Test Drive

[Gung-Ho]

Nice down to earth no nonsense review Bear.... Aside from the test drive did you glean any more information from the salesman with regards to ordering/ lead times if you were to place an order now say??

20 weeks guaranteed but will come forward a lot, that's all he said.  I don't consider it to be helpful really...

Shocking!!!! It's enough to put you off ordering one. He might as well said, "You might get it in time for Christmas if you're lucky!"

[Bill_the_Bear]

@RunningMan
I'm sorry you feel that way. If you like to own a car without driving it then that's fine, I prefer to have a try first.  What is so wrong with that?  If you understand the law of averages you will understand why that is not wasting anyone's time.  Also you'll notice that I avoided everything but the drive as much as I could possibly do so, neither of our time was wasted.  Jack didn't have to come in the car for the drive with me but I assure you be enjoyed it.  It was his first go in one too and he spent half of the time driving.  I don't think the insults are necessary outside of the playground but feel free to call me whatever you want I can assure you it does not bother me what you think of me.

Go grissley go 

Actually I'm a polar bear so you got that wrong too. 

[matchboy]

And the winner of bellend of the day goes to....RunningMan

Didn't your mother teach you if you've got nothing nice to say then don't say nothing at all? Clearly not.

[GtG]

Actually I'm a polar bear so you got that wrong too. 

Thus why you've ordered Pure White... its obvious really

[Pacman_GTI]

The brakes on the GTIs are incredible. I also went from a Fiesta to a (Mark 6) GTI and the brakes were just so much better. I don't think it's just a Ford thing either - I've driven a number of other cars, including other VWs - and none have brakes that compare to the GTI's. In fact, when I drove a single-seater at Silverstone, I was disappointed that their brakes weren't as powerful! I guess those big red callipers aren't just for show!

Bear - don't worry about feeling slightly underwhelmed on the test drive. Wait until you take it for your first drive - unrestrained by having a salesman sat next to you - you will have the world's biggest grin 

[Running Man]

@RunningMan
I'm sorry you feel that way. If you like to own a car without driving it then that's fine, I prefer to have a try first.  What is so wrong with that?  If you understand the law of averages you will understand why that is not wasting anyone's time.  Also you'll notice that I avoided everything but the drive as much as I could possibly do so, neither of our time was wasted.  Jack didn't have to come in the car for the drive with me but I assure you be enjoyed it.  It was his first go in one too and he spent half of the time driving.  I don't think the insults are necessary outside of the playground but feel free to call me whatever you want I can assure you it does not bother me what you think of me.

Go grissley go 

Actually I'm a polar bear so you got that wrong too. 

You've already ordered one prior to the drive, and wasted someone's time who is trying to make a living.

So your try before you buy is a nonsense.

[Bill_the_Bear]

@RunningMan
I'm sorry you feel that way. If you like to own a car without driving it then that's fine, I prefer to have a try first.  What is so wrong with that?  If you understand the law of averages you will understand why that is not wasting anyone's time.  Also you'll notice that I avoided everything but the drive as much as I could possibly do so, neither of our time was wasted.  Jack didn't have to come in the car for the drive with me but I assure you be enjoyed it.  It was his first go in one too and he spent half of the time driving.  I don't think the insults are necessary outside of the playground but feel free to call me whatever you want I can assure you it does not bother me what you think of me.

Go grissley go 

Actually I'm a polar bear so you got that wrong too. 

You've already ordered one prior to the drive, and wasted someone's time who is trying to make a living.

So your try before you buy is a nonsense.

But I haven't bought it yet, I have neither received goods nor paid for them.  If I didn't like the car I would cancel my order immediately.

I again refer you to the law of averages. Anyway, it's pointless because your logic is wrong.  If we follow your idea of not wasting the guys time then you could only enter the showroom after you were determined to buy, because if you don't buy then his time was wasted.

Also consider it future marketing.  If he'd impressed me enough then next time I might have gone straight to him.  I also might refer people to him.  If he'd given a good price or a better lead time I might even have cancelled my order and gone with him instead.

EDIT:
Got your PM, lets call time on this argument then.  I hope there are no bans to follow!

[Bill_the_Bear]

Double post.  My bad

[monkeyhanger]

By Runningman's reasoning I should be banned from Costco. If you go in on a weekend they have lots of tasters on the go - I pick one up for something I have no intention of buying and eat it anyway if it looks nice.

Just because you buy from one dealership shouldn't be means of exclusion from another. I get my servicing and warranty work done at my local dealership because they're a few miles away, can drop me off at work when they've got the car and haven't cocked up yet (save for the disasterous bodyshop work done at a different site within the same group). Would I buy a car from them? Nope, they give poor p/x values (They use "webuyanycar.com" valuations for basis and then give you a few hundred quid more to try and coerce the gullible inot thinking they're getting a good price). They also never discount and generally have a poor attitude towards the customer (one insisted once that he couldn't sell me a car without the diamondbrite package!). I buy my car elsewhere and get excellent service from them generally in the car buying process (been a few hiccups this time, not the salesman's fault). I'd try my luck at the place I didn't buy a car from for a test drive. You are not obligated to buy a car just because you had a test drive in it.

[Jules Winfield]

You've already ordered one prior to the drive, and wasted someone's time who is trying to make a living.

So your try before you buy is a nonsense.

You make it sound like the poor old salesman is scratching a living and is one step away from going into the workhouse. He spent two whole hours with Bill. Unless you can categorically say that there was another customer at the dealership at the same time who was actually going to buy a car and couldn't as there were no salespeople available and went somewhere else as a consequence, then your entire point is moot. Or, to borrow a word from your post, "nonsense".

Plenty of people go to dealers for a test drive with no intention of buying. Some are just curious. Some are thinking into the future and making a shortlist of cars and might buy at a future date. Not exactly a crime. Are you similarly scathing about people who read magazines from the shelf in WH Smith or who play around on iPads and Macs for hours in the Apple Store?

If there was any time wasting, it sounds like it was from the salesman. A two hour slot and the test drive was six minutes? That's ridiculous.

I went to a dealer for a test drive of a Scirroco and a Golf. It was mid-afternoon on Saturday. I waited around for ages only to find that they had no demo cars, having sold the Scirocco recently. They reluctantly let me go out in a forecourt Scirrocco. For two whole minutes. They seemed more interested in going home for the day. The following morning, I went to another dealer, had two test drives and ended up ordering a GTD. I ignored any attempts from the first dealer to contact me. Hopefully they weren't reduced to penury.