When you decide to test drive a car you have to use all of your scenes, your intuition, your reasoning, your personality, and your gut. A test is defined as: A procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, esp. before it is taken into widespread use.
A test drive should be fun but it is also your summary of whether you could see yourself in that vehicle when the salesperson is not there. When it's just you and the road. Or with the kids, the dog, and a load of luggage. Salespeople are there to explain the car to you, get you excited about it and show you the value in your potential purchase, but you should also have a mental checklist (or in some cases bring an actual checklist) so you don't loose focus on your goal.
1. Start with your main reason for the interest in this vehicle. Is it for everyday driving, for work, just for fun? 2. Are you more interesting in storage, technology, safety, performance? Obviously there will be overlap here but you should have a main factor in the vehicle. This is going to help you stay out of a sedan when you need to haul lumber every weekend.
3. Does the look of the vehicle fit your personality? When you walk across a parking lot do you see yourself being drawn to a certain style of vehicle?
4. Is it comfortable? Not just the seat, but the steering wheel and the arm rest too. You will spend hours in this seat so it better be comfy.
5. Is the cabin layout easy to use? Can you easily find normal controls? There will be a learning curve with any new car, just like getting a new phone, but the basics should be right there for you?
6. Feel the road when you are driving. Don't just make a small loop in the parking lot. Drive on the highway, the interstate, in traffic, on a back road, where ever you do the bulk of your driving. Turn the radio up loud, then turn it off. If the salesmen talks to much, politely ask for some quite so you can have a listen. Establish a connection with the car and if after you drive the connection isn't there feel free to move on.
7. Back the car up. You don't even have to back into a parking spot, but you will put this car in reverse, most likely everyday, so do it now too.
8. Sit in the back seat just to get a feel for it. You may never ride here but someone will.
9. Ask questions that pertain to your life? Can two sets of golf clubs fit in the trunk? How may cup holders are in the back?
10. Ask about maintenance. You will probably get told nothing but good things, but you need to ask anyways.
This list is by no means complete. It is just a jumping off point. A salesperson is going to explain more than you want to hear and if you look at more than one car that day the info is going to get muddled. If you have already done some research look at the things that caught your eye. Do they look and behave like the pictures and descriptions? But keep your main questions in mind. If you need to do a second test drive then do it. So make your test drive an actual test and not just a joy ride, you will be happy you did in the long run.
Ohhhh...that point I was going to get to later. Well, surprise, you are being tested too and to be quite frank the more truthful you are with you answers the more the salesperson can help you. If you are just driving to drive say so and why. If you are 6 months away from buying a car then say so and why. A good salesperson is going to ask you a lot of questions to help make you make the best decision. This is a mutually beneficial situation. If you are testing to see if the salesperson is psychic, I can assure they are not, and if they don't have answers they can't help you. So while you are testing the car, the salesperson is testing you. It is their job after all. So help them help you and everyone will pass the test with flying colors.
