Annoyned by dealership refusing a test drive

[CJJon]

I don't think so, they did not have a customer to begin with. That's what makes the whole post absurd.

The OP was going to have the dealer do the gear swap. They lost business.

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[shogun32]

Is that you Matt?

nope and NOPE and NO NO NO NO!!!! Those are the fevered hallucinations of Mik's depraved mind.

They were fired upon your return

"hey, there's a nearby road over at the next light that I drive regularly. Do you mind if I take us down that way?" works most of the time. I test drove a used Bullitt for nearly 30 minutes unaccompanied. Did the same for a used ZL1 6-speed. Dealership didn't mind at all. Scared the poor kid in a brand new Stinger - talk about a FUN car (for an auto) to drive. Carmax tossed the keys at me and said please come back in 30 minutes or so on a Camaro 2SS/1LE. With this Covid malarky I could probably do the same on a M3 or Audi RS3/4. Carmax Laurel actually had a decent route but wasn't perturbed at all with my chucking a GT350 around and testing suspension on some roads I was familiar with (near Bob's BMW). Lindsay Wheaton Ford let me drive 2 nearly identical Gotta-have-it Green Ecoboosts one with MR and one without back to back, about 20 minutes each so I could compare. I bought the non-MR (mistake). I test drove a new 2020 HPP EB+Handling on some back roads behind my house - they'd had it for over a year. I was not impressed compared to my tuned EB power delivery.

My Fairfax county Parkway test loop has a nifty set of banked and long flat arcs (280 deg?) and heavy braking zones that I've taken every Sheehy car I've wanted to drive.

Yes some dealers think a 4 mile long 40mph drone on a straight road out and back is a "test drive". NUTS. 15-30 more miles on a used car doesn't change the value one iota. Orismann Ford handed the keys to a new Mustang to a 50's gent and said take the wife and kids out in it for the weekend before you sign the papers. I didn't hear any mention of mileage restrictions.

How many people walk into a Mattress store, lay around for 10+ minutes, take up 30+ min of a salesman's time and walk out not buying anything? A Lion has what a 1 in 5 kill ratio?

Sure there are lookie-loo's but trying before you buy would have prevented some poor guy from returning his brand new GT350R 5 days after he bought it because the kids didn't like it. Dealerships have loaner cars and demo cars. <200 miles on a new car that got a number of test drives on it is not going to hurt the sales price to a material degree. The dealer wasn't going to seel it for 9-12% off invoice ever, so maybe they let it go for 6% off MSRP instead of 5. BFD

 

[CJJon]

 

[I Bleed Ford Blue]

I don't believe that at all .........

Actually it's true. About two weeks later I ended buying the truck, so the probably let me borrow it knowing i would be back to buy it anyway

 

[Jetnoise]

nope and NOPE and NO NO NO NO!!!! Those are the fevered hallucinations of Mik's depraved mind.

"hey, there's a nearby road over at the next light that I drive regularly. Do you mind if I take us down that way?" works most of the time. I test drove a used Bullitt for nearly 30 minutes unaccompanied. Did the same for a used ZL1 6-speed. Dealership didn't mind at all. Scared the poor kid in a brand new Stinger - talk about a FUN car (for an auto) to drive. Carmax tossed the keys at me and said please come back in 30 minutes or so on a Camaro 2SS/1LE. With this Covid malarky I could probably do the same on a M3 or Audi RS3/4. Carmax Laurel actually had a decent route but wasn't perturbed at all with my chucking a GT350 around and testing suspension on some roads I was familiar with (near Bob's BMW). Lindsay Wheaton Ford let me drive 2 nearly identical Gotta-have-it Green Ecoboosts one with MR and one without back to back, about 20 minutes each so I could compare. I bought the non-MR (mistake). I test drove a new 2020 HPP EB+Handling on some back roads behind my house - they'd had it for over a year. I was not impressed compared to my tuned EB power delivery.

My Fairfax county Parkway test loop has a nifty set of banked and long flat arcs (280 deg?) and heavy braking zones that I've taken every Sheehy car I've wanted to drive.

Yes some dealers think a 4 mile long 40mph drone on a straight road out and back is a "test drive". NUTS. 15-30 more miles on a used car doesn't change the value one iota. Orismann Ford handed the keys to a new Mustang to a 50's gent and said take the wife and kids out in it for the weekend before you sign the papers. I didn't hear any mention of mileage restrictions.

How many people walk into a Mattress store, lay around for 10+ minutes, take up 30+ min of a salesman's time and walk out not buying anything? A Lion has what a 1 in 5 kill ratio?

Sure there are lookie-loo's but trying before you buy would have prevented some poor guy from returning his brand new GT350R 5 days after he bought it because the kids didn't like it. Dealerships have loaner cars and demo cars. <200 miles on a new car that got a number of test drives on it is not going to hurt the sales price to a material degree. The dealer wasn't going to seel it for 9-12% off invoice ever, so maybe they let it go for 6% off MSRP instead of 5. BFD

Earth to Fairfax..........earth to Franconia
What are you talking about ? There is no vehicle purchase related to this thread

 

[Jetnoise]

Actually it's true. About two weeks later I ended buying the truck, so the probably let me borrow it knowing i would be back to buy it anyway

Now I don't believe this.....
Your name Matt too?

