3 years ago I was on the hunt for a new car. I always loved Evo's so I figured I'd go test drive one. My other options were a 335i, STi, and TL Type S.

Now I went to the BMW dealership and no one bothered to assist me, so I just drove to Acura. Right away I had two salesman approach me, but I ended up talking to a salesman that I had bought a car from before. He threw me the keys and let me test drive it by myself. The Subaru dealership was pretty cool too, I guess since I live in South Florida no one's really in the market for an AWD car so the salesman allowed me to drive the STi no problem. The last stop I had was Mitsubishi and they acted as if the Evo was a supercar, lol. That's what really strayed me to getting the TL.

Fast foward to present time, tomorrow I'm going to try my luck again at Mitsubishi. With the economy the way it is, I could probably pull up in a bicycle and they'll let me test drive the car.

Any similar situations?

 

you can always speak to the general manager and remind them that they're trying to sell cars not let it rust on the lot.

 

nope if your serious about buying the car then demand to drive it . I went and drove three different evo x's and the second one was the dealers car so he let me dog on it good luck

 

p.s. im in the area if you want to pm me i can hook you up with some pretty cool sales people that will take care of you .. with both the test drive and sales

 

Imagine yourself as a dealer. 99 percent of people are window shopping
1 percent of people actually want to buy a car on their dealership
90 percent of people who want to buy from that dealership just want to test drive an evo to see how it feels with no intentions to buy it.

Obviously that would be raking up the miles on the car so they are not as enthusiastic to even approach you. If you wanted an evo and went there because its only dealership for 200 miles driving distance that has an evo on their lot then just walk straight up to them and tell your intentions.

Dont say that you are in the market for .... you have to make sure that your voice sounds confident enough for a likely customer. Once you have them hooked then you can start bargaining.

 

I wasn't "allowed" to test drive my X until I signed the paper work. I can see both sides of the coin; for one, the car had 5 miles on it when I bought it; clearly, they weren't allowing random people to drive the X, which I am thankful for, when it was mine. FWIW, the Subaru dealer wouldn't let me test drive an STi either, but the dealer did let me drive his personal one, but that was a unique situation.

Honestly, with the Evo X and the STi, you're either going to buy it, or you're going to look at it. There's so little middle ground with it; no one gets "tricked" into buying an Evo X. No one comes in looking at a Lancer and is then like "oh, my, for only 20k more, I can have an Evo!", it simply doesn't happen.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwUp_y2Src

This might give you some idea why certain dealers are so paranoid about letting people test drive their performance cars

 

Me personally I would not buy an X with miles on it. My X had 3 miles on it wrapped in plastic. I knew what I was getting as I had a IX before. You can't trust people to just drive the car civilly, 95% of the time the car get's beat to s**t.

 

same here car had 4 miles and was wrapped in plastic i watched it come off the truck

 

if you are serious in buying it, they will let you drive it. nowadays, I just go to the dealership to check out if they have any MR's on the lot. not really interested in driving it. If you are not in the market for the evo, don't waste their time.

 

Go to Lehman in County Line road. Ask for Luis ( Chewy ) and tell him Ben sent you.
Of course they don't like joy riders. If you are interested in making a purchase, they will not refuse you a test drive.

They currently have a GSR and MR Touring in stock.

 

Almeida, i live also in south Florida, Miami. I know what you are talking about. it happens to me with Nisan GTRs, Vipers, etc
They won't even open the car inside the showroom and let you seat inside unless you start the negotiations and they check that you can virtually afford the car.

Evos are the little baby of the Mitsu dealerships, keys are keep by the sales manager or the owner sometimes, not salesman can drive it just like that, I know you get **** off with the situation, I got too. But I learned my lesson. Si not personal, it’s all about $$$

First. If you are really young, less than 30, they immediately smell ( the possible testing crash factor) don't show up in shorts saying I want to drive an evo!
Let’s do it!
You better call them and tell them that you want to test drive an evo. They can't refuse at phone with a possible sale, unless it sounds like a prank, get your appointment details and go drive it. They have to honor the appointment

If you are not so young, they immediately smell (can he really afford the car? factor) you can show at the dealership with some "who I am" or “how rich I am” papers. business cards, Equifax copies of your fico score, etc, those numbers and info make the environment more relax for the salesman and you start seeing in their eyes the spark $$$$ symbol.
From there everything is going to change, they will provably invite you to drive the car without your request.

if you are really interested to buy an evo in the Miami area, PM me, I can take you to a really fresh and friendly sales environment dealership. I know couple of salesman there crazy to drive and let you drive an evo. Really evo enthusiasts.

 

I was at the local Ford dealership on Friday with my gf's younger brother to look at mustangs and the salesman was more intersted in my car than he was trying to sell me a car. I found that kind of odd.

I was looking for an FJ Cruiser a few months ago and just stopped by the Mitsubishi dealership to see what they had in inventory. I was told the salesman I was looking for an FJ to tug my my newly acquired miata around with. Long story short, I was given the keys to a X they had on the lot even though he knew that's not what I was looking for.

 

If you showed up in your Evo, I could imagine they were trying to suggest you trade in the old one for a new one. Sales technique.

 

i don't know about test driving a brand new car all by yourself without the salesman, but yeah, i didn't have a problem at mitsu. i test drove an MR just to feel the auto even though all along i've told them i was getting a gsr. they're pretty cool.