mwike

Picking up a base 911 tomorrow - one of the black editions. These seem to be a reasonable value given their standard features.

Nothing exciting about the purchase experience with the 911, but I do have a quick story about my visit to test drive a Corvette. I went by after work dressed in business casual attire. I'm a middle aged man who I'd think would be a very typical customer for a Vette. I was greeted by a salesman who asked what I was looking for. I told him I was close to getting a 911, but wanted to check out the Vette before I purchased. He told me they had 15 in stock & how they were superior to the 911. I said, well lets go for a test drive then so I can experience this first hand. He says no test drives until a firm purchase commitment. He said I could back out of the commitment if I didn't like the car after the drive. The firm commitment was going to require me to sign a "sales slip" stating price. I'm sure I could have gotten out of this but wasn't going to sign such a document before driving b/c I certainly didn't want to argue price before even knowing if I like the car. I told him I was leaving & he brought the sales mgr over to try to convince me to purchase, but clearly that didn't work.

I did go to another dealership & they treated me as good as the two Porsche dealerships I visited - all 3 dealerships freely wanting me to drive their products. The second Chevy dealership had much fewer Vettes in stock & probably do the same total volume of Chevy sales as the first Chevy dealership.

In the end, as we all know the base Vette is superior to the base 911 when solely looking at power, but that is about all. A hard acceleration from 40 to 70 in the Vette is almost scary. It's so powerful while not giving me the most confidence in it's stability - but that power would be addictive.

Grunty

That is kind of sad. What a dumb dealership. I am assuming this is not a Chevy general practice?

9914s

Had the same experience. I went to buy a new C7z and the dealer told me no test drives. I was almost ok with it since At the time I had a C6z. I was thinking about the deal when my wife reminded me that I always wanted a Porsche, so we drove to the dealer and not only a test drove the car I bought they gave us a turbo 911 demo so we could get a bite while the preped my car.


Welcome to Porsche mwike make sure you post pictures

pitt911

I never had a problem test driving any porsche
I had no problem test driving a C7
though I went to a chevy dealership in my GT3 , and I wanted to test drive a Z06. The salesperson said no test drives. I told him ahead of time that I drove the C7, but I want to see how the Z06 compares. He replied " it goes faster and stops quicker, that's all" . I said have a nice day. I did ultimately drive the Z06. Both C7 and Z06 are nice cars, but people are always impressed with numbers HP and TQ etc. But neither come close to the overall experience that a porsche car gives you. After that I bought a boxter S and loved it so much, I put an order for a Boxter spyder

Hurricane

I had a similar experience - only I had made an appointment to come see the car (a C5, in 1999) and drove four hours to get there (I was stationed in Belgium at the time and it was military exchange car sales in Ramstein, Germany). So when I arrive the salesmen says that I can only test drive it if I am going to purchase it - contrary to what we had agreed on my last visit when I made an appointment to come and test drive it. Somehow I talked him into letting me test drive it anyways. As he pulled it off the lot he scrapped a pole (3" gash in the front bumper/fender). I had it up to a very nice speed on the autobahn - it felt fantastic - but after the salesman had damaged the bumper, there was no way my wife was going to let me buy it.

Because of his attitude, I wound up ordering one (a 2000) from another salesperson at K-Town, 20 minutes away, and having it delivered to the States.

Now when I bought my 2006 C6 in late 2005 from Kerbeck Chevrolet - the largest Vette dealer in the country - it couldn't have been a better experience. Test drove one, ordered one exactly how I wanted it, and when it arrived they knocked a few more grand off it because their normal selling price had changed in the time since I ordered it - they certainly didn't have to do that since I already had a signed agreement and an agreed on price! If I ever buy another one, it will be from them. (BTW my local dealer was selling them at MSRP only and wouldn't budge on price. They didn't have one to test drive, either and only got about 10 allocations a year, I would guess. Kerbeck was selling them for several grand less than that, even ordered ones. So I happily made the drive up to Atlantic City.)

I came into the Porsche family a little more than a year and a half ago with my 911S (991) and I couldn't be happier. I loved my Vettes but I really, really love my 911! So much fun to drive!

Yard Dog

I went into my local Porsche dealership to look at a used 911 a year and a half ago. I drove it (it was on the front lot) and did not like it. I was about to go when my SA asked if there was anything else he could do. I said I had read a lot about the Cayman and he asked if I wanted to drive one. I said I wasn't interested in buying one, but okay, sure, fine. So I drove one and liked it well enough that I decided to buy it. I was waiting in the showroom while they ran a credit report on me. There was a white Cayman GTS sitting next to me and I started to like it. My SA came back and I said something casual about how great the white GTS looked. He asked if I wanted to drive it. I looked at the showroom and thought what a pain it would be to move everything around so I could go for a joy ride--they already had me in the middle of a deal--so I said it wasn't worth the trouble, don't bother. He said no trouble, and the next thing I know the front of the showroom is open and cars are being moved about to get at the white GTS, then I'm in it driving down the road. Then it is in my garage.

The dealership made it easy to say yes.

So it blows my mind to hear about the OP's experience test driving a Corvette. I know his experience is more the norm than the exception, but what a bad way to sell a car.

When Ford redesigned the Mustang in 2005 (is that right?) I remember reading a letter to the editor in a car magazine about being refused a test drive at a dealership. There was a lot of interest in the new Mustang at the time. Buy the car, then you can test drive it was the dealer's attitude. The letter writer's response was "It's a Mustang. Get over it."

I guess the Corvette is a much better car than it used to be, even capable of turning on a track, strong engine, capable suspension, etc., but it's still a Corvette. Get over it.

Any d**khead SA who thinks their Corvette is so special that a perspective customer should not be offered a test drive will sell fewer of them than the guy who puts your butt in the driver's seat and then asks you what you think of the car after you have driven it.

If Porsche can do it, why not Chevrolet?

strumbringer

I had the same experience with the Corvette. "If you want a Corvette, you already know it"

"Err.. okay, I'm going to go buy a Porsche then."

Dbull65

Yes, they think those Corvettes are $400, 000 Ferraris.

BingoWest

My wife and I had a very positive Porsche Cayman S test drive experience. The salesman pulled up a white PDK car just like what we were looking for...gave us the key and said, "Have fun!". Awesome. No salesperson in the car. No time limit (within reason).

When I was ready to order a custom 981S, I contacted that salesman but he never returned my call. Doh!

LCW

Sounds like South Florida...

elitex

LOL, same thing happened to me at multiple dealers.

Corvette C7Z- Oh you can't test drive. It's too fast.

Nissan GTR- I've tried test driving multiple times, no go. I think this is the only reason why I haven't bought one yet. I don't even know what it feels like.

I remember walking into Porsche dealership when I had no intention of buying at that time. Just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Test drive was like a gateway drug. :reckon: I am hooked.

First one was a 14 Cayman S and now I have a 16 911 GTS from the same dealer and the same salesperson. I am not done, I am sure there will be many more.

beaverlake

I had a similar experience. We thought seriously about a second Porsche - 996tt. I thought, well, for a bit more I could get a new base C7 coupe. Oops - no test drives sir, unless you buy. I'm in my mid sixties, dressed biz casual, pull up in a new Acura MDX. Same story at one other dealer in the Seattle area. Goodbye C7. I get it that they probably deal with a lot of wannabes but isn't a head full of silver hair and and MDX worth something in the credibility department?

Oh well, love our 2014 C4s cab!

ENCT

Be glad because after you purchase your C7 or in my case a Z06 you get treated like you purchased a Chevy Spark. And I am sure the Porsche fits your Silver hair much better.
Eric

Milehigh981

Same experience here. I got the no test drives line at the Chevy dealer. Went to the Porsche dealer, got banded whatever keys I wanted (within reason) and no salesman in the car.

mwike

I would have never thought this approach by Chevy dealers is so common.

From a business perspective what is their logic in not offering test drives:
1. Don't want to waste SA time? All dealerships I've been in have an excess of salesmen.
2. Supply v demand dictates they don't have to.
3. Corvette buyers REALLY want -0- miles on their cars when purchased.
4. To avoid accidents in the new car. I'd imagine/hope the SA could control accidents to a certain extent.
5. They don't want people to comparison shop a Vette - I really can't imagine this being true