[landcruiser123]

Only bought 1 bike and 1 car during my lifetime. The Bajaj Discover 100T was bought without a test drive. Just rode the Discover 100M - a similar model with 0.5 HP less and 5 gears(Instead of 5.)

[jkrishnakj]

Yes from me. My Hero Puch was bought without a test drive. Still love it though it's a pain to even fix a puncture. I had a Suzuki Samurai ( first bike and loved it a lot ) and a Bajaj Boxer ( huge regret ) bought without test drive.

My first car was without a test drive - ofcourse it was a M800.

After that every car I bought was after a lot of diligence and thought and tests.

[Born 2 Be Wild]

Bought my first car which was a maruti 800 without a test drive later went on to buy my first bike the royal enfield electra without a test ride.

Bought the tata safari without a test drive later on , went onto buy the kawasaki ninja 1000 without ever sitting on it. Sold it and upgraded to the kawasaki zx10r without test riding it

So all in all i have always been all heart and zero mind most of the times.

[distiller]

Had no option. I had test driven Chevrolet Sail (Petrol) & had booked it. Even after waiting for nearly two months there was no sign of delivery and when the diesel models were being delivered!
So one fine day I just turned up at the showroom & demanded my money back. Meantime the owner came in picture & hustled me to another showroom of his, albeit of a different brand. And offered me a car which was going to be launched in few days. So I just went around the car, sat in front & rear seats.
And become a owner of first generation Honda Amaze Petrol.

[AVL500]

Yes .. My Maruti Gypsy, the first time I ever drove one was my own . As if I has any choice, Maruti does not even has it on display leave alone a test drive, but me too was so madly in love, just booked it and the love affairs continues.

[arunrajk81]

I brought a bike without test drive. It was Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme, the updated model with front and rear Disk brake (I guess in 2011).

Me/My father already owned Rx100, KB100 and Pulsar-DTSi and had experience with my friend’s Classic CBZ. I like the way classic CBZ engine responds to throttle. Before purchase, I was already aware that classic CBZs engine feel is not present in Xtreme, but I was not expecting a vast difference.Same time I was having a Pulsar 150 classic and a Classic Karizma with Xtreme joining the company.Why I brought like that was I used to do lot of Solo trips to Bangalore-Munnar, Valparai-Kochi etc in Pulsar, Karizma and once or twice in Enfield Electra 350 and I want to stop these Bike trips. Also the Karizma was getting old and started showing repetitive issues and I was looking a replacement and want a 150cc bike only for commuting. I brought the bike from Kerala and at the time of buying, I was in Bangalore.

I didn't like the way Xtreme’s engine responds and I was not getting the feel of a 150cc bike. I felt like a slightly powerful splendor.

[Reinhard]

Yes! I bought my previous car - a Tata Indica Vista without a single test drive. It was an Aura ABS trim, with the venerable 75PS Multijet diesel in "Quadrajet" guise. The first time I drove an MJD was after getting the delivery of my car! And boy were they the best 5.1 Lakh INR I spent & probably would spend in my life!!

Served me well for good 9 years. Was involved with me in a nasty accident involving falling into a ditch 7 ft deep & jumping out of it into a farm field! The only effect on me was that my sun-glasses fell off. Was totally unscathed & she was back after repairs after 3 weeks.

I had mate our great Behram Dhabhar sir during the rebuild of my car. He was at Tata Motors then & visited personally to check how Concorde was working on it. She now lives with another family in Pune according to RTO site. Exchanged as part of my swap to Nexon.

Fond memories of that lovely versatile car. And yes - a car I booked without a single test drive. Who'd have thought!

[SJM1214]

No for cars. Yes for Motorcycles.

Fortunately, the concept of the Test drive was introduced way before I was old enough to take it. So, I Tded all the cars bought by us and almost all of the cars bought by friends & family.

The Story is different when it comes to two-wheelers, I never (and didn't allowed F&F) bought a newly launched two-wheeler. I always bought two-wheelers which were owned by some F&F, so I can check it and judge it. So, Pracriclay there is no need for TD at Showroom.

[//M]

I bought my Royal Enfield Classic 500 without a test ride back in 2012. I test rode the Classic 350, liked it and assumed that the 500 would definitely be better (and I was not wrong). So made a booking over a call and took delivery 2 months later. In the meantime, I tried to test ride the 500 from a couple of dealers nearby but none of them had a test ride motorcycle in stock. I was anyway too smitten by the Desert Storm variant that I knew what I wanted.

However, every other car or bike has been bought after detailed long test rides/drives only.

[Vik0728]

It is a YES, NO, YES, NO, NO and YES for me!!

1.YES

My first bike was the 2001 Bajaj Pulsar 180.

These twins (150/180) truly brought Bajaj into the performance stage of Indian biking. There were absolutely no test drives available at this time as these bikes were flying off the inventory like missiles.


