This is one case when it's easier buying second-hand ...

+1 - makes things a whole lot easier (and cheaper)

Appreciate the point about an Auto-box however, as the wife is only licenced to drive an auto, we need to test-drive cars with Auto-boxes.

Rgds

Z

I also pretty much know what I want before I go to do a test drive, and go to the dealer who has that particular car.

I've had no problems getting test drives, and any dealers who don't want to be bothered don't get a sale, simple as that. They know it by the end of the phone call, too.

+1

No test drive = no sale..

I'm fussy about cars and how they react to speed humps.. a key requirement of any car.. So any test drive has to have speed humps..

Edited by madf on 09/02/2012 at 13:04

You go to old established family owned dealership that intends to be there another generation or two, and avoid the finance houses masquerading as car dealers like the plague.

One small Citroen dealer i used to deliver cars to has a senior saleman who's been there well over 25 years (nearly all staff are long termers), can see why, one time i was there unloading some new motors and this chap was just putting some trade plates on a demo.

As i unloaded the young lady customer arrived back having just tested the petrol version, and jumped straight in to test the Diesel he had just plated.

Thats how you sell cars by making the customer the most important person in your life, and letting them know they are by actions.

As for my test drive i simply informed them that i would be using my own route, a mixture of roads including one very undulating rough road, being a family Toyota owned dealer this didn't raise an eyebrow.

Car supermarkets?...you can keep 'em.

I got a solo drive in a Mazda 6; it was a used car from an small independent dealership in Garstang. They photocopied my licence and then told me to have 20 mins bezzing about in it. I only didn't buy because it was too old - I had spotted a newer one for the same price somewhere else with a little less on the clock.