Your worst test drive ever...

[TheFoX]

Just curious as to what your worst test drive you've ever had.

Mine was in a VXR8.

So, I book the test drive and arrived at the dealer. The geezer taking me out for the test drive tells me that he'll drive the car to a safe location, then I'll take over the drive.

So, we leave the dealer at a rate of knots, leaving black tyre marks on the road and accelerate up to 70mph, then he screeches to a halt at a pub car park.

I then take over the drive and he directs me through Weston and takes me on a circuitous route back to the dealer. On arriving at the dealer, he asks me what I thought of the drive.

'Crap', I said. After all, the route he took me on had a 30mph speed limit.

When I complained about the route, he responded by saying that the Boss didn't like the car being ragged. I mean, what sane person would buy a powerful car and drive it like Miss Daisy?

I walked away without buying it.

So, what are your test drive woes.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

Just curious as to what your worst test drive you've ever had.

Mine was in a VXR8.

So, I book the test drive and arrived at the dealer. The geezer taking me out for the test drive tells me that he'll drive the car to a safe location, then I'll take over the drive.

So, we leave the dealer at a rate of knots, leaving black tyre marks on the road and accelerate up to 70mph, then he screeches to a halt at a pub car park.

I then take over the drive and he directs me through Weston and takes me on a circuitous route back to the dealer. On arriving at the dealer, he asks me what I thought of the drive.

'Crap', I said. After all, the route he took me on had a 30mph speed limit.

When I complained about the route, he responded by saying that the Boss didn't like the car being ragged. I mean, what sane person would buy a powerful car and drive it like Miss Daisy?

I walked away without buying it.

So, what are your test drive woes.

I had an “interesting” experience on the other side. I was working for a prestige and sports car dealer, responsible for IT and marketing. Occasionally I would be asked to accompany a potential customer on a test drive if there wasn’t a salesman free to do so.

One day a guy came in to look over the M3 E46 CSL we had just got in for sale and I was sent out with him. I drove the mile or so well away from the town to a good country road for getting the feel of cars and we swapped over. He wasn’t familiar with the area, but he immediately shot off like a scalded tom cat and soon had the back end hanging out on every bend. It was the first time I’d ever prayed. Even the tyres were screaming for leniency.

Somehow we made it back in one piece and he calmly thanked me before going off with a salesman to talk over a deal. I later discovered that he was the original Stig!

 

[John]

I don't think I've had too many bad test drives.

I've had ones where I knew quickly that I wouldn't be buying the car.

I guess the worst was looking for my first car - an Opel Manta GTE.

I drove a B reg black one which looked great.

Unfortunately the biting point was so high for some reason I just couldn't drive the bloody thing without stalling it.

Had our family-friend mechanic check it over anyway and it was a crock of shyte so I avoided.

 

[John]

On the other side, I was once selling an H reg Astra GTE 16V back in the mid 90s.

The guy turned up with a load of friends and some big mofo.

At first I thought they were just going to take the car but the buyer drove it up and down the road.

One of the cylinders sounded a bit noisy and he asked if I drove it hard from cold. Moi? I didn't really understand mechanical sympathy when I was 20!

Then he asked me if the car was on finance but I knew it wasn't - it was only worth £3500!

He wasn't happy so asked if I could write him a note stating it wasn't.

So I wrote something like the following on a bit of paper:

"I guarantee this car is not on finance or else this transaction is null and void".

He was happy with that, handed over the cash and drove off.

A real WTF moment...

Car showing as tax due around 5 months later.

 

[Chrishazle]

Test drove a BMW M3 Evo many years ago - with the Steptronic gear box. Whether in full auto or manual mode the only way I could get a smooth gearchange was to drive it like I stole it. Even worse, in manual mode the box was not clever enough to change down if you got forgetful - so I stop at a roundabout and wait for a gap in the traffic, then try to pull away - I'm still in 3rd or 4th as the box had not changed down as I braked for the roundabout. So close to being T-boned, it was not funny. Did not take long to decide that was not the car for us - bought the 968 tiptronic coupe instead, with a gearbox that is loads more clever.

 

[John]

SMG I was utter shyte. I went for the 6 speed manual to avoid the bills and stupidity of it. The manual was great although not the most reliable I read after.

 

[gaz_l]

Probably the R170 SLK32 AMG. I'd had it in mind that I fancied one, and had been looking for 18+months - they're thin on the ground, only 200 RHD imported to the UK.

