The last time I test drove a car, they handed me the keys and let me drive it. I just drove around for awhile to get a feel for it.
When I brought it back from the dealer, the asked if I wanted to take it home overnight. I actually was about to say “no,” but they made the offer, so I agreed. It worked out well – I got to drive it further and at night, and was able to give my wife a chance to try it out.
The time before that – 19 years earlier – a salesman went with me, but never said anything about the car during the drive. I was impressed he didn’t try to sell it to me.
This business of power loss from the A/C is surprising, except maybe for the very smallest cars and engines. From what I can find, a car’s typical A/C capacity is on the order of about 20K BTU/hr, which is roughly on a par with the largest 230V room air conditioners, yet still corresponds to only about 8 HP. Which is consistent with the engine being able to operate the A/C even at idle with apparently little effort. When I turn on the A/C at idle I don’t notice any RPM loss, just some new sounds as the compressor kicks in.
Robbing the engine of 20 HP implies significant inefficiencies, which may be the case and perhaps develops at high RPMs, but even so, it’s hard to imagine the loss of 20 HP making much difference in normal driving. The whole thing seems rather perplexing but maybe there’s something I’m not understanding.
The main things I’ve regretted figuring out only after owning the car, were all the small things about driving.
Had a subaru which I didn’t notice until it was too late, that the ONLY cup holder in the thing was a slide out doo-dad above the stereo. That meant that if I or ONE passenger had a drink, the radio station could no longer be changed nor the volume adjusted.
had various cars with mirror system blind spots which could not be adjusted away.
had cars with dashboard lights that were too dim at the highest setting.
had cars where the steering wheel blocked my being able to see important error indicators.
had cars whose front doors were cleverly designed so that if I parked on a hill, the door would invariably hit me in the shin as I opened or closed it.
Sales people turn on the radio to drown out road noise and rattles. Don’t let them turn it on. It pays to scout around the dealership ahead of time for roads of differing textures to drive over to check out road noise levels.
Most vehicles now have at least one trip odometer and many have two. Before you sign anything, make sure the mileage quoted for the car isn’t from the trip odometer! The local Toyota stealership cheated me out of over 500 miles by claiming the “trip A” odometer mileage as the overall mileage.
Gear skipping? Only 3 to 5? In my car, I frequently go 1-2-3-6!
Short version: check out all the things you think will be important to you. Admittedly some of these are difficult or impossible to assess during a single brief test drive - especially if the salesperson is in the car with you - but you can certainly check out a lot of things. If time isn’t critical, consider doing two or more test drives, from different dealerships if you like. I’ve had very different test drive experiences from different sales people. Some of them are a wallflower during the test drive, sometimes they’re chatty or point out useless details, and other times they’re real auto enthusiasts that actually know the car inside and out and are very deliberate (in a useful way) about pointing out the various features during the drive.
Me? Visibility is important, and some cars have huge blind spots that are easily identified during a test drive. I also appreciate a good sound system, and during my most recent test drives I brought my iPod, with my own music, so I could assess the sound quality during the drive and afterwards while sitting in the dealer lot. How’s the power/acceleration? How’s the engine/road noise during highway cruising? How does my wife feel sitting in the passenger seat? How’s the seat comfort/adjustability? Cargo capacity? The more good things you can confirm during a test drive, the happier you are likely to be with owning/driving it for the long haul.
I have had the gamut of test drives. The worst are when the salesperson comes along and wants me to stick to a short planned route. When they start telling me to “turn right up here” and “turn right up here”, I tell them that I want to drive the car over a varied route that includes rough roads and highways. I’ve never had one who insisted that I don’t, but there are times that I could tell the salesperson was peeved that I was taking longer than they wanted.
I want to see how it sounds and feels on rough town streets, somewhat twisty back roads and on the highway. The highway portion is essential, because I want to see how quiet the vehicle is, and note the engine RPM, while cruising at 70. I also want to see how well the cruise control holds a speed going up and down hills.