 

[Pittpa]

OP here, a few more points:

• The salesperson was still respectful and I was friendly back, but maybe projected a slight air of dissatisfaction, but it was not a bad encounter.
• This is the nicest ford dealership in my city so I normally go to it.
• I fully intended for the salesperson to ride along and wanted no more than 10 minutes of actual driving with no "racing around." This was litearlly going to be more like a set cruise for 40 and jot down which gear the car was in rpm type thing in my notes and then for 45, 55, 60 ect...
• I think you guys are right in that the sales/service are different "teams" and maybe even companies so that is why this whole thing went south.
• The car was not sold, not sure why that came up.

Will you be buying your next Ford there?

 

[K4fxd]

I'm extremely picky when it comes to cars. I can feel vibrations, loose suspensions ect..

I went to several dealers test driving cars. One sales person bent over backward trying to find me the right car. She never complained when I walked off and always had a smile when I came back looking at their new inventory. After a few months I bought a New Silverado from her.

Unfortunately the silverado had a bad vibration (that several dealers and GM said was normal so no fix) so I traded it for my 17 GT and a boatload of cash.

 

[ORRadtech]

I'm extremely picky when it comes to cars. I can feel vibrations, loose suspensions ect..

I went to several dealers test driving cars. One sales person bent over backward trying to find me the right car. She never complained when I walked off and always had a smile when I came back looking at their new inventory. After a few months I bought a New Silverado from her.

Unfortunately the silverado had a bad vibration (that several dealers and GM said was normal so no fix) so I traded it for my 17 GT and a boatload of cash.

Again, completely different circumstances.
You were obviously looking for the right vehicle with multiple return trips looking at the same thing each time.
Not, let me drive that because I think I might want to mod my car.
I don't understand why people are having trouble understanding the distinction.

 

[young at heart]

Again, completely different circumstances.
You were obviously looking for the right vehicle with multiple return trips looking at the same thing each time.
Not, let me drive that because I think I might want to mod my car.
I don't understand why people are having trouble understanding the distinction.

I would guess that most people do in fact understand the difference but are just enjoying a good internet argument. Having said that, some don’t seem to have any idea of how a modern dealership operates. And then there were a few last night that seemed to devolve into incoherent silliness.

 

[vanquishvzla]

First "newspaper", now "Verizon store". I feel like you people are just making shit up now.

Big talk. Sounds like you're not dumb enough to put your livelihood where your mouth is. But, you're still arrogant enough to keep up your tough guy act. But I'm on to you. I know beneath that hard-edged, devil-may-care attitude, you're just a scared kid looking for love.

It's not an arrogant act, no, I won't say exactly where i work the same way i won't say exactly where i live on a public forum/social media, that's just dumb.

also, not an arrogant act, but you can't take it personally if a customer dislike you or not, you are doing your job, part of the job is telling NO to people. Dreamers, beer budget/champagne dreams, etc etc. That's why i said, don't profile people by looks, talk to them, find their story, if it make sense, go ahead with test drive, sales, etc. Even without a test drive, you don't wanna waste time on a dead end customer.

Some customers love you, some customers hate you, it's part of the job. Don't lose sleep over that, you can't...

Do you wanna give me that love that i'm seeking? we can talk in private, have a coffee and see where it goes from there


also, it's not because demand is crazy right now... any time, you can reject customers demands at any point if they don't make sense.

back to the OP issue, no, I won't punish any salesperson if they say no to a test drive where the customer wants to go for a joy ride to compare that car to his car in order to see if he likes it in order to get that mod for his car. Now, i won't punish any salesperson if they say yes and go for it. It is the salesperson decision and its ok on both scenarios.

You guys are super offended because the salesman said no on a test drive and went full karen mode. I'm just telling you how we will see it from this end.

always test drive the car before signing paperwork, ALWAYS... if your salesperson say no, let management know. But, if you want to test drive multiple cars, visited the dealership a million times before asking the same, etc, don't act surprised or get offended when they tell you no. You can always ask another salesperson.

 

[CJJon]

 

[vanquishvzla]

 

[HoosierDaddy]

So I have used a local dealership to do work on my car twice. The first time they put on the exahust and the second time the ford performance power pack 2. I have been considering upgrading to the 3.55 gears and have been waiting and waiting for them to get a 2015-2017 auto with that factory option so I can test drive it to decide if the upgrade is worth it to me. Once they had one listed and I called, but the car ended up not actually being there. Well yesterday they finally have one, a 2015 like mine with actual pictures so I know its there. I drive out there and ask to see it and then explain that I want to test drive it to see the difference and that I will have their shop once again do the work if I like it.

The guy tried to sell me a new one, told me about tunes and basically refused to even consider me test driving it because I "would not notice the difference." I finally left after 15 minutes of nonsense. I was not going to race the thing around or anything. I even told him I just really wanted to see the shift points and see how it felt at 40, 45, 55, 60 ect. I am not sure if its worth going back for another try at this point.

Haven't read the thread but if is hasn't been mentioned, the sales people don't care about service getting business or how much you like your car. In fact you liking your car better is a bad thing for them. What you wanted to do wasted their time, gas and might even result in you driving the car just when someone wanting a car like that shows up.

Would have had better luck having them think you were in the market for the car you want to test drive. Service or the GM might like you to test drive it but getting them involved more trouble than just pretending you might buy the car.

 

[CJJon]

Car sales people only care about themselves and everything comes down to them making a dollar above all else...dealership profit or customer satisfaction be damned.

Then they wonder why people of their ilk are held in so low regard.

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