Anyway, one finally comes up that ticks all the boxes, low mileage FSH etc and at a dealer only 30 miles away! So Mrs. Gaz and I jump in the car and off we go..

Look around, all is good. Dealer is happy for us to take it out unaccompanied if I leave my car keys and driving licence behind, very fair.

Within 1/2 a mile we'd decided we hated it, I've never been so disappointed. Yes it went like a scalded cat but didn't like the power delivery, handling or the seats! Turned around and took it back. The dealer took it on the chin and said "This is why we do test drives.."

So I had to save up for a couple more years and bought the SLK55 instead. I've had that coming up on 8 years now, so something must be right..

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[moonloops]

Oh how funny this talk above of the BMW's SMG gearbox. I test drove an M3 convertible quite a while back, with the SMG box. The most utterly stupid car ever. The damn thing felt like it was folding over under braking. Total scuttle shake on any road surface.

The gear change on the SMG box was like someone swinging a cricket bat at your head at full force, then pausing and then twatting your ear with it. Quite random!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Probably the R170 SLK32 AMG. I'd had it in mind that I fancied one, and had been looking for 18+months - they're thin on the ground, only 200 RHD imported to the UK.

Anyway, one finally comes up that ticks all the boxes, low mileage FSH etc and at a dealer only 30 miles away! So Mrs. Gaz and I jump in the car and off we go..

Look around, all is good. Dealer is happy for us to take it out unaccompanied if I leave my car keys and driving licence behind, very fair.

Within 1/2 a mile we'd decided we hated it, I've never been so disappointed. Yes it went like a scalded cat but didn't like the power delivery, handling or the seats! Turned around and took it back. The dealer took it on the chin and said "This is why we do test drives.."

So I had to save up for a couple more years and bought the SLK55 instead. I've had that coming up on 8 years now, so something must be right..

Cheers,

Gaz

I couldn't get on with the seats either, and went on to buy a C32 instead.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Just curious as to what your worst test drive you've ever had.

Mine was in a VXR8.

So, I book the test drive and arrived at the dealer. The geezer taking me out for the test drive tells me that he'll drive the car to a safe location, then I'll take over the drive.

So, we leave the dealer at a rate of knots, leaving black tyre marks on the road and accelerate up to 70mph, then he screeches to a halt at a pub car park.

I then take over the drive and he directs me through Weston and takes me on a circuitous route back to the dealer. On arriving at the dealer, he asks me what I thought of the drive.

'Crap', I said. After all, the route he took me on had a 30mph speed limit.

When I complained about the route, he responded by saying that the Boss didn't like the car being ragged. I mean, what sane person would buy a powerful car and drive it like Miss Daisy?

I walked away without buying it.

So, what are your test drive woes.

To add a little balance... My Dad had a test drive in a VXR8 around Rockingham with Paul O'Neil and I had a test drive in a Vectra VXR around Donnington with Tom Chilton! Not bad as test drives go

 

[Wolfie1]

At work recently a customer came in to test drive a 67 plate used range rover, the engine seized and had to get recovered in

 

[Smart320]

Went to test drive an demo XJ8 at the dealer's but they had sold it the day before, so theysuggested I try a 12 month old XJR which they had in the showroom. Drove it about 800 yards and put my foot down, fatal mistake. I only drove the remaining 10 miles so the salesman would not know I had already decided I had to have it.

 

[TheFoX]

I did turn up at a Ford dealer to look at a 1.6 SportKa for my mother, and asked for a test drive. The salesman rather snotily told me that if I'd driven one Ka, I'd driven them all, and said that if I was interested in the SportKa, I'd just buy it. I didn't. I never buy any car without a test drive.

On the flip side, I looked at a Bentley Continental, just to admire it, and the salesman offered me a test drive even though he knew I wasn't buying. I turned that one down because I only had a Saab Aero at the time and I didn't want to fall in love with the Bentley. Stupid mistake that was.

To add a little balance... My Dad had a test drive in a VXR8 around Rockingham with Paul O'Neil and I had a test drive in a Vectra VXR around Donnington with Tom Chilton! Not bad as test drives go

That's the irony of my first post. I know the VXR8 would be superior to my mother's Astra VXR, but the route the idiot took us on didn't even test the car. Basically, we poodled along like Miss Daisy.

