[srinath34]

My current ride, Ecosport Ecoboost Titanium was bought without a test-drive as the dealership nearest to me (Elite Ford) did not have one when I had gone to book. The original booking plan was to get the Fiesta Classic 1.6 but ended up booking the 1.0 Ecosport.

Ended up waiting for 6 months to get the car delivered and was the most frustrating period (Had to face Ford's epic price rise twice and with some feature deletion).

Even my current bike, a pre-owned P220S, was bought without having test ridden the bike before (had learnt to ride a bike on a friend's Unicorn and Karizma). Took my parents along, had a small spin (was still a L-board then) and bought it immediately.

[PetrolRider]

The only time I had purchased something without a proper test drive / ride was my first stead way back in my college days. It's a long story, if you are interested, read on.


After I passed my high school, I got into a prominent govt junior college for my 10+2 studies which was unfortunately (why? read on) some 10 km away from our home then. So, it was decided, I would also be getting a mechanized version of two-wheeler to commute.

Yay! hold on, it is not "Yay" yet.

As per the then rule, only certain types of mopeds be available to kids between 16-18 years of age, mostly 50 cc non-geared ones. I was tasked to clear driving license process before being handed a "MOPED". I had to wait 3 months just to celebrate my 16th birthday and another month to get the DL.

Once, that achieved, the conversation went like below:

Me: I want a Hero puch
Mom: No, I have seen all those badass students in colleges ride them.
Me: Ok, then what about a TVS Scooty?
Dad: That is beyond the 50 cc limit, let's stick to law
Me: Bajaj Sunny then?
Uncle: No, those are not reliable at all, breaks down a lot.
Dad: You are going to get a TVS Luna

As I remember, I did have faced certain level of PTSD for couple of days after that decision. Anyway, I had to submit to the diktat and cave in.

The day it was to be purchased, I asked dad for a new helmet, which he happily agreed to. So, I went ahead and bought a full faced helmet with dark visor; my only concern was no one should recognize me while riding a Luna.

Test ride, heck I was more desperate to get over the purchase process and to get out of the showroom ASAP.

Thinking back, I would have gathered more attention being on a modest Luna with "Street-hawk" styled full faced dark visor helmet.

The rest of my 2 and 4 wheelers were purchased after robust test rides/drives.

[vj123]

I have bought a couple of vehicles without TDing.

Pulsar: It was a revolution when it was launched and i made my dad buy one so that i can use it. I was pretty much sold on it looking at those launch pictures and initial reports published in automotive magazines. Ours was one of the first in the town and TD wasnt an option at that point.

Polo: We bought this purely based on magazine reviews. Drive involvement and VW was the main reason for buying one without driving it.

A4: None of the dealers around had a manual A4 with sport package in stock. This was my first brand new purchase vehicle in US and i didn want to test drive one before buying one. I ended up placing a factory order and its one of the best vehicles i have ever owned.

Looking back, i have zero regrets about buying any of these vehicles without test driving.

[Grease_Monkey]

1. Swift: Jan 2007 - the first one was for my mom. She wanted to upgrade from Alto LX (without PS) back in 2007. I was in engineering at that time and had come home for my brother's wedding. We decided then and there to go for Swift Zxi without even sitting in the car. After all its a Maruti . Later when we got the car, we realised the poor low end torque G13B engine had and how jerky and overly sensitive it is in traffic conditions. The car is still with my mom though probably on its last legs considering the high amount of rusting it has developed in the doors and body panels

2. Alto K10: June 2017 - This time it was my first car. I wanted to buy either Tiago or Figo. We went to various used car dealers checking out various cars - i10, i20, Alto, even an old Gen1 corolla but I was annoyed by the extremely high price quoted by everyone for 4-5 year old models. And I wanted a car having ABS and Airbags. We test drove Tiago and i20 too but were put off by the high price of ABS and Airbag models of Hyundai cars. Tiago was selected, but I could afford only the XB or XE petrol variant at that time (with ABS and Airbag option for both). Maruti was having 25k + 5k discount at that time for pre-GST coupled with a pushy salesman meant we selected Alto k10 VXi (o) without ABS though. While I love the chuckability and go-kart like feel along with the mid and high rev range of the engine (it loves to be revved to 6.4k redline), the highway manners are terrible to be honest and it literally crashes into even the smallest pothole. I knew all about this due to the extremely detailed Team BHP review.

Ironically, my 2 wheeler purchases were all well test ridden.
1. Nova 115 - May 2003. Loved the way it pulled all the way to 80+ kmph. But, the engine could not take the abuse and bad kinetic service and iffy quality meant I had to sell it after 4 years for throwaway price.

2. Apache 150 - Jan 2007. My first motorcycle, couldn't ride a geared motorcycle too well but knew how to ride ungeared vehicles and drive cars well. Test rode it for 2 kms, liked and purchased it there and then. Incidently, my cousin bought the same bike in same colour couple of months back which probably helped in the decision process. Bike is still going strong at over 1.1 lacs + kms and is my daily driver. Upgraded the engine and related parts to RTR 180 for a mid life makeover of sorts, loving every bit of that!

Nowadays, it makes sense to rent out vehicle for couple of days and read the TBHP reviews, and then decide since most of the dealers give out extremely small test rides of less than 1-2 kms, which is actually next to useless to understand a vehicle. Case in point - Bajaj dealers - they think we are coming for a joy ride and give bike to ride for 1 km. And the Dominar I rode was jerking and ran out of fuel on the busy Domlur flyover! Atleast the RE dealers and Mahindra 2w dealers are better in this regard.

