You don’t get it. It doesn’t have to be a lambo. That’s not how test drives work. Is the market that calls for it.
I mean i get it but, would you buy a "New Car" thats been test driven god knows how many times by drivers of varying degrees of skill? How many stalls? How many Grinds, hard starts hard breaks and so on. I wouldnt want that car. And honestly the numbers are that small. The 24k you saw was after 2 years and for worldwide production. In contrast the regular civics sell 600k plus a year just in the US.
The joke is BMW dealers will allow people to drive a $80k car but Honda dealers don't allow it for a $35k car. It's a performance car but it's no more special than high-performance cars that dealers have no issue giving test drives in. I'd say the R is less special considering it's still an econobox at heart and basically anyone with a job can finance one unlike other true performance vehicles.
You need to look at the people doing these test drives. You typically are not going to get off the street boy racer people who cant afford the car walking into BMW and Porsche to test 80k plus cars. You will be spotted a mile away. Honda on the other had is a everyday man's car that every tom dick and harry could afford and shuffles through the dealer. Typically most people shopping BMW and Porsche are gonna be more refined and have a certain air about them that those dealers arent gonna worry as much. But yall make it sound as if anyone can just go test drive those cars for the hell of it. I promise you they just dont hand keys to anyone.
What this guy said...I know myself and lots of other buyers didnt even want the dealers touching them to put gas in them. We sure dont want ones that are test Driven.
Heck I’ll take a test driven one if it comes with a discount. I know a lot of companies send test cars and then sell them later discounted. Volvo does this a lot. Also I want to test drive it before I buy it to see if I’m making a mistake. I would hope you visit a house, look inside, have it inspected, do some research before buying it. The cost is not on the same level, $36,000 is still not a small amount.
See thats it, test driven cars people want discounts on. Dealers arent gonna discount these. They also only get a few a year so they arent gonna be given a test drive car to sell 5
thats what the dealer probably doesn't want to do like i mentioned above ...
I would gladly take a test driven one too if there was a discount on them. You sure wouldn't pay full price for a test driven car though right?
The dealerships make their money on volume, not on the selling price of any one car. As a result, it is in their best interest to keep the 1 or 2 R's that they get per year in mint condition and place them in the showroom where they can act as marketing showpieces to help them sell their other cars. They then set the price of them high enough so that if they do have to sell the R's, they ensure a healthy profit.
I do understand what you are saying. Although I didn't test drive mine, I can understand why you would want to before purchasing the car.
I get that it seems crazy to not allow a test drive, but why would a dealership allow them when the cars are selling (for more than MSRP) without them?
