need longer than 2 hours to make a decision. If they can’t or won’t help, find a dealer that will or find another brand that will.

 

[siteguru]

As it happens, a quick test drive was enough to convince me.

But I agree with the above. In fact I'm sure I read somewhere of someone having one for 24 hours for testing.

 

[Ian Key]

As it happens, a quick test drive was enough to convince me.

But I agree with the above. In fact I'm sure I read somewhere of someone having one for 24 hours for testing.

A quick test drive for me too. Just needed to check I could get the dogs in and that the drivers seat was comfortable for my 6ft 2in, 19st athletic frame...I wish ?

 

[Retsiba]

Different dealerships seem to behave differently. My personal opinion is that sometimes they also make that call on the basis of liking your face or not.

I've had a dealer make me cajole him nto allowing my wife test drive a car after I had done so on a previous occasion (he had said I already test drove and they were too busy) and I've also had another dealer give me a car Saturday morning 9am to test drive till Sunday 4pm.

 

[Buster72]

As it happens, a quick test drive was enough to convince me.

But I agree with the above. In fact I'm sure I read somewhere of someone having one for 24 hours for testing.

Yes. Very much so. Within a couple of minutes I knew that this was the car for me.

 

[Cocijo]

The length of the test drives available is directly proportional to the length of the order book.

 

[bear1]

Early on, a lot of dealers were offering half an hour or less. Look at it from their point of view, they've got a long list of customers wanting test drives and only so many cars available/opening hours.
The location of the dealership will determine how long it takes for you to sample the range of driving types. I'd need at least three hours to get to a motorway and back!

 

[Torryhun]

Got to test drive SE LR for 48 hrs , must be honest after about 20mins could of ordered it then.

 

[dwrsr]

I had three test drives on separate occasions. The first was very short - 20 mins or so. Second was a much longer stint between 1.5 - 2 hours and the third was to take my wife to see and drive, approx 1 hour. I had already made my decision prior to the third test drive, but needed my wife to also agree - which she did with 10 mins. Went back to the dealer and placed our order! Had the car since beginning of Jan.

 

[Ayoull]

I had a 15min test drive and knew I wanted it ?

 

[PeteC]

We had about 40 minutes. The location of the dealer meant that in the 40 minutes I could take it on the type of rural roads I'm often using and also go for a bash down an A road and a motorway and still have time to poke around the car. Like others, I knew very quickly that I liked it so we placed an order then and there.