Aibu to expect to test drive 3 cars at a dealership?

I had problems getting a test drive last time I bought a car.

Cash buyer. Golf/ A3/ BMW 1 series budget.
It really annoyed me.

I've driven VW for years. Got skoda in the end. They were helpful.

Well, they obviously don't want your business!!! I test drove 3 variants of the car I bought. No problem at all. (BMW/Mini dealership)

Based on a 3 day old Trustpilot review I’ve just read, I think you’re right! Someone else’s experience:

”The used A-Class I purchased actually broke down during the test drive…”

Well in fairness it started… He probably couldn’t believe his luck it even made it out of the forecourt! 🤣

I couldn’t believe he even tried to continue selling me that car after that. One time I have no regrets for laughing in someone’s face. As a buyer you couldn’t ask for a better red flag if a car can’t even last a test drive.

We booked a test drive of a car, having previously visited the showroom. Turned up and it had a flat battery … less than two years olds. So we asked to drive another model we were interested in as they had wasted our time. Then went back to drive the model we did nit drive the first time, but refused the car with flat battery for second trips.

I wonder what he actually thought the test drive was supposed to flush out if breaking down and walking back wasn’t it!

Was it a branch of The Car Shop by any chance? I had a similar experience a few years back. In the end the one car they would allow me to test drive conked out within 2 minutes and the car went into limp mode 🤣. As we were walking back to the showroom the salesman was very apologetic. His attitude however completely changed when we got back - after walking in the rain - and I said I wasn’t willing to buy the car I’d “test drove.” The laugh of it was the joker seemed to think my 2 minute journey still counted as a test drive!

I turned it around on him: “would you buy a car you took on a test drive that conked out after 2 mins?” ”Oh it’ll be a quick fix. We’ll sort whatever that issue was.”
I couldn’t wait to leave and won’t ever return to any of their branches after reading quite a few horror stories online.

For someone with a limitation on what they can do, it could be treating them unfairly. Say someone with a back condition.

Go elsewhere and let others know.

There’s a newish big car supermarket near us. Went in with OH a few months ago and couldn’t believe we had to answer all their questions before we were even allowed to have a look round. We didn’t stay and nor did some other people in the car park though I guess the business model works as it’s still there.

Excellent!!

I'd email the head of sales and let them know you'll be taking your custom elsewhere as their sales people can't be arsed to let you test more than one car and you have more than one in the running.
Works well if you are a cash buyer, you could add that in.

They can be so lazy.

We tried to order a brand new car from an expensive brand via a local dealer. They more or less said no, just choose from what we have.

We declined and some time later they phoned and said they had something in for us it was just a different model, different colour, different specs.

We bought from a competitor brand and when they next contacted ( with another not quite right offering) we had already purchased and they seemed quite irritable about that. But it was clear they were just relying on making a sale off what they had in the showroom. It’s like they think people are desperate to spend money.

Madness isn’t it? I went to buy a car once and they couldn’t be less interested, I was spending a good chunk of money.. think they saw a woman on her own and assumed there wouldn’t be a sale until the “man of the house” went. Anyway I bought the car elsewhere and then went back to the first dealership and gave them feedback, it was a pretty woman moment 🤣

We bought a new (to us) last year. Ended up at a huge car supermarket type place. Asked to look at 2 cars and was told that you had to ring, answers a whole pile of questions and then book in for the following weekend. I went to the car park,rang the call centre. Was asked what makes you interested in this particular car? I scoffed and said oh the colour and the wheels. And was told if I don’t take it seriously then they wouldn’t let me buy off them. I disconnected,drove to Evans Halshaw and spent £15k on a car they let me sit in and drive. Its bonkers

A local to me Hyundai garage did let me test drive cars on my own, they just took a copy of my driving license. But most do it with a member of staff in the car.
Back to the original post, yes its reasonable to be able to test drive as many cars as you want, especially if its a big car supermarket type place.

This is such bad customer service from the dealership. When I wanted to buy a new car, I test drove a model several times. It was approx. 14k and I was there hours. I test drove it a fair bit (alone) then all the niggles I had took another hour to address and renegotiate price on. Due to my very short height, I was concerned about something also and the salesperson went to Halfords to buy a corrective device even! Anyway at the end I was 100% this was the right car for me with my needs and instead of looking for cheaper price elsewhere I did the deal immediately to repay them for their attention and understanding of my anxiety to get such an important and expensive purchase ‘right’. If at any point they had become frustrated or told me ther wasn’t enough of them to help me I’d have just gone elsewhere for sure.

I still remember going with my dad as a kid to test-drive a car and being so excited at being allowed to sit in for the drive as it meant I was trying it before my mum, lol.

In all seriousness I just imagine it depends on the dealership and how busy the staff are that day.

Last time I was considering a hybrid. One dealership let me try two or three. I drove out on my own so didn’t take much staff time at all.
Find another dealer.

I found that when I went to test-drive one car, the sales guy wanted to accompany me. When we went back and test-drove another the following day, we got a different sales person who just handed the keys to DH and sent us on our way.

I tried to buy a car from a big car supermarket place, firstly we had to fill in a form and sign for the keys,we also had to search for the cars from the hundreds they had in site.
I arranged a day for me to test drive the 3 cars we had narrowed our selection to.
When I turned up for the test drive, they only had 1 car ready. I did test drive the car, and liked it. But there was no way on earth I would have bought it from them, if they can be this bad about trying to get you to part with your money, I couldn't believe that would be interested in any after sales service.

When we helped DD buy her first car she test drove 4 different cars at one of those big car supermarket type places. The chap there had no issue with that and when she thought she’d decided he let me and DH take it for a drive too. It took a while but it did end in a sale for the guy. When we made the appointment we told him there were several we wanted a good look at so he booked us a two hour slot.

I once test drove 8 cars at a single dealership over the space of 5 hours. They were falling over themselves to help me and I wanted to be 100% sure before spending £60k+.

YANBU, they're either lazy or they think you can't afford it and don't want to waste their time.

Are the cars easily accessible? Or are they all parked together. If they are all parked together, they won’t let you drive it until you have shown serious interest, not saying it’s right, but that how it was with the car supermarket last time I went.

Ditto