So, since my BMW lease ends soon and I had an hour to kill between appointments I decided to go test drive the C300. I’ve leased only BMWs and never really driven a Benz so I wanted to compare the C300 with the 3 Series.
Had an interesting test drive experience, and not sure if this is atypical of all Benz drives or the salesperson I had was just having a bad day. I start driving and sped up to 50 in a 35, changed lanes fast, brake sudden/ hard (I even warned him)- basically everything one encounters on the roads to see how the car handles and whether it suits my driving style. The guy literally threw a fit and started lecturing me on how he valued his life and he didn’t want to die and how these cars were not meant to be driven like that. Mind you I was only going 50 in a 35 zone. He cut short my test drive and made me get back to the dealership, all while making sure I was going 30 and reminding me to drive safe. Very strange!
I might be biased but in all my bimmer test drives the salesperson actually encouraged me to push the car and see how it handled. Now I get if I was really going off limits but as a buyer I expect to see how the car drives and handles in the situations we see on the roads.
Have others experienced something like this? I’d love to hear some of your (weird) test drive experiences.
I went to Lexus a month back or so. In a similar experience, I decided to check the 30-70 acceleration in a GS350 and got up to 52 before the older sales lady told me to slow down. The speed limit was 45. This was a 4 lane road. Didn’t end the test drive early, but we went back and she continued to be rude to me, so I left. She was rude from the minute she took my license until I left. She got really pissy when I showed her the mailer I got and asked her for the code so I could get a $75 gift card.
Last test drive was an Alfa Ti Sport and the dealer consistently busted my chops for taking corners to slow and getting on and off I95 too slow … got “cmon its alfa, push it” and “oh your wife is here, make her proud”. Guy was hysterical.
Unfortunately, its S FL so the price was a good $100 more a month than quoted elsewhere.
