Lexmex

In Virginia (that MB dealer near Tyson's Corner), they just asked for my DL which they made a copy of (and maybe they ran it through some database) and gave me the keys. I asked the sales guys aren't you coming along? He said no, this is the way we do business. I was very impressed with him, but not the car (had a hard time seeing out the back with that rear window).

Gojirra99

Hahah, it must be Liz

I never ever asked to test drive a car alone but I still got a fair # of test drives all by myself. If they see you drive a nice car to the dealership, or you are reasonably well dressed & well mannered, that may help, but it also varies with the dealership or the salesman.

It really doesn't bother me that much to have a salesman next to me, if I want to push the car some, I will just politely ask if the road conditions allow that, & they usually won't say no.

I have always been able to test drive without the salesman with the BMW dealers I've been to with no exceptions, but with Lexus, they always have a salesman accompany me, the only exception I had was the first time I ever test drove the SC430, i was just given the key & off I go. The salesman was busy with another customer though, but I have talked to him before, & I guess he trusted me.

With Mercedes & Infiniti, it's a mixed bag, I remember I got to test drive a S500 4matic & a E500 all by myself, but the salemen accompanied me in other occasions.

toneman

WTH--"check his credit" as in, "run a credit check on him"? If so, I'd have told him that he must be stupid or something. I mean, why should I have my credit history dinged (not that it'd be dinged a whole lot, but still) just so that I can test-drive a car?

92 SC400

Yeah, as in run his credit to make sure he could afford to pay for it. Needless to say, didn't want to test drive the car that badly... My friend did tell the sales person, after he made the credit check comment, "how about I let you hold the keys to my $45k BMW while I test drive your $32K Honda?"