I love when car dealerships reveal they are overpricing cars. Ask to drive some hot new car they are selling for $20k over asking price—they'll say "it's not available for test drives, our insurance disallows it" even if they sell other cars costing 2-3x at the same lot.
Why? If someone wrecked the car on a test drive, insurance would only give them the list price of the car (minus their fake 20k over). It's not worth dealer price to any insurance company since the dealer set the wild price.
@mathowie I don't understand who buys a car without taking it for a test drive anyway.
I mean, unless you're fucking *made of* money.
Back when the big 3 were circling the drain in the aughts, a friend and I went to the local Ford dealer and tried to test drive something deeply unremarkable.
"You going to buy today”
“🤨 that's why we want to test drive. To see if we're interested.”
"If you're not going to buy it, you can't test it.”
I still can't believe it. A decade later.
@drwhitt @caseyliss @mathowie a Toyota dealership recently said it was because Toyota penalizes the dealership for keeping test drivd vehicles.
Truth is, there is no benefit to the dealership if they can't provide a test drive and can't even guarantee you'll get exactly what you ordered.
Hyundai let me custom order from a dealer with no markup (even though I eventually cancelled my order).
@rniente @caseyliss @mathowie Curious, I hadn’t considered this but instead thinking that the dealership “owns” the title to vehicles on their lot so why (or how) could the manufacturer care?
Maybe it’s my approach, then. Every time I’ve test-driven a vehicle, regardless of brand:
a) my mindset is that I’m ready to purchase albeit perhaps not this vehicle if I don’t like it, and;
b) the car test-driven was the one I eventually bought, not a “demo.”
🚗
@drwhitt @caseyliss @mathowie I'm not sure I buy the dealership's claim. I'm guessing that Toyota might regard too much inventory in a particular dealership as a negative.
But yeah, it's not for the consumer's benefit that they don't have any inventory for test drives.
They really are providing nothing, and they only get away with it because everyone else is doing the same.
You can't even walk away with a car that has two keys now.
@rhizome @drwhitt @caseyliss @mathowie
For real. The last car had like 3 miles, so pretty close.
You've gotta love the 1k delivery charge, too.
Not related, but I remember a news segment in the 90s about used dealerships rolling back the odometer.
"Wow, this ten year old car only has 2,000 miles on the odometer! I'll buy it."
Matthew Haughey
Casey Liss
Danny Whitt
rniente
rhizome