hello everyone, long story short, im in the market for a used 360. however, before blowing $100k+ on a car, i would like to test drive one first. problem is most dealers will NOT let you test drive. i tried looking online for a rental. was able to find a couple over on the east coast (cost about $1000/12hr). however, i am in the bay area and cannot seem to find a rental place. i even tried the wcdriving.com ($1000 to drive 6 F-cars, well worth it), but they are also all booked. any suggestions? thanks in advance!
Ask for Graham Pike, he's a good chap. But mind you that all the dealers get a lot of inquiries like that from people who are not really interested in buying but just want to drive an exotic so they might ask you a lot of questions to make sure you are legit. If they do, don't take it personally. SVAG takes good care of their customers.
I amazed by this post. Is this unique to No.Cal? I have test driven Ferrari's at three dealerships. Never been a problem at all. In one case, they let me take the car w/o a sales guy riding along - although in that case I am a long term customer.
Tim, not sure that it is unique to N CA but we have a big population and a lot of posers/wanabees. The dealers want to make sure that you are a real buyer (can afford) before they will let you drive a car. Once they decide you are real, they will take you out. mjuevos, Who in the local area do you know who has an Fcar and would vouch for you? A personal introduction will go a long ways.
Of the three Ferrari dealerships in this area, here are my experiences: Dealer #1: After visiting there at least a dozen times and telling these people that I am a serious buyer, I finally get a ride in a 360. The entire time the salesman does not go over 35MPH. When I ask him if he can get on it, his reply was, "I'm sorry. We don't do that." Dealer #2: It was all I could do just to get someone to speak to me. Dealer #3: I was only able to drive a car after someone who had purchased two Ferraris from them go up there in person and vouch for me after I had shown them my personal bank records [showing an $80,000.00 cash balance].
On consignment cars, they may not be permitted to give a test drive until an offer is made. If it's a dealer car and you're a "qualified" buyer, it shouldn't be a problem getting a test drive on most higher end cars (Enzo, Veyron or Mclaren might be a problem though ). Qualified just means you're known to be an owner of a similar car, you've been introduced by a known customer as a likely customer or they have somehow decided that you are serious buyer through other means (demeanor, dress, watch, zip code, etc). If you drive up as an unknown in an S2000, T-shirt/cutoffs and Timex, you will have a credibility gap to overcome first; but seriously upgrading any one of the three could be enough (S2000=>Ford GT or T-shirt/cutoffs=>Armani or Timex=>Roger Dubuis) .
Sorry to say that Mike's experience isn't that far from my own when I started looking. I had to build up credability first. I will say that FoSV was at least polite. They took time to speak with me and explain how things work there. I didn't get the bums rush but I didn't get a drive either. After a local fchat guy introduced me they let me drive a car. Coincidentaly it was at a shop that had been VERY rude during my first visit. We took a 360 for a long test drive and I made an offer on the car. Didn't reach agreement that time. From there it all got easier.
