25th Nov 2009, 11:24
Well then why not buy the car on Ebay and have it shipped to you? If you are not getting enough info out of a test drive it is your own fault. Take the car for a long drive in ALL types of driving scenarios. If the salesman doesn't let you do this, then go to another dealer.
Trust me, if you tell them buying or not buying is hinging on a thorough test drive, they will toss you the keys and tell you to bring it back when you are done. A dealer would be crazy to let people walk out because they couldn't drive the car thoroughly enough to make a good decision about buying it. They have no problem giving their own cars to their sales people as demo's, so why should you suffer as a buyer when spending tens of thousands of dollars on something.
The original poster here should have noticed much more of the cars shortcomings on a thorough test drive, and only has themselves to blame for their poor purchase decision.
24th Nov 2009, 20:54
I have no idea what kind of cars you test drive, but I NEVER have a salesman in the car with me. They just toss me the keys and a temporary tag and I'm allowed to keep the car as long as I want to. I've taken two home OVERNIGHT!! (one I bought, one I didn't). If a car company is so afraid that you'll find a problem, then maybe you need to test drive a different kind of car. I suspect you are probably test driving imports, so I can see why they wouldn't want you looking too closely at them. Both the cars I took home overnight were Chryslers, but I've had the very same offers from both Ford and GM dealers. I think they probably don't have as much to hide from prospective buyers as import dealers do.