Any test drive stories to share????

superatticman · February 4, 2021

We've all been there. Excitedly going to view a car and then it totally failing or more than exceeding expectations.

Having always been a fan of big wafty cars I once travelled 200 miles to go and look at an immaculate looking low mileage Rover 75 in about 2006. Was a gorgeous and rare 2001 plate turquoise colour, fully loaded with electric rear blind etc Connoisseur SE. 1 owner, full main dealer history etc. I arrived at the small dealership and saw the car. Looked lovely. Sat in it, felt brand new. Even had that 'new car smell'. I'd almost made up my mind there and then! However within 2 minutes of the test drive it sounded like there was a bumble bee stuck behind the dash. Then a rattle started where door pins were. Anything above 50mph I could hear wind noise coming in somewhere. Then a warning light came on the dashboard and a slight knock started from the engine bay! Immediately pulled the car over and phoned the dealer who came out very apologetically to pick me up. Said to me "I'll get to the bottom of the problem, probably just the oil pump, known issue on that model, fancy leaving a deposit, you've come a long way". The classic Rover build quality rattles that selectively plagued their models had already put me off. Shame....as it was a gorgeous looking car if you like classic British looking motors. Drove home in a sulk and got fined for entering a box junction too.

Literally a week later a similar car came up 5 miles away from a private seller. Similar spec, 2000 plate, slightly higher mileage, racing green, about 30% less of the price. Drove perfectly, no rattles at all. Knocked him down a bit citing the lack of dealership support and took it home happy as Larry.

dutchie01 · February 5, 2021

My biggest disappointment was a BMW 318d touring. Brandnew and my first BM then driving an Alfa 75 ( this is 25 yrs ago) I was over the moon my first BMW i had made it in the world! I remember the impressive showroom oozing money ( which i didnt have) and there it was shiny and ready.. Boy what a terrible terrible machine.. slow, rattling, not wanting to rev really like a deliveryvan. It didnt work out. Later in life buying a car for my daughter that just turned 18. Looking for a Suzuki Swift 3 cylinder 850cc 750 kg cheap fifth hand car. Went for a testdrive hit the brakes at a junction and the car just ploughed on. Oil was black and smelled burnt as well clearly never maintained. We drove 150km for that car and i was convinced it was a good buy.. Positive my first Lexus IS250 2nd gen. In the showroom closing the door. The bankvault like sound did it for me, i decided on the spot without driving it. Never regretted it!

Beduffshirl · February 8, 2021

When I first came to Lexus we had a 2 hour test drive on a CT from Birmingham dealership. Very impressed and knew I wanted one but we'd booked an A Class Merc test drive straight after so thought we might as well go and have a look.

They would only let us go out with them so drove past the Lexus garage to make a point. The entertaining part was that I work in the Fort Dunlop building for anyone that knows the area and park in the underground car park which is pretty tight and full of huge concrete pillars. I said to the guy I'm going to try parking it and he went a pale shade of white.

Parked OK and drove back out the car park and he breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently one of his colleagues had been "taken" down there too and had a knife pulled on them and the car stolen!! The good news is that the robbers tried to go to Merc' Leicester and got spotted on CCTV and were subsequently caught and banged up.

We went back to Lexus and picked my CT the next day to complete the story 🙂