[TN13Sleeper]

Yes, because it was an emotion based purchase rather than being rational/logic based. I always aspired to own a Skoda, specifically the Laura/Octavia. Due to the cost, settled down for a Rapid. Did not test drive.

[amitayu]

NEVER!!


Test driving all possible options in the range before finalizing on a car is the most fun part of buying a car!!

My wife goes bonkers everytime, as I insist on dragging her along for each ride.

I actually fondly remember the weekends I have spend, hopping from one showroom to another, test driving cars!!

[sandeepsc]

I have purchased my Verna Fluidic without test drive in 2011. When I went to showroom, I was little afraid to test drive the car because I had never driven any car before this. Though I learnt driving in 2009 but after that never got any chance to drive or to practise the driving. Before purchasing Verna Fluidic, we visited Fiat showroom for Linea in 2010. That time also I did not test drive the Linea which I think is my biggest mistake. Just thought if I had taken test drive of Linea, I would not have purchased Verna Fluidic. Both the time showroom guy droved the car and me & my father sat at passenger seat and rear seat respectively. After taking delivery of our Verna Fluidic (Dad’s office driver drove down the car at home) I again joined the driving class just to practise the driving. Thus how my journey started with Verna Fluidic. Though an official review of the Verna warned about it’s boat like ride and poor handling, I went ahead with purchase of Verna and realized about my mistake. But apart from the ride quality my Verna is serving me really very well till date. I have done many interstate road trips along with my parents without any single complaint touch wood.

Also all my bikes are purchased without test drives. I think there is no need for test drive as such for entry level bikes. My bikes ranges from Hero Honda Splendor, Pulsar 150, Pulsar 180 and Yamaha FZS V3.

But my next purchase will definitely have proper test drives as now I have became good driver now.

[vantheman5211]

I was a month into the process of buying a BMW M850i but the numbers were not making sense for a car that wasn’t moving much. Essentially was looking for something special.

The dealer said “if you are looking for something really special and you know if you aren’t afraid to spend a little bit more, we can actually give you a great deal on the newly launched i8 roadster. I have one shipped, but you will need to give me a quick response.”

I swiped the downpayment within the next 5 mins, and took the delivery the day it arrived (I reckon 3 days later)

1500 miles into it, I feel it was a great decision.

[namanski]

I haven't been able to fathom this till date but my parents have always bought a car without test driving it first.

They go for looks, space, features and brand-value rather than how the car feels while driving.

They've bought at least 7 cars like this.

They went ahead with the 2009 Honda City CVT because it looked good and was recommended by a relative.

They went ahead with the 2017 Honda Jazz CVT because they wanted a small car to go anywhere in the city and its looks really appealed to my mum.

They went ahead with the 2013 Mahindra XUV500 because it was packed with features at the time at that price point.

They went ahead with a 2019 Toyota Fortuner AT because they wanted one for the longest time and its road presence, along with no better option at that price point (For those of you who would suggest an Endeavour — they've owned a Ford before and they just don't like the reliability it offers as compared to a Toyota).

[civic-dk]

I bought my first car, Zen in year 2000 without test driving it as I was still learning driving at that time.

[gkg2423]

Yes, our first car was Swift vdi, that time I did not even know driving. My brother was only driver in the family. Swift was top selling hatchback, so bought that without even thinking twice.
Booked seltos 2 months ago. Took a short test drive. I had decided buying seltos after watching its advertisement, I loved its looks. Before I could feel any power or ride quality my test drive was over. Since I am coming from swift, its a big upgrade for me and I was happy with that. But now I know test drives are really helpful to understand the car. A car that suits others may not be good for me.

[jalaj]

Bought my current car (XUV500 W7 Automatic) without a test drive.

Following were the reasons :
a) A couple of cousins are using XUV - and they are extremely happy about it
b) Frankly speaking I could not find any other option which could fulfil my needs
i) SUV (not MPV)
ii) Price Segment not more than 20L
iii) 7 Seater

by God's grace, the decision to buy the XUV has been good

[chaturgaurav]

Yes, all my 3 auto purchases so far have been without any test drive.

1. My LML Scooter - mere looks of the Vespa were enough to choose without any other reason or consideration.
2. Maruti 800 - Natural upgrade as the first car from a 2 wheeler. So no other considerations or TD required.
3. Although I did test drive a Ford Figo when I was looking to replace my 800, but eventually bought the Tata Manza without any test drive. Car's road presence, humongous space and features (that were offered by a very few then), led to the purchase without a test drive. I, however, must mention that the Manza's review on Team-Bhp made up more than the test drive for me.

I must admit that none of the choices went wrong so far.

Now that I am looking for another car, this time around, I think I will test drive a few before finalizing the one.

It's going to be a Ciaz most likely. No test drives yet..

[goswami.j]

Yes ! Been there, done that

I bought my first car, the Maruti Swift VDI without any test drive.
It was the era when Swifts were hot selling cars, infact the Maruti showroom guys did not even bother to offer a seat, tea/coffee or any other modern day sales courtesy. I handed over the cheque standing & thats it,

[fazayal]

I had bought my first vehicle i.e Hero Honda Splendor without taking TD. I didn't even know how to ride when I bought the bike. The showroom guys home delivered it and I was taught by my friend how to ride it.