Test Drive: There is No Alternative

My car sales experience says that most buyers have a very clear idea of what they want. They start with a shortlist of three to five things the car must have, perhaps three or four brands they will not consider and, after that, it is down to affordability: can they get the features they want from a brand they like inside their budget? This clarity is a clear advantage of dealing in used cars: you can’t sell what you don’t have.

However, a recent survey carried out on this very site has found that up to a third of car buyers remain confused by the range of choice car manufacturers now offer. 29 per cent of respondents said they found the number of models available to be overwhelming, with 26 per cent saying they were confused by the choice of products.

What I find even more interesting in the survey results is the 51 per cent of respondents who said they’d been unable to test drive their model of choice, suggesting that the majority of dealer demonstrator fleets were not in tune with customer demand.  This is a very surprising result, at a time when car manufacturers should be bending over backwards to please their customers. We must also assume that this is costing sales. After all, how many people who can’t try before they buy, go on to buy anyway?

I’m currently in the market for a flat screen television. I’ve had a number of LCD TVs in the kids’ sitting room in the last few years, and enjoyed the benefits of flat panel efficiency and low intrusion. The time has now come to change the telly that I usually watch, as I think flat screen technology is finally capable of matching my ageing but very high quality CRT screen, within the budget I have to spend.

So far, I’ve spent a week of evenings researching manufacturer microsites, buyers’ guides, customer review sites. I’ve trawled bulletin boards and forums for informed opinion. I’ve signed up for added information from professional reviewers and agonised over who knows how many technical spec lists. But I am no closer to making a decision now than I was at the start. The main reason for this is that no one within a 50 mile radius has the TV topping my shortlist in stock, so I cannot try before I buy.

I could take a chance on the reviewers, fellow forum geeks and the Amazon customers who have fed back on their purchases and go with the weight of opinion, but my CD collection was once full of albums rated 5 stars by Q magazine and one star by me - a lesson I  will never forget. The last thing I want is to spend £8/900 on a 42″ plasma now, only to find that, when the Formula 1 season starts, I hate the way the racing looks. That would not be good.

Internet research is efficient and educational but, when we’re spending big bucks on something we are going to have to live with, we want to get the decision right. That’s why a test drive with the wife and kids in tow is an essential part of our decision-making process when buying a car. If manufacturers and dealers can’t oblige us with a testable example of the product we want to buy, then we’ll go elsewhere and buy someone else’s hifi or someone else’s hatchback.

As a measure of just how satisfied UK car buyers are with the information coming from car manufacturers and information portals such as Glass.co.uk, I think 26% of buyers suffering some confusion with the vast range of makes, models and derivatives available is a pretty good number, and one that will continue to improve as time goes on.

But 51% of buyers unable to test drive something they are ready to spend a lot of money on is quite  shocking. Definitely a case of “must try harder”.