Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Questions About Test Driving
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What are some of the things you look for? Here's a short list of mine.
*Drive a used one to find out what it's like after break-in period (squeaks and rattles).
*Drive the vehicle in my neighborhood on the streets which I drive most (even if the best deal is 30 miles away).
*What is the RPM at 75 mph.(don't want a 3500 screamer).
*Drive it again at night (checking headlights and visability).
*Engine performance with a full load on it (A/C on and such).
*Parallel park
*Emergency stopping/handling.
*Road noise
*Get the seat in the location for driving, then go into the back seat to see if I could ride back there comfortably.
Anyway, you get what I'm talking about, keep in mind this is after you've narrowed your decision down to what you may purchase.
*Get on the highway, say to salesman, "Let's see what this baby can do!"
*Drive 50-60 mph around a clover-leaf ramp, try to get the wheels to break loose
*Drive 20 mph in 1st gear down a residential streets with stereo volume and bass turned all the way up
*Drive slowly through a college campus, roll down the window and yell "Hey, baby" to everyone (even the guys)
*Once back on the lot, open up the trunk and ask the salesman to get in. Say, "Would you mind? I've got to make sure a body can fit in here."
In traffic, he floored the thing and took it to 5700rpm, with 38 miles on the odometer, then slammed on the brakes, and grinned. "Goes like stink; stops like stink," he gushed.
Back at the Dodge shop, he and the new car mgr couldn't understand why I didn't want to buy it (actually, I was pretty impressed with the car; I later bought a Sebring LXi coupe).
Ahhhh, nothing like a five-star Dodge dealer...
I've been on test drives (most recently a Subaru WRX a couple of months ago) where the salesman will get in a cold car (this one with a turbo, no less, and about 15 miles on it, and it was about 30 degrees out) and drive the heck out of it. It just makes me shake my head.
in chicago area, the sales professional pulls the car out of the parking space and brings it to the front door, then gets in the back.
maybe it is different out over there by you.
Ryan
- Route 22 from Union to Springfield
- Route 31 in Flemington (a bit far, but a VERY large selection)
kcram
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Smart Shopper and FWI Message Boards
Second, if the dealership is located in a residential area, get out to a highway where you can safely open it up.
Third, from a dead stop, floor it, shifting at redline. Try not to hit the rev limiter.
Fourth, see how fast you can take that on-ramp. Notice how communicative the suspension and tires are at the limits of adhesion.
Fifth, emergency lane change -- check for body roll.
Sixth, see how fast you can take that off-ramp. Test ABS under hard braking.
Seventh, peel the salesperson from the window, and ask for a price quote.
My wife had to back out. Unfortunately, somebody was speeding a maintenance truck through the lot, which hit the Prizm my wife was backing out.
There was some damage to the rear bumper, but the truck took more of the damage and was leaking radiator fluid. So, my wife was rather impressed with how the car held up and wanted to test drive another one.
She did, but the salesperson refused to come along.
Seriously, magazine test numbers (0-60, skidpad, etc.) are fine to get a general idea of a vehicle's performance, but numbers don't tell you everything. The only way to get a feel for how a car will drive when pushed hard, is to push it hard. And if you're not going to accelerate fast or corner hard with a sports car, you're wasting your money -- unless you're buying it entirely for the image.
**forgot to mention brakes. Like to get everything seated and working nicely together before making the discs glow white hot!
I pulled out on a two lane divided highway with a 50 MPH limit. I was sort of babying it since it was a new car. The sales woman said, "open it up a little to see what it can do." Well I down shifted to 3rd and accelerated to about 55, hit 4th and continued on to about 70. I realized that it could really handle. There was a 270 degree turn onto the street I was on, coming up so I double clutch down shifted two gears, tapped the brakes, and did a four wheel drift through the corner. I wound it back up through the gears exiting the corner. The sales woman was flailing her arms looking for the grab rail when she saw what I was about to do in the corner. She knew the road, too. I hit another corner pretty much the same way. When we got back to the dealer, she said, "I usually ask the customer if he wants to cut a few donuts to see how it handles. I had no idea what this car could do, but you sure showed me. I don't think you need to do any donuts."
I went in and said, "if you add a cassette player to the CD player it has, I'll take it. "
I never had a problem with that car, aside from the fact I never got more than 20 K miles on 40 K mile warranted tires.
@&#* CHEAP OEM TIRES!!!! :-D
I don't need the potential accident you might get me in, nor do I need to be scared by an abusive driver who is probably just a joyrider in the first place.
In the old days I was a terror on the streets. Never an accident by pure luck and the grace of god. LOTS AND LOTS of tickets that proved my dumbness at the time.
I guess a couple of very close calls and having attended a couple of funerals has tempered my driving habits.
And I refuse to let someone I don't even know subject me to this either.
Pat, I probably would have sold you the Altima or Maxima instead.
I'm really hoping that I can rent one of the new Nissan Altima's when they come out.
1) Warm the engine up for some time, never suggesting what I am to do. Important: get out of walking range. I've been told to get out and walk on a couple of too fast too soon drives.
2)As I come round a tight bend, I flatten the loud pedal. This helps me test the car's power-on balance.
3) Next, I get to a fourlane divided highway and run the car up to its maximum speed.
4) Then, I test for brake fade by suddenly throwing out the anchor at maximum speed.
5) Then, I exit onto the windy, hilly two-lanes. I drive like Denny Hulme for the next few minutes.
6) I drive back to the dealership as fast as I can.
The testdrive is successful should the salesman vomit or resign upon exiting the car (jk)
I've been doing alot of reading on here, but I know that I eventually will need to do some driving to narrow my field down. I read somewhere that some dealerships will run a credit check on you while you are out driving. Is this true and is there a way to avoid this?
Car_man
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Would that offend the dealerships that don't do it, and cause repercussions?
So, just for an example, you go car shopping on a Saturday just to do test drives in order to try to narrow down your purchasing decision. You go to say 3 different dealerships and test drive a vehicle at each one. If a credit check is run each time you do a test drive, that's 3 credit checks that show up on your credit bureau in ONE DAY. In today's world of lending, that's a negative.
Tdp05: Yes, bringing photo copies of your license with the written request to not run a credit check on you is not bad form. In fact, that's a very good idea. It gives the dealer the knowledge that you are who you say you are, all the while not allowing them to have physical possession of your license at any time. Good idea, IMO.
The type that credit card companies and other groups do when they send you those "pre-approved" offers (the checks you DON'T authorize) will not adversely affect your credit rating.
However, if they run your credit without your consent while you're on a test drive, I'm not sure how that one would count. Sure, you didn't authorize it, but that's not to say that's how the dealership put it in.
The way I understand it, jocko is right. If you have a credit check run on you and there is no granting of credit, then it's a negative against you.
I think I read it has changed a little, in a certain span of time (a week maybe?), like for car buying, several credit checks will count as 1.
But I'm going to be testdriving a couple months before I buy anything, so that wont do me any good.
If you go to 3 dealers in a day and they pull credit it won't affect your score.
35 percent of the score is based on payment history.
30 percent is based on amounts owed.
15 percent is based on length of credit or length of time credit accounts have been established.
ten percent is based on the types or mix of credit the consumer has.
FALLACY: My score will drop if I apply for new credit.
FACT: Probably not much. If you apply for several credit cards within a short period of time, multiple requests for your credit report information (called "inquiries") will appear on your report. Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto or mortgage lenders that occur within a short period of time. The FICO score treats these as a single inquiry which will have less impact on your credit score.
Also, many cars are stolen on test drives. If the credit is run as a precursor, there is an easy way to prevent a problems.