My dealer (here in California) let me drive an VIII as hard as I wanted, back in 03. I didn't thrash it, but I got a nice test drive in it. Then, last month, they let me drive a IX, too. After which I bought one from them.

 

ahah when i went they said i was to young to test drive a evo (i was 20). So i went to a different dealer and they let me test drive one and in return i bought one off them!

 

You will find a lot of great people on this forum willing to bring you for a ride. Try posting in the Regional forum asking for a ride.

Good luck

 

Thanks again Bro, ... BTW nice mods,

 

Nice!

 

I test drove a Sti twice- first time got one block from dealer and got pulled over
Went to Mitsu dealer and was told by the first sale person that no one drives an EVO, I said- WTF?- let me talk to salemanager- he was more than willing to let me drive the White one I purchased after driving it twice and the black one they had once. I guess it is who you get a hold of.
Side note: the white one was put back on the showroom and Mitsu/dealer had some give-a-car-away plastic key thing going w/ this white one when I came up to buy the car. I had the keys and a middle aged lady came in to try her "key" in the ignition while I sat next to it on the showroom- I casually got up, leaned into the pass side window and handed her the actual keys! She promptly started the car and I thought the saleman w/ her was gonna poop his pants!- LOL- we all got a huge laugh out of it. THen I kicked her out and bought the car (not really "kick")

 

hawwk11,

If you are serious about buying one just start the paperwork....i.e. credit check, so and so forth. Once you accomplish this there is no doubt that they will let you test drive it.

 

The dealers I talked to said, especially with new Evo's, they ONLY let very serious and qualified buyers drive them because people will get nervous buying a new car with 100 miles on it...thinking it's been beaten during a test drive.

One of the places I went had 1 Evo they'd use for test drives. I think it also depends on presentation of the customer. They are going to take things more seriously from someone close to 30 that pulls up in a BMW 5-series than someone who's a freshman in college that comes in his Jeep Wrangler. And I understand, they have to watch out for themselves with these cars. You probably wouldn't think twice about buying a Toyota Camry with 90 miles on it, right? No big deal. Evo's aren't the same.

That said, I was offered a test drive before I even stepped foot inside the dealership. I guess they could just sense that I was ready to rock.

 

See if you can go to another dealer to test drive the car. Depending on what your age is. If you are too young maybe it's better to show up with a parent etc.

For me I didn't get to test drive the Sti when I was looking into the Sti or the Evo. Then right after the bad experience from Subaru I went to Mitsubishi and they let me test drive the car and I was sold

 

Stupid dealers, they should allocate one test car for the buyers and they should be fine.

 

Something similar happened to me when i was 16 my parents told me to go and check out the cars that i liked and test them out, so i wanted a camaro and i went there and the salesmen came over asked me my age and i told him and i told him i was looking for a new camaro Rs since i liked the ground effects on it. Anyway after a while he started telling me that i should prolly look at some other used cars they had and he showed me a ford thunder bird which i wasn't intrested in and i just left, We ended up purchasing my brand new camaro at another local dealer and a couple weeks later i went over to the 1st dealer to get a part for my dads Tahoe and the guy that had helped me there had this stupid look on his face and was like oh' so you got it huh and i was like yep with the biggest smile on my face.

 

Well I had no problems getting test drives in the STi's since I know the dealer but when it came to evo's everybody was giving me a hardtime.

Eventually just bought a used one off a member. Go me.

 

Yeh, i've waited this long, so eventually i will do that and drive it,

 

I send ~ 50 faxes from my laptop to all dealerships in ~250 miles proximity with my offer (firm ) and color/options. Also offered to beat financing from my credit unin (already ridiculously low). Got 5-6 answers, 2-3 close to what I wanted, had them compete with each other, finally one agreed - Ourisman in DC . almost $1k below invoice in August 2003. In three hours I drove off their lot in a brand new EVO.

 

I bought mine off the showroom floor. If it had more than 30 miles on it I probably wouldn't have bought it. I am really wary of who put miles on a car like an EVO. Who knows how it was driven? I am less worried about a sedate sedan like a previous poster. I test drove mine after I had a credit check. Also why test drive now if you aren't serious? Stop wasting a salesmans time. When you are seriously going to buy go drive and the peripheral stuff won't bug you.