A coworker went shopping for Civics. When he inquired about test driving the SI the dealer told him these were "specialty cars" and that they didn't let anyone drive them because they wanted to deliver them with 0 miles.
Said Coworker bought a Civic Sport because he wasn't going to buy a car without test driving it.
So has anyone ever heard this from a Honda dealer; personally it sounds like BS to me so I don't know if it was some ploy by the dealer or an actual thing.
I mean, I can understand not letting just anyone walk in and test drive one, but I'm not buying the "wanting to deliver with 0 miles" part. Does that really matter to most buyers?
No car has zero miles. I would find a different dealer.
I wonder how was the friend dressed? Tell them to dress "nice" and pull up in a new clean car. Bring your "wife."
Car dealers have all sorts of things they judge on. When I worked at a dealer years ago, the salesman had all sorts of names for different people, so he was "lot lizard" and I f they thought you weren't really going to, or couldn't buy, they would pull stuff like this.
In reply to CyberEric :
He pulled up in a 3 year old Subaru and was likely dressed OK.
I had no problem getting a test drive in my 24 Si when I bought it. I was dressed like a bum that day.
Sounds like a dealer thing. CTRs I can see them not just letting anyone test drive one but not an Si.
My Kona N, though, when I bought it in March of 2022, that one was a 'no test drives until financing clears' scenario. Those were, indeed, rare. Mine was still sitting in the showroom but they took it out for me to test.
I've seen this "tactic" before, and it's really dumb. I sorta get it on the Type R, since it's a limited production halo vehicle, but the Si? It's not THAT special. Any prospective buyer of a new/used car at a dealership should be allowed to test drive whatever you want, granted you're serious about buying it. It's crazy not to. Buying a car - especially right now with the way pricing and financing is - is a HUGE commitment.
For example, when I was buying my Forte GT a few years back, they had a then-new Telluride in the showroom. A family came in and wanted to test one, as they were car shopping. The sales manager told them "No one is allowed to test drive these, they are special" and the husband laughed and they all left. I would have done the same if they said that to me.
When I bought a Si in 2020, they were in super high demand, so no test drive until I bought it. The purchase contract did have a 'right to return for full refund' clause in it though, but was (understandably) limited in duration (same day) and mileage (less than 250). I didn't have a problem with that arrangement, and ended up liking and keeping the car until a spinal issue made daily driving a manual transmission car of any type a thing that I could no longer do. Other than a little 'rev hang' tendency, I really liked that car.
If you can sell all of your allocations without test drives then there's no reason to offer one.
Noddaz said:No car has zero miles. I would find a different dealer.
Yep I did some gig work over the last year that involved working with lots of new cars, I've never seen a car with 0 miles, I think the lowest I ever saw was about 4 but less than 20 is rare.
Tom1200 said:Said Coworker bought a Civic Sport because he wasn't going to buy a car without test driving it.
I think your coworker would have better luck if he went in looking specifically at the Si and told them he was cross shopping ElantaNs and WRXs or whatever. I find it hard to believe anyone who is shopping for a base model Civic with a CVT is suddenly going to pay like $5k more for the manual only Si based on a test drive. I'm sure they get a lot of people who basically just want to kick the tires on the sporty ones. Personally, if I'm buying I'd like to see mileage be as low as possible (obviously it won't actually be zero) on a new enthusiast car. Anything else just screams "joy rides" to me.
In reply to CrashDummy :
He actaully asked about the SI first.
I confess in 1983 I went to my local VW dealer and test drove the VW Rabbit GTi with no intentions of actually buying one.
Then I wanted one but I was in local college and couldn't afford one.
I have heard (probably here) that you can walk into McClaren dealerships and test drive anything you want. If that's true, it's weird how a more expensive car, by most standards is more special and rare, is easier to test drive than a kitted out Civic. It's fascinating to me from a psychological perspective.
I saw this in the early 2000s when I worked at a MB dealership as a car porter in college. Anyone could come in and test drive an AMG E55. Meanwhile, there was a Dodge dealer down the street that wouldn't let people test drive the new Neon SRT4.
My guess is more of a certian kind of young man come to drive these types of cars (CTR, SRT4) than AMGs and McClarens.
Honda dealers pulled this on the S2000 20 years ago, and it's likely why I never owned one. By the time they were available for test drives I had made other choices.
I agree it's surprising to see this done with an Si, and it's probably worth calling around to see if there are other dealers that aren't quite so restrictive.
Dealership that do this are somewhere between ridiculous and hilarious... and doubly so when it's just an Si.
I did a brief stint in sales at a Porsche dealership, and yep, we'd let pretty much anybody drive pretty much anything in stock. Anything special enough to ban test drives, is special enough to be spoken for before it hits the lot.
That being said, by buying the Sport from them rather than an Si from somebody else who allows Si test drives, he just reinforced their rationale and rewarded their manipulation. I would not have bought from them at all, even if I ended up in a Sport... and would have stopped by that dealership on my Si test drive from another dealership, just to say 'hi' to that sales manager.
In reply to Driven5 :
He was in the worst possible position; he needed a car that weekend.
He didn't let them know that and managed a decent deal on the sport.
When the Evo and the STI came out, I was interested in buying one. I was leaning toward the Evo, but I got the Heisman when I asked if I could drive one of the two they had in stock. The best that they could do was have the salesman drive me around the block in one.
I left the Mitsubishi dealership, went directly to the Subaru place, and bought a car from them about 20 minutes after my test drive.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
You just triggered a memory!
Back in 2005, I was shopping for a clean, used WRX. These cars were hot at the time and used examples were scarce on the ground.
First Subaru dealer I went to refused to let me drive the one I was looking at, a 2002 World Rally Blue sedan, and the salesman had to drive me around. I complied. After riding around in it, I started smelling coolant. After we stopped, I finally got it out of the sales guy: it was a buddy's car on consignment that he had "returned to stock". Yeah, nope. Popped the hood and saw that a bunch of stuff was messed with, including the turbo. Hard pass.
Went to another dealer, found a mega clean, low mileage, bone stock 2002 WRX wagon in Platinum Silver, test drove it with no issues BY MYSELF with no sales guy, and bought it in the spot after very little haggling. Car was less money and had less miles on it.
A lot of the time, it really is the dealer.
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