[Endofdayz]

Hi All,
With this thread i want to ask all those guys who are test driving cruze, BMW's Audi's or VW. will a hour long drive or driving cars in dangerously high speed will make you very familiar with the car.

both the incidents happened yesterday..

1) Audi SUV, being test driven in NICE road bangalore. Dangerous speed, do not bother about commuters in two wheelers on road and they hit 150 to 180 KM/Hr. He nearly killed a two wheeler Guy. thank god nothing happened.

2) guy with his wife kid n showroom guy taking test drive of chevy cruze ( this idiot, sorry for using foul language here but i couldnt believe it). he dint have control over the car, cruzing in 160 km/hr, just brushed my bike going in 50km/hr. i was saved by grace of god. then he looses control just 50 meters ahead and just misses the lorry going by and finally realizes cruze back wheel is busted.

NICE road these days are very deadly. most of the time two wheelers are blamed for accidents, but who cares if these big vehicles do any mistake and which may cost two wheelers or pedestrians life. no one cares.

test driving car is not an offence but we are sitting in new car which has new features, which you may not be aware of. these guys have to be little bit responsible on roads.

please drive safe and care for other commuters on roads. be responsible. dont cruze unnecessarily which might cost others life.

the thread is to bring ideas and awareness to others who TD a car. list do's n dont's for others benefit.

End of the day i'm shaken and nervous and tensed when i go through NICE road due to these cars being TDed.

[DKG]

The objective of a testdrive is to assess if a car meets your needs. Testdrives are not joyrides and its very irresponsible to abuse this facility for free kicks.

If a person is clear in his mind of what he values and desires in a car, just a few minutes is enough to give you a flavour of the depth and ability of the car to meet your expectations.

People who don't understand their own objectives in why they buy a particular car resort to the inane assumption that testing a car to its limits is the best way to decide if the car is for them

I have been exposed to thousands of testdrives when I sold cars and you may be surprised that its a tiny fraction of people who drive irresponsibly on public roads. Most people are genuinely interested in assessing if the car is meeting their real life needs and they end up making that assessment in a short 15 minute drive.

[headers]

+1 to DKG,

one can assess a car in a few minutes as well as a few years. depends on his understanding and perception.

[Endofdayz]

Yes i Agree with you, but without knowing your needs and just abusing the TD car and moreover harming public is something which we cannot appreciate being responsible driver. This NICE road had become killers path these days. Dont know what they are looking for when they become such irresponsible drivers. Whom to Blame.

[DKG]

As absurd as the comparison may appear often cars are like food. Just as one doesn't need to eat the entire cauldron of Biryani to know how it tastes a few minutes behind the wheel gives most people a fair view of what to expect from that piece of machinery

[Speeding@160mph]

How do you know it was a test drive? And i dont think test-drives have anything to do with rash-driving- if you're concerned about how people drive, it should be addressed accordingly.

Originally Posted by Endofdayz

Hi All,
With this thread i want to ask all those guys who are test driving cruze, BMW's Audi's or VW. will a hour long drive or driving cars in dangerously high speed will make you very familiar with the car.

both the incidents happened yesterday..

1) Audi SUV, being test driven in NICE road bangalore. Dangerous speed, do not bother about commuters in two wheelers on road and they hit 150 to 180 KM/Hr. He nearly killed a two wheeler Guy. thank god nothing happened.

2) guy with his wife kid n showroom guy taking test drive of chevy cruze ( this idiot, sorry for using foul language here but i couldnt believe it). he dint have control over the car, cruzing in 160 km/hr, just brushed my bike going in 50km/hr. i was saved by grace of god. then he looses control just 50 meters ahead and just misses the lorry going by and finally realizes cruze back wheel is busted.

NICE road these days are very deadly. most of the time two wheelers are blamed for accidents, but who cares if these big vehicles do any mistake and which may cost two wheelers or pedestrians life. no one cares.

test driving car is not an offence but we are sitting in new car which has new features, which you may not be aware of. these guys have to be little bit responsible on roads.

please drive safe and care for other commuters on roads. be responsible. dont cruze unnecessarily which might cost others life.

the thread is to bring ideas and awareness to others who TD a car. list do's n dont's for others benefit.

End of the day i'm shaken and nervous and tensed when i go through NICE road due to these cars being TDed.

[1100D]

Depends on the intended usage. In some cases if one is buying a vehicle for long distance travel, just an hour or less of testdrive might not indicate whether the vehicle ride is more prone to human fatigue. Moreover in such cases simulating of highway conditions might get difficult within city limits and the car has to be driven to the outskirts. But for general commute purpose cars, the answer you get is almost immediate.

