8 Things to Check DURING the Test Drive

Essential Tips for a Successful Car Test Drive

Meredith Reynolds, a former teacher turned used car dealer, shares her expert advice on the key elements to look for during a test drive. She emphasizes the importance of never skipping a test drive and outlines eight crucial aspects to pay attention to. Meredith also discusses her experiences as a woman in the car dealership industry and reviews the features of the Subaru Ascent, a three-row SUV. The episode aims to empower women to confidently navigate car purchases and ensure they make informed decisions during test drives.

00:00 Introduction: The Importance of Test Drives
00:38 Host Introduction and Personal Stories
03:21 Pre-Test Drive Tips Recap
03:35 Test Drive Tips: What to Look For
09:40 Car Spotlight: Subaru Ascent
12:32 Final Test Drive Tips and Conclusion

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Transcript

Meredith 0:02

Would you believe? We have people come in sometimes and buy a car. They have not driven. It's rare, but every so often someone will buy one of our cars and I'll say, don't you wanna test drive it? And they'll say, oh, I'm sure it's fine. Never assume it's fine. Even if you know me and trust me. You need to drive the car, you need to go on a test drive. Today I'm gonna tell you eight things I want you to look for on your next test drive.

0:38

You are listening to women buying cars, and I'm your host Meredith Reynolds. I'm a former teacher turned used car dealer and I'm here to teach and empower you to walk into a car dealership with confidence and walk out with the car that's right for you.

Meredith 0:56

Welcome back to Women