Any "young" buyers have an issue with not being taken seriously?

I see common tread in all responses - “I went to the dealership to test drive…”
Who needs a test drive if the deal is good? :rofl:
What to test drive? - Rent from any rental agency for few days. You’ll know a car much better than any 10 min test drive at the dealership before plunking thousands…

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100000000000000%

The phrase “can we test drive” is like nails on a chalkboard

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I’m with you.

I never test drive cars.

The deal is either compelling enough where I’ll find a way to like it, or, it’s a nice enough car where-how could you not like it?

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Print this out and put it first on every “I’m interested in leasing” checklist. One reason I go to auto shows every year and choose a different make/model every time I rent a car, lots of drive time and more comparables.

If you have to go in person or call the desk at every remaining rental car company at your airport, one of them likely has in their inventory what you have your eyes on. Small investment vs the insane cost of regret/early out.

This has happened to me before (both before in my 20s and now into my 30s). I’ve avoided the profiling thing by scheduling an appointment. I set expectations upfront about why I’m coming in, what car I’m looking at, etc. It automatically tells them I’m not trying to waste their time and there is a purpose to my visit - they may be shocked when I walk in and am younger than they expect, but generally it doesn’t become a thing.

Also, it helps that in Seattle lots of early 20 somethings have stupid amounts of money to play with…less profiling to start.

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Counter point, some of these cars you can’t get from a rental agency like the raptor the guy was talking about.

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Or you can be like my parents… lease a car without ever sitting inside of one let alone drive it. :joy::joy: They usually peer through the window after the dealer closes before leasing it though. They are easy people to please.

As a consumer, I see this as a problem with the franchised dealer/salesperson model. Car companies should want people to drive their cars. I really liked test driving a Tesla, no pressure, no issue getting a test drive of any model. I didn’t buy, but I liked it and I’m still interested and may get one eventually. Salespeople would never consider the long term, they would just mark me off as a joy rider even though I ended up leasing somewhere else.

I think Hertz had a line of Exotics and Super cars so I’m sure Raptor would be possible to rent from them also. When and if they get out of BK

Did that on my last lease.

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They carry a few cars, no Raptor, no hellcat, they do carry the z06, no m5/e63, they had the c63, maybe the m3. They had some cars like the g wagon, cayman, 911 carerra, etc etc

Better bet would be to find an independent rental shop like gotham dream cars or royalty exotics, but these rental agencies are in select markets like vegas, la, miami, ny, etc etc

Turo maybe an option?

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Yep the whole model is terrible. Taking the time to test drive a bunch of cars and shop around is a hassle for a salesman but you’re the one making a purchase thats going to cost you probably at least 10k. I could care less if they’re only making $100 off me, I’m spending a ton on this purchase. It’s just a really bad system and I don’t feel bad listening to salesman cry about customers because they decided to join this shitty model.

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I don’t blame the salespeople, everyone needs to make a living and this is the system they are stuck in. The system is the problem.

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Turo is definitely a good option, it’s kind of like a crapshoot though, depends on what’s in your area.

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Isn’t this typically what a dealer asks for? Come on in for a test drive and we can run numbers.

I was once at a dealership and the person said he cannot run numbers until we did a test drive because that’s his managers requirement. No test drive, no numbers.

:point_up_2: same here. Deal was good enough and I knew enough about the vehicle that I didn’t need or want a test drive.

On that note, I went to an Audi dealership to test drive an e-Tron and the first thing the salesguy says to me is, “Are buying a car right now? If not, I can’t help you.” I’m like, let me talk to your SM then. In any case, age may be a factor in some cases, but some sales folks suck at their job. You can tell from the get-go…

Correct. Salespeople hate test driving managers love it.

It builds value in the product and brings emotions into play so that you have a better chance at bumping a customer.

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I completely disagree about the not test driving part!! In 2013 i leased my first car it was Audi A4 and i did it without test driving it!! The biggest mistake of my life … as soon as i drove of the lot i knew that i made a mistake!! Why? Because it was CVT transmission… i traded in my 2010 328i msport for that piece of shit audi!! Before that i never knew that CVT drives that sloppy!! Within one year i was able to sell the car to carmax and broke even! Phew :relieved:!

I usually do it all by email then drive the car before I sign. Logical in case there is something wrong with that exact car and a way out if you hate the car. They are fine with it as they already have the sale in the bag.