[Dose]

Originally Posted by DKG

If a person is clear in his mind of what he values and desires in a car, just a few minutes is enough to give you a flavour of the depth and ability of the car to meet your expectations.

I disagree. In my case, even though I know by now exactly what I value in an automobile, I like to thoroughly test drive a car under different conditions which takes one to two hours especially in traffic. The entire process from walk-in to walk-out of the dealer usually takes three hours. A few minutes is not enough. For instance, just checking and adjusting the tyre pressure, the seating position, the mirrors, HVAC, etc., before beginning the drive takes a few minutes, if not more. And during the first minutes of the drive, these things have to be readjusted. Then, the car has to be warmed up for a minimum of eight km. in above freezing conditions.

Buying a car is a relatively big money decision and one has to live with it for a few years. There's no rush.

During the test, I am willing to drive, after warming up the car, aggressively but not recklessly and, under Indian conditions, not more than 100 kmph for a few seconds on a clear road. I hate to abuse test drive cars but I will not baby them once correctly warmed up.

I have heard that in the U.S. if a dealer knows a customer well, they will encourage them to take the car home for either an overnight or a weekend test drive. That's what I call a proper test drive.

[sgiitk]

@Dose: This piactice is there in India today, if the dealer knows you well, and/or it is a very slow moving model.

Once you handle a car for an hour so so, you can form an educated opinion as to whether you can live with it or not.

Minor features/quirks may become apparent only after a few weeks or even months.

[greenh0rn]

In India people still get married after meeting their future spouse for half-hour, and then talking privately for 10-15 mins. And of course, there is no 'test drive' provided!

In 2005, I bought my Santro without a test drive. Really. Just went to the showroom after office one evening with cash in my pocket, made the booking deposit and collected the car 3-4 days later. I didn't own a car before. I was split between a Zen and a Santro. My friends owned both and I had been driven around in both. I had myself driven only a Zen. Ultimately the decision was made purely on basis of the modern Hyundai engine (Zen was terribly dated by then), how the car looked from inside and word-of-mouth feedback from 5-6 other Santro owners. So yeah, I have bought the only car I have bought in my life without a Test Drive!

[anekho]

I agree with DKG, usually we know from somewhere within in a short period of time if the car is right. For everything else we have t-bhp long term reports

[nitrogary]

@ endofdays: agreed that people abuse test drives. and there must be a better way of getting a test drive.

but there is no way that i can be satisfied with a short test drive of 3-4 kms.

it ll take me about 10-15 kms to even have an idea that i like that car or not. dirvability is a very important parameter for me to select a car and it does take time to understand vehicle behavior.

[fast_elegance]

Last week, at around 11 P.M i was riding through Koramangala. Just after the St. John's hospital signal there is a hump which is almost like a ramp.

I am pretty much aware of this hump and slowed down in time. Just then i could see in my rear view mirror, a swift coming in full speed almost starting off like a drag from the signal. I moved to the side of the road and almost stopped on seeing the car.

The swift hit the hump (rather ramp) at full speed and it took off like plane and landed a few metres away on all four wheels. The bottom of the car hit the road real bad and there were sparks flying all over. Then i noticed that the car belonged to RNS motors for TD and was driven by someone belonging to RNS . Luckily there were no vehicles around or otherwise he would have surely crashed onto someone.

[sgiitk]

I am afraid teh fact of the matter is that we will try and do things on a test drive which we will not risk with out own mounts. The Swift experience you had was rather extreme.

One reason why you must be careful in buying ex-demo cars even though they are going cheap. Assume it has seen at least 2 to 3 times the distance on the odo in terms of wear and tear.

[anainar]

Originally Posted by anekho

I agree with DKG, usually we know from somewhere within in a short period of time if the car is right. For everything else we have t-bhp long term reports

It all depends on what one is looking for. Some one would look at the minutest details and some people might have broad parameters to decide and ready to live with some missing details. When it was a choice between Skoda,Chevy Optra and Corolla, all of which I test drove for 15-20 minutes in Bannerghatta road, well within speed limits, was able to make the choice of Corolla.And my choice has performed brilliantly in long drives( some longest .. 5800km ) as well.

One has a choice of doing all the background work offline before visiting the dealer through magazines, tbhp and similar forums, be aware and then the time to be spent at the dealer place will be minimal. It will be futile to know the details only from the dealer's place.

Nainar