I don't intend on buying until spring but I was driving by a dealership this weekend and decided to stop in and take a closer look at the TL.. A salesman was immediately on me talking up the car and inviting me to drive one. I resisted at first because I don't want pestering phone calls asking me if I'm ready to buy yet, but I did give in and went for a short drive.

Question one is: do salesmen always accompany you for a test drive? They always have for my previous cars but I seem to remember sometimes hearing others talk about solo drives every now and then.

Second question: how long will a dealer allow a car to be out on a test drive? Saturdays drive for me was only a mile up the road and a mile back which did little more than demonstrate the quietness of the interior. I didn't mind because he knew I was only window shopping but when it comes time for serious evaluation I would hope to have a car out for significantly longer.

 

Sometimes they do sometimes they dont accompany you it just depends on the way you hit if off with the sales guy sometimes. Also if you have a history with the dealer or tell them you are looking at competitors they will let you drive it over to the competitors to do your own side by side comparo, so you will see how their car is "inferior".

 

Only once have I been allowed ot travel alone...when we were shopping for a VW for a girlfriend of mine. We really screwed with that car....its a lot of fun w/o a salesman.

 

The policies and procedures pertaining to a test drive are a dealership by dealership decision. One dealership might allow you to take the car solo once he/she copies your driver's license and another might want a salesman to ride along to "answer questions" regarding the car.

Some dealerships even offer to let you have the car "for the weekend". For example, two years ago when I was deciding between a 330i and a 9-3 SE Vert, the salesman from BMW let me drive the car with him in the car for a total of 5 minutes. The guy from Saab flipped me the keys and said take it for the weekend and let me know what you think. Needless to say, the Saab was in my garage on Monday morning after the weekend drive.

 

Yep, just echoing others comments here. It's dealer dependent and not manufacturer dependent. One Acura Dealer gave me the keys after copying my driver's license, another one had the sales guy come along. Same thing with 2 separate Infiniti dealers.

The dealers that had a "test car" with some miles on it would've let me drive the car around for awhile.

 

I think that in some cases you may or may not be able to take the car on your own depending on how busy the dealer might be while you are visiting them. My guess is that if you were visiting a dealer with your significant other you'd get more of a chance to take the car without them than being along.

I've driven two TL's at two different dealers. Both salesmen easily offered the car for a test drive, and both accompanied me after photocopying my license.

The first drive lasted about 20 minutes with an auto. The second "manual" test drive lasted almost 30. The dealership wasn’t busy so my guess is that the salesman needed to get out of the building.

Doesn’t matter to me, either way I sort of tune them out during the test drive. I try to concentrate on things that I'm looking for during the test drive.

 

Drove solo 2 diff 3 series at the same BMW dealer without even copying my license - however I gave him my name and address and flashed my driver's license. Each drive lasted about 20 min - dealer just seemed to be concerned with mileage put on the car.

Acura dealer 2 miles down _the_same_road did not even start talking business without copying my DL and then OMG! They let me drive only on a closed loop - kind of local roads behind commercial buildings - no highway driving and about 1 mile long with almost no straght line. The sales guy told me that "this is an approved test drive course by Acura" I laughed in his face.