Which dealers offer decent test drives?

[droplet]

Hi all,

Have been lurking for a while, but this is my first post. My wife and I are looking seriously at a manual Jetta TDI in the next couple of weeks, but before signing on the dotted line, we would obviously like to give the car a really good test drive. We've only been to one dealer so far in the inner-west of Sydney. While the salesperson was friendly and helpful, our test consisted of an accompanied drive, on a quiet back-street route chosen by the salesperson, for approximately 15 minutes. This really wasn't the most useful way to get to know the car properly.

My question is does anybody know of a VW dealer in the greater Sydney area who is more generous with their test drives? Ideally we'd like to be able to take the car out unaccompanied by the dealer, on some streets of our choosing. It's been 7 years since we bought our last new car...so are unaccompanied test drives even the done thing anymore, or are those days long gone?



Thanks for your help.

[gregozedobe]

I got several unaccompanied drives from Lennocks (Canberra), but they knew me because I'd previously bought my van from them and I'd been talking with them about Golfs and Octavias for a bit before I was ready to test drive. It probably also helped that I'm on the (ahem) mature side and was obviously a serious buyer.

Mind you if I crashed it I was up for the first $2,500 of repair costs, so I was pretty careful not to get in any dodgy situations.

If you want to go for a longer test drive on streets of your choosing a good dealers shouldn't mind (assuming they have a demo car, not one they intend to sell as a new one).

I can understand why they don't like to let strangers take their car out without a chaperone. If you were selling your near-new car would you let someone take it for an unaccompanied test drive ? I certainly wouldn't, there are some pretty irresponsible people out there who would give a car an absolute flogging if they thought they could get away with it.

[dbryce]

... We've only been to one dealer so far in the inner-west of Sydney...

Not sure if it's the same one, but Barloworld Five Dock let me drive unaccompanied - I got lost and got back after about 30-40 mins. No one seem to mind, but everyone was pretty busy at the time.

[mrx]

It usually depends if it is a proper registered demo car, or a new car that they just hang temporary plates off of. If you make it known that you're serious it's not unheard of to borrow the car for the weekend or have them come to your home etc. When purchasing our Skoda we got the sales lady to come around to our place and make sure our dogs would fit comfortably in the back.

[droplet]

It usually depends if it is a proper registered demo car, or a new car that they just hang temporary plates off of. If you make it known that you're serious it's not unheard of to borrow the car for the weekend or have them come to your home etc. When purchasing our Skoda we got the sales lady to come around to our place and make sure our dogs would fit comfortably in the back.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Yes, good point, the car was brand new and had dealer plates hanging off the back, so that probably explains the short accompanied test drive. Will ring around during the week and try and find a dealer with a proper demo car in the correct spec and make it clear that we're interested in a longer unaccompanied drive. Thanks again.

[Mischa]

try bobbin head road right near the hornsby dealer

[Purgi]

I got 2 unaccompanied test drives at Barloworld Mascot, 1 before I signed and 1 after when I was considering swapping to a manual. Both times they threw me the keys and didn't indicate how long I should take.

[THR]

Had about five unaccompanied drives at Mascot (first the Polo petrol, then diesel, then two variants of each of the diesel and petrol Golf). In fact, that makes it six then.

They said to take a particular route but didn't care, or even seem to notice, that I took longer.

[Chardy]

if the dealer wants to sell you a car then they should let you take it as far and as long as you want - within reason of course.

what if you bought a Toureg and realised that it didnt fit in the garage?

if they insist on coming then you sould insist on buying the car elsewhere.

[Pirate_Monkey]

Definitely Barloworld Mascot! I had to insist that the salesman come along for the test drive.

[gregozedobe]

if they insist on coming then you sould insist on buying the car elsewhere.

So exactly what do you intend to do to this car that you can't have a salesperson with you when you are driving it ????

[Chardy]

I would intend on enjoying the drive without someone telling me about the 8 different settings on the windscreen wipers or many other things about the car that I don't really care about.

[jb747]

I got my car from Burwin in Melbourne, and they gave me multiple hour plus unaccompanied drives. First visit GTI DSG, R32 DSG and R32 manual. Later on we took the R32 DSG for an entire afternoon. And also hour long drive, just for interest's sake, in a GT TDI.

Needless to say, they got the business.

[SmutsGTI]

Barloworld Mascot, 3 drives just thrown the keys sign this see you later "Its a GTI and likes to be thrashed" okey dokey then!.

Smuts

[gregozedobe]

I would intend on enjoying the drive without someone telling me about the 8 different settings on the windscreen wipers or many other things about the car that I don't really care about.

I must have come across a much better class of salespersons than you, as most of them kept pretty quiet and let the car sell itself.