I had a similar thought two years ago when I bought my car. I test drove about 6 differen't cars in total, if it was not for the fact that the dealer at the showroom was a complete dick, constantly trying to sell me a loan scheme which I did not want, I might have bought it from the dealer.
Instead I used an online broker firm. As a result I got about £5,000 off the list price of a £20,000 car. The joke is two years later someone offered me £14,000 for it last month, this is due to the lack of cars which qualify for exemption from Londons Congestion Charging Zone.
Now whilst I would hands down recommend the sales service I recieved from the broker, I still value the fact I was able to try so many differen't cars.
I think that we could potentially see a new system for doing test drives, either as Tesla has, the manufacturer pays for booths, which will often lack local knowledge (dealers know what sells in their patch better than some top down management).
Or, and this could be the interesting one, some form of part time demonstraiters. People who get a heavily discounted lease or similar (who would want a stranger to ruin their own gearbox, lease would be the only option) with the agreement to be available for 10 hours a week of test drives or similar. Given a £30k car leases normally for about £400 pcm, 40 hours a month of demotime would be a fair trade, for what is ultimately a fairly un-skilled job.
Instead I used an online broker firm. As a result I got about £5,000 off the list price of a £20,000 car. The joke is two years later someone offered me £14,000 for it last month, this is due to the lack of cars which qualify for exemption from Londons Congestion Charging Zone.
Now whilst I would hands down recommend the sales service I recieved from the broker, I still value the fact I was able to try so many differen't cars.
I think that we could potentially see a new system for doing test drives, either as Tesla has, the manufacturer pays for booths, which will often lack local knowledge (dealers know what sells in their patch better than some top down management).
Or, and this could be the interesting one, some form of part time demonstraiters. People who get a heavily discounted lease or similar (who would want a stranger to ruin their own gearbox, lease would be the only option) with the agreement to be available for 10 hours a week of test drives or similar. Given a £30k car leases normally for about £400 pcm, 40 hours a month of demotime would be a fair trade, for what is ultimately a fairly un-skilled job.