test driving a used car that I don't intend to buy?

Daeldalus said:

i have another question now.

 

how do I search for cars on dealer lots in my area? carmax was a bust and when I put manual transmission into the dealer search on CL I get less than a page of actual crap. hmm.......

Most dealers have their own website these days, just go their and look through their inventory.  Or, get off the couch and go for a drive to see what they have in person.  

fidelity101 said:

In reply to Tyler H :

you have opened new doors to me sir. thank you

Searchtempest is awesome. And a vicious time sink.

fidelity101 said:

In reply to Tyler H :

you have opened new doors to me sir. thank you

Sorry in advance.

ultraclyde said:

fidelity101 said:

In reply to Tyler H :

you have opened new doors to me sir. thank you

Searchtempest is awesome. And a vicious time sink.

oh jeepers creepers.  May the good lord keep me broke the old fashioned way.  

You could also try turo.com (depending on location?) if you aren't opposed to spending a little money.

I've bought several without ever test driving them.

I've also bought several from little E36 M3 hole dealers because they had what I was interested in and were willing to work a deal. 

I think wasting the sales guy's time is pretty underhanded, but if you can sleep at night afterward, go for it. Personally I don't treat people like that.

I like Carmax for things like this.  Employees are straight salary (or they used to be), and I've always been upfront.  One time we looked at every model of three row SUV they had on the lot.  I wanted to get a sense of how usable the third row was, so we didn't even drive everything.

Good luck with the search!

Toyman01 said:

I've bought several without ever test driving them.

I've also bought several from little E36 M3 hole dealers because they had what I was interested in and were willing to work a deal. 

I think wasting the sales guy's time is pretty underhanded, but if you can sleep at night afterward, go for it. Personally I don't treat people like that.

since you are local to me you could let me test drive your new g35. they are one of the cars on my list.

If they have a car you are interested in, why is there no chance that you'd buy from them? I recently test drove a bunch of cars trying to narrow things down. There were a few I thought I probably wasn't going to like, but there was always a chance I could like it and buy. Car sales is a rough game and most non-long term career sales people struggle. I think the decent thing to do is to not waste their time by remaining open minded.

Dealers don't have an emotional attachment to a particular car, how many private sellers will sell for say $3-5k less than asking? I'm not suggesting it can/can't happen in either case, I'm just saying don't insist on a private only sale, especially with niche vehicles.

I've done it, my older son used to do it at new car dealerships when a new and pretty interesting model came out and I've done it with my younger son at a local, large, no haggle dealership. It's easy there, just go into the office, tell them what you're interested in and they throw you the keys. We tested out a handful of Cobalt SS' one day, he went back a week later on his own to look at another one and he bought a 500 sport from them.

Snrub said:

If they have a car you are interested in, why is there no chance that you'd buy from them?

because their prices around here are stupid ridiculous and they don't haggle and they always want you to finance and i pay in cash upfront. all the cars I am looking into are 4-5k cheaper on the open market.