2. NO

My first car was 2007 Hyundai Santro Xing XO (Limited Edition)

Test drove the regular Santro Xing couple of times, before booking the XS variant. However, I was offered XO as an upgrade just a week before the delivery as the preferred shade was out of stock.


3. YES

My first quarter liter bike was the 2017 Yamaha FZ25

This was the first quarter liter bike from Yamaha, and mine was the 3rd one to be delivered in Bangalore. So there was absolutely no TD available.


4. NO

My second car was a 2010 Hyundai Getz 1.3 GLS

Had driven a friend's Getz 1.5 CRDi extensively, and understood the VFM this car had. So got a mouth watering deal on the 1.3 GLS and just took 2 days for me to have the car in my garage.


5. NO

My best pick till date has been the 2014 VW Polo 1.6 GT TDI

With all the hype and appreciations floating around how good of a mainstream performance hatch this was, one casual TD of the car was all it took for me to have this in my garage. Although it was never a "Complete" or "VFM" product, it had something that no other hatch within 25 lakhs had, a thorough-designed 1.6 TDI engine.


6. YES

My most recent purchase is the 2019 VW Polo 1.5 GT TDI

Although I was essentially buying the same car with a downgraded engine, the 1.6 GT had left such a deep rooted affinity that I just booked & bought this one without even sitting inside. In fact, the first time I actually saw this car in person was during the pre-delivery inspection.

[WasavaTyres]

Yes, My 2006 Hyundai Getz and 2010 Fiat Punto. In fact I asked for a Tuscan wine shade without knowing how it'd look on the car in person. The Sales guy showed me a pic on his blackberry and I changed colour option from Bossa Nova white to Tuscan wine.
Decision to zero down on Fiat Punto from choice between Skoda Fabia / Hyundai i20 and Swift was made purely from TBHP reviews. Happy 1.6 lakh kms and going strong.

[SatishChour]

Interesting topic, it got me nostalgic

I know this topic is if "you" have bought a car without a TD, but then, that wouldn't happen, considering I was already reading a whole lot of Team-BHP when I decided to get a car myself, I knew TD's are the best way to judge a car.

But, then there was no Team-BHP when my Dad got his cars. So, this is about him. Every car he bought was without a TD.

He never learnt to drive, yet he was always fond of cars, how else can one explain 3 cars bought in less than 6 years - and all of them without a TD.

Our first car, a pre-worshiped Ambassador was bought without a test drive (probably in '98). Some known mechanic recommended it, and my Dad bought it. This is the car I learnt to drive, when i was 16.

Our second car, a Petrol Tata Indica (probably in '99) - Dad had to buy this, as he crashed the Amby into an electric poll ( he pressed the accelerator instead of brakes ) - that was his last attempt to learn driving.


The Indica didn't last too long due to its poor mileage . - The doom of Petrol Indica.

As we used to travel a lot, we had to get a good diesel car. There were only 2 good options then, Honda City ( unfortunately it was a Petrol ) or the Hyundai Accent CRDI - we got the latter in 2001, and it was there with us in mint condition until last year.

Here's a picture of the Accent (taken in 2003), with my friends Zen (the golden days of engineering ).



The first 3 cars in our family were all without a TD, I am really not sure if TD really existed those days (in the 90's). Did they?

Peoples recommendation is what worked those days, and I believe that is how Maruti got the sales numbers it did, and still continues to.

[opendro]

Test drive or demo of any product is useful only if the user either has decent knowledge of the product or has been a user of similar products for a long time.

For majority of the folks, it is better to stick to reading reviews of the experts, understand the requirements and decide. Test drive or a trial is not going to give anything concrete unless the product is an extreme case of bad or good.

[srini1785]

First test drive that i had was on a M800 at a Maruti true valve dealership , i floored the pedal , went and hit a Kinetic honda which in turn hit an Omni parked nearby. A settlement of 7k on the spot and the car with dents was mine. So you can say the car chose me instead of the other way around. The present drive ( K10) came after 250mts test drive again at a True value dealership and the fellow sitting next to me told me " its got sufficient fuel to reach back the dealership gate sir" so turned back instantly and bought it without dents this time. Both times the logic was " its a Maruti what can go wrong".

Two motorcycles that i have did not allow me to test drirve them as they were half buried in the ground. The third was a Caliber 115 , the show room fellow IIRC told me, " Whats there to test drive sir its a motorcycle and WYSWYG". So bought it instantly and is with me for the past 15 years.

[Divya Sharan]

Got home a Karizma ZMR in 2011 without a test ride. It's running awesome at 123+ k km on the ODO.

Then, Punto Evo 1.4 joined the ZMR in 2015 and it has clocked 52+ k km thus far. No test drives were done. I simply love(d) the car.

Lastly, a Ninja 650 joined the garage this year and again, no test rides were demanded/offered. It has just done under 4k km so far.


All in all, my experiences with these vehicles has been more than satisfactory and I'm glad I avoided the painful process of shortlisting vehicles and instead went with what the heart desired.