And, yes, if they turn the radio on, I turn it off. I listen to audio books 90 percent of the time, so the sound quality isn’t a deal-breaker for me. Plus, they tend to have the radios set with too much boomy bass, and I’m not going to spend time setting up the audio settings.
The worst thing is figuring out how comfortable the seats are. Even a 30 minute test drive (which I’ve been afforded on my last two car purchases) doesn’t tell you how comfortable the seats are on a several hour trip, but at least 30 minutes is better than a 5-10 minute drive.
I prefer when they hand me the keys and tell me to find them when I get back. I’d much rather test drive without the salesperson, but realize that this is largely a company policy thing.
Details are hard to suss out during a test drive. My last test drive I spent a lot of time dicking around with the voice controls, because I though they were cool, but now that I own the car I never use them. I do use the bluetooth stereo a lot, and even though I tested it I didn’t get the sense of how annoying the interface was just doing it once. So there are things that you’re going to notice that won’t really matter, and things that you won’t notice that will end up driving you nuts.
The big stuff you can tell in about 30 seconds. Can you get comfortable in the seat? Is the noise/vibration/harshness (NVH) at an acceptable level for you? Does it have enough power and cargo space? All of that should be readily apparent.
That’s for a new car, though. Used car test drives are a lot more nuanced.
I research cars for months before buying one. And I keep an eye on makes and models for years before that. My Wife and I each keep our cars for about 10 years.
When I test drive, It’s mostly to check out the visibility as Oldguy mentioned, and just to see how well I fit in it.
My Wife and I certainly go over our choices with each other, but we make our own decisions.
My pet peeve with my current car is that some of the instrument panel instruments’ displays are illuminated blue, which in my mind is the universal signal for “my high beams are on.”
It only produces 159 hp when it’s revving up near the maximum RPM. In normal driving at low to moderate RPM it produces much less power, so 10 or 20 hp can represent a significant fraction of the total power and easily be noticeable.
I only buy used cars, so those 2 tests are mandatory. If the seller wants to come along on the test drive I tell them in advance that I will be, at minimum, accelerating hard from a dead stop, driving at highway speeds, braking hard from a reasonable speed and driving/idling the car until it hits and maintains a normal operating temperature. I warn them again before each sudden maneuver. On a front wheel drive vehicle I will go to a parking lot, cut the wheels fully right, drive in a slow circle, then repeat to the other side. This helps check for noise in the CV axles - a common reason for selling a used car. I also carry a code reader. Many times I don’t even have to hook it up - as soon as I ask permission the seller spills their guts!
If they send me on my own then they don’t have to know all of my “tests”.
I can, and the salesman turned out to be a complete sleazebag. I won’t even consider buying from a dealer that won’t let me test drive it myself. I also refuse to play the negotiation game. They get ONE chance to shoot me a fair price. If I don’t like the price, I’ll walk. If they try to counter with a lower offer I’ll not only walk, but I’ll never set foot on their lot again. There’s no room in my life for merchants who try to take advantage of easy sells. And yes, I’ll tell them this up front.
I bought a used Fiat 500 from a friend and didn’t realize for a while that the reason I was shifting so horribly is because the clutch pedal was actually set too high off the floor. I’m tiny and have small feets, so I had to lift my whole leg for every shift – I couldn’t keep my heel on the floor and still reach the clutch pedal. I tried seat adjustments and that helped, but that clutch was just too dang high. Finally things started breaking just before the warranty expired and I was not about to start paying for shit, so I traded it in for my Civic si. Now the Civic si is just an updated, slightly zippier del Sol (which I drove for 17 years), so I didn’t really feel the need to test drive the Civic. All I wanted to test for was how the clutch pedal was positioned. Well, the dealer didn’t have any 6-speeds in their lot and I had to order mine anyway, so I just rolled the dice and assumed Honda will set the car up way better than Fiat Chrysler. I was right, and the si is a dream to drive. But that’s the main reason for me to test drive, is to see how the clutch feels and the gearshift throws.