When I test drove my CLS, the salesman offered us a selection of routes and I chose a fast country route.

 

[Crickleymal]

I took a Nissan Primera out once. We had to drive 50 miles to the dealers and it was the apprentice who met us (could have been a Sunday). I heard a funny clonk as I drove it carefully out of the garage. 100 yards later it sounded like a bag of nails. The guy with us was obviously panicking so we went straight back. Complete waste of a morning.

 

[Deleted member 113659]

my mother's Astra VXR

Wow! What a cool Mum you’ve got.

Great idea for a thread.

 

[BIRMA]

This was the worst test drive I've ever had. My habit of changing my car every year led me to fixing a budget then reducing it down to three cars, I then arranged to test drive all three in a day or two so as to have the experience of each car fresh in my mind. In one pleasant but busy day I drove this AMV8s soft-top from Walton on Thames, an Audi R8 and a SL63.
The day started with the Aston Martin and as you can see from my photo it was gorgeous I wanted to love it so much but it had that dreadful speedshift paddle gearbox that I just couldn't use nicely no matter how I tried. So I tried it in auto for the traffic that wasn't a lot better the ride was harsh and the engine did not produce a nice sound very thrashy. Next up was the R8 having owned a late V8 Esprit this was naturally the modern up to date version, didn't like it that much either. last car was the SL63 what a breath of fresh air and what a car. I told the salesman if the Aston Martin I tried had been fitted with the MCT gearbox I'd have bought it. I got a fair bit of stick from Aston Martin owners on Pistonheads but facts are facts that paddle shift is crap. In fact the salesman told me it was the same gearbox system that was used in the Maserati 4200 gambiocorsa which I test drove a year or two before and that was crap too. But on looks the Aston Martin won the day.

 

[Deleted member 65149]

This was the worst test drive I've ever had. My habit of changing my car every year led me to fixing a budget then reducing it down to three cars, I then arranged to test drive all three in a day or two so as to have the experience of each car fresh in my mind. In one pleasant but busy day I drove this AMV8s soft-top from Walton on Thames, an Audi R8 and a SL63.
The day started with the Aston Martin and as you can see from my photo it was gorgeous I wanted to love it so much but it had that dreadful speedshift paddle gearbox that I just couldn't use nicely no matter how I tried. So I tried it in auto for the traffic that wasn't a lot better the ride was harsh and the engine did not produce a nice sound very thrashy. Next up was the R8 having owned a late V8 Esprit this was naturally the modern up to date version, didn't like it that much either. last car was the SL63 what a breath of fresh air and what a car. I told the salesman if the Aston Martin I tried had been fitted with the MCT gearbox I'd have bought it. I got a fair bit of stick from Aston Martin owners on Pistonheads but facts are facts that paddle shift is crap. In fact the salesman told me it was the same gearbox system that was used in the Maserati 4200 gambiocorsa which I test drove a year or two before and that was crap too. But on looks the Aston Martin won the day.

For the last 60 years I’ve lusted after owning an Aston Martin. I still do. But during the ten years I worked for a dealer who had a few different models in and I was able to drive all of them. Without exception they all looked stunning, but so disappointing to drive. They simply didn’t live up to expectations. The same goes for the Ferraris I drove. I didn’t even think to myself, if only I could afford one of these. I’ll stick with my dreams.

 

[Thrash]

When I was looking for my first car, I rang up a dealer about a Peugeot 206 I saw advertised and asked if I could come in the next morning to give it a test drive.
I turn up in the morning and the fuel light is on, he tells me there's enough for a quick run out. So off I go - about half a mile down the road, it runs out of diesel on a slip road joining a dual carriageway. I had to ring him back up and then sit and wait whilst he went to fill up a can with diesel and bring it across to me.

 

[moonloops]

Best test drive was when I bought a modified sierra cosworth from BBR. Dave Brodie was driving = utter madness

 

[Doodle]

My worst test drive has to be for the Golf R32 many moons ago, because I couldn't actually get one.

"So let me get this straight. You want a four figure non-refundable deposit on a car that *might* be delivered this time next year. You don't have one I can test drive beforehand because you sell your demonstrator allocation, and you can't even sort out one for me to look at and sit in. Sorry, I thought I'd walked into a VW dealer, not Ferrari."

Fast forward a decade, and I find myself having almost the same conversation over a Polo GTI+.