It’s pretty common for dealers to ask to hold onto a DL while you test drive. Actually, I think most people wouldn’t think twice about it. Most law enforcement aren’t going to give you a hard time about it, especially if the sales person is also in the car with you to confirm things. If you even get pulled over at all, which wouldn’t be common.
Though it probably does not need to be said, as a general rule they also return your license when you get back and don’t micturate upon them before doing so.
What now? As a condition of test driving a vehicle, you need to agree to break the law while you do? That would be a hard no from me. And for what purpose anyway? It’s not like a car is a thing I might absent-mindedly forget to return, especially if a salesman is riding along. I have limited experience with dealerships, but I have test driven a few cars and never been asked to surrender my license. That would be absurd.
By odd coincidence I just looked it up this morning and in Arizona if in court you can show a license that was valid at the time the ticket was written, you’re off the hook. Otherwise it’s a misdemeanor – I forget which class.
You’re still facing whatever it was the cops pulled you over in the first place, though.
Wyoming is the same; technically, it’s a $150 fine for driving without a license, that is dismissed if you can show that you did have a valid license at the time of ticketing.
In my state (Washington) if you don’t have a license on you while driving that’s a $250 infraction.
That’s probably why they’ve never asked for my license any time I’ve test-driven a car, because yes, they would be asking me to break the law.
Now, another thing that’s different is that you can’t test drive a car alone. A car salesperson always goes with you. And of course they do; they can answer questions as you drive and point out features along the way. It blows my mind that there are places where they let you just take a car by yourself and drive away with it before you buy it. That seems ridiculous.
This law begins by saying: “Every licensee or permittee shall have his drivers license or permit in his immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle.” It then requires every licensee or permittee to “display such license or permit if it is in his possession upon demand made” by a police officer.
Just because you got away with it does not mean it’s not the law.
This is common, but I don’t want to have to go to court because the car dealer decided they should hold on to my license. Maybe it’s unlikely to happen, but why should I take that chance? That’s nuts.
I think some places have resorted to giving you the copy of the license, but they keep the original until you get back. This was a change some dealerships made after a salesmen was kidnapped and murdered awhile back during a test drive.
I’m not sure how widespread that policy is though.
Most dealerships I’ve been to do that as well. However, if they want my ID (the actual card or a copy of it), I always make sure to make it very clear to them that I expect them not to run a credit check on me until I know for sure if I want the car. And the alerts on my phone will tell me if they do it anyway, which they did once.
You might not, but someone looking to steal might try and take one for a ‘test drive’ under a fake name.
Also, part of it is just to keep you in the dealership for as long as possible. More often than not, you have to ask for your card (or car keys) back and they’ll still drag it out for 5 more minutes.
That always seemed odd to me as well, even during covid. OTOH, there are plenty of dealerships that will happily let you take the car home overnight so you can drive it around for a day.
I’m curious if a cop would let you get away with it when they notice the car has dealer plates and there’s someone wearing a name tag from the dealership in the passenger seat. Especially since that person can probably have someone drive the card to you. It’s not like you’re going to be all that far from the dealership.
There is a dealership here that, as of a few years ago, had the habit of asking for the keys to your car so they could check it over to “determine the trade-in value” while you were on a test drive, then dragged things out getting it back to you. People were parking down the block and walking in.
This scenario was offered to me last time I went car shopping. I declined, as I had already decided that I didn’t want the car after a short test drive.
The dealer took a photocopy of my DL before the test drive. The copy was given back to me before I left the lot.
I’ve only bought one car from a dealer, but we did several test drives from a few dealers that lead up to that purchase. They asked for our license just to see we were licensed, but the sales rep rode along with us (that’s what my memory tells me…we bought almost 11 years ago). We never took the car out on our own. Does that happen?