5 day test drive

I think if they know your serious about this car yes. The girl im seeing had a alfa romeo 147 for the weekend last week. Im quite interested in knowing this myself as i dont like taking cars on a test drive for half hour or less. I need to see how the car feels ona daily use (to work gym rugby friends). So if any one else knows more about this then i do (i dont know sh*t) would help thanks

And jamie hope this helped a little bit

Ashley

I recently had an S3 Sportback for four days. I am looking at getting a company car and so this was arranged with the leasing firm that my company uses. Took a while arrange and had to pester them quite a few times for this to be arranged. Audi demo don't actually have the S3 themself, they are kept elsewhere so I think this is why it took so long.

I went to my local dealer to get a test drive in the mean time but this was simply a ten mintue round the block test drive with the salesman present. To say I wasn't impressed is an understatement. I asked if a longer test drive could be arranged but was told that the salesman would be present.

If you are going to be spending £30,000 on a car I don't think that it is unreasonable to want more than a ten minute test drive from which I learnt nothing.

So good luck in your test drive, I hope you get on better than I did!

It is sometimes difficult to get a reasonable test drive of some cars. In my own case it's no problem as I've been using the same dealer and salesman for the past 10 years and he is always happy to let me have any Audi I want to try for a day or longer if I want.

But even he says there is now way they would allow this for someone they do not know and a salesman would always have to go with them to meet insurance requirements. In my case it's given to me on the basis of being a loan car and therefore does not need someone to go with me.

I manage to wrangle at least 5 days for a test drive, but thats probably because I buy so many cars!

Hmm, I think you should be able to wangle a 2 day test drive, but I'm not sure they would be to happy with a 500 mile round trip getting put on it over a weekend - they won't agree to that.

The five day test was me back in July. I was in the dealership back in May ordering some parts shortly after they they registered their demo S3 and the salesman came over to tell me that I'd really love the car and that I should take it out for a test. I told him I wouldn't be interested in buying it but that I wouldn't mind a quick spin some time he was free. I pass the dealership most evenings on the way home, so I told him to give me a shout some day when he wasn't too busy and I'd pop in.

One evening in mid July I got an email from him to say that rather than giving me a quick spin they thought I would enjoy an overnight. I replied that that would be ok and that I'd pick it up the following Thursday - he replied and told me I could keep it until monday. They figured that the longer I had it the more willing I would be to buy it. I handed it back after 5 days and he called me the next day looking for 25 grand along with my 18 month old car to change! I politely declined, told him I would have put the cost to change at nearer to 10 grand and asked him to give me a shout in three months when it hadn't sold. Like I said, I pass the dealership every day and it is still in the window at full price. My brother was telling me yesterday that he was in with the dealer looking at their R8 during the week and he told him that they'd be reducing it to 45 grand (from 62) fairly soon. They won't even get that because it is a MY07 car (but registered in May 08) and it is now the old shape. If he'd come in at that kind of price at the start I might have tried to haggle him down a bit. Not interested in it now though - much rather my own car.

I guess it depends on the dealer, your relationship with them and how much they want to sell you the car. You might find a salesman is more likely to give you an extended test towards the end of a month or quarter when he has sales targets to meet - in the current economic climate this might be easier than before.