Hmm, I got around the problem by going to private used car dealerships. Golf R might be a bit hard to find, but I am sure you can find an EVO somewhere that is for sale.

But to add to the point, my friend went in with intention to buy that day, even went and got approved at financing first, and in the end, manager took him shot gun on the car that he was buying.... lol... thats Vancouver for you....

Well when you trade in a car the sales manager takes your car out for a ride before appraising it, then as a buyer we should be like no just appraise it without taking it out please.

I rolled up to an infiniti dealership with a beat up Honda and they let me test drive with no problem. :badpokerface:

Was this Open Road Infiniti in the Richmond Auto Mall?

If so, +1. Fantastic service and follow up

When I went to look at a new WRX back in 07 I was able to test drive it albeit was only for about 10 minutes. 4 years later I went back to the same dealership (Docksteader) looking to trade it in for a new WRX/STI and they refused me even though I told them I was a returning customer. Then 1.5 years ago when I decided on a new S4, I went to Capilano Audi and not only did I get a test drive the sales guy encouraged me to drive it hard LOL.

On another note one of my hockey friends bro went to Lambo Vancouver and test drove an Aventador no prob. He ended up leasing one for a year while waiting for his roadster to come in on order. Probably helped his case rolling up in his Ranger Rover Sport though. Over the years I find these normal car dealers (Honda, Subaru, Toyota) are so finicky on test drives where as the luxury brands don't really care. Prior to my S4 I also went to test drive M235i, 435i and CLA no problem. Whereas I once went to Toyota with my brother to test drive a TRD Corolla (or whatever the 170HP one was called) and was denied.

Interesting, I made an appointment over the phone couple a weeks ago to test drive an R and there were no issues. Drove to the dealer with the gf in her 2007 Yaris and test drove the managers 2016 R (complete with baby seat in the back) no drama no issues. His car is for sale though so it's probably why they made it accessible if they generally won't let people test drive them.

That said I was impressed with the build quality and ride. Could use a bit more power under the hood but it's wasn't bad considering there were three of us in the car. Salesman was chill too, told me to give 'er some. We didn't end up buying it because I got a better deal at another dealership on a 2017 onyx white pearl and that was that.

Went into Honda at the Richmond auto mall because I was thinking about getting the 9th gen Si a while back. Sat down with a sales guy and talked prices for a while, when I asked for a test drive the guy was basically like "we don't allow people to test drive these cars because it's too fast. Too much power for you to handle". I basically just got up right then and there and left lol. The guy followed me out, saw my 370z and said "oh wow that's a fast car". >_>...

^
good job man. fuck head salesmen with no sales skill don't need your money.

Docksteader wouldn't let me test a WRX.
Signature Mazda had the keys to the Speed 3 ready in hand as I was looking at it.

The smart salesman got the sale.

I think Docksteader has some crazy misconception that they're peddling Ferraris or something.

That was the case when the new gen WRX first came out. I was denied a test drive by the sales person, and at the time, his reason was everything they had in stock was already sold / on pre-order.

You've got to be kidding me that they are still doing the same thing now though... FailFish

When is Christian Chia doing an OpenRoad Subie dealership?

Was at docksteader back in July, same thing wanted to test a WRX even mentioned over then phone when I was coming down that I wanted to test drive, had every intention on buying one.. Was told there was absolutely no discount and no test drives.. What makes you think I wanna buy a $40K car without a test drive. Then I was told I could test drive a used STI. I was like :rukidding: their completely different engines.

A lot of car companies just won't let you test drive their most expensive cars just because it will depreciate them with the added mileage. Most dealerships won't have a demo top model car and the same is true for any brand which kind of sucks. Try going to a Nissan dealership and ask for a GTR to test drive or a porche dealership and ask for a Gt3. They'll gladly lend you a 370Z or a Boxter, but never their top tier cars.

The price scale is vastly different between a GT-R / GT3 compared to a WRX or STI though. As a matter of fact, both the 370Z and WRX have an effective starting MSRP of $30k.

Every year there's a slight change in models. Why not take the loss on 1 base model car and use it as a demo and have the chance of a much higher turnaround in sales. I'm more likely to buy a car that i've driven, than a car I want to try, but cant..

I've been to the same dealership several times, and have test driven various 9th gen demos many times. It got to a point where my sales just handed me the keys and told me to drive safe :lawl:

EDIT: 9th gen Si, not the DX/LX/EX

Maybe it was just the particular sales guy I was talking to. I went to Richmond subaru and they let me test drive the STI no questions asked, even told me to rip it down river road lol. From what I know they're selling so many they don't even bother with discounts on those cars anymore unless you have friends working there, and even so it's only like 1k off I think?

IMO, it all comes down to pride.
The price tag means nothing.

The reason why the R and Evo isn't allowed test drives is because it's their flagship.
The 370z is not Nissan's flagship, the GTR is.

They're basically saying

"What??? This is our absolute best car in our line up, and you're even questioning whether it's good or not that you need a test drive? :derp:"

:lol

I'm sure he gets lots of kids buying the Si as a "fast" first-car funded by family that dont usually even bother with test-drives...even if you were serious and sat down for a bit, you probably just looked like another kid to him, still funny af though ahha

got to test drive new WRX and STI a few months ago at the langley wolf subaru.


Dealt with a younger fellow. A guy that surprisingly knew what he was talking about.


Thought about a new STI for a bit, but cant justify the new shell with old EJ motor... :okay:

That's probably true, their loss ahah.

Whenever I go into dealerships to look at cars sales people always come up to me and it's really disappointing how little they know about the car, we need more sales people like you around here lmao. I was pretty set on the new STI when I went in for a test drive, but the sales guy knew nothing about the car which always sucks. Kept trying to tell me that the new STI has a different motor and stuff from the previous gen and that it's a lot faster... some of the things he tried to tell me actually ended up making me want to buy the car less. I wonder why sales people don't do more research on their own vehicles, it's not like they have 50+ cars to memorize the specs for or anything.

Side note; I loved the new interior of the STI, especially with the convenience features from the sport tech package, but can't stand the digital boost gauge and the camry like shape of it...

Similar experience buying an 05 Corolla XRS. Made 170 horsepower....but until like 6200 RPM it made 130ish into Toyota's "VTEC" kicked in, y0!

"Oh you can't drive it, too much power."

Yeah, right. I guess that's why Corollas have high rooflines, so you can fit your racing helmet...

Cant remember if I posted on here or not but my experience when I searched for a new 16' wrx was a tuff one...I started off in Langley since it was super close to me and they let me test drive a demo that they had there which was good, long story short it was easy to test drive one of their cars since they had a demo but it was tuff to get any sort of deal in the end. They wouldn't budge on the price and pretty much said the demand for the new wrx was so strong they couldn't keep them in stock. So all in all you pay the sticker price and that was it. In the end bought my car from Anthonys Subaru in Kelowna and also bought the wifes outback there too.

It pretty dumb for car companys to not let the customer actually test drive the car they actually want to purchase from them. For a pretty big purchase in a vehicle you don't simply go and pick a car with your eye closed and throw money at it. Unless you are filthy rich and don't give a shit but even then you still want to test drive it and see if you like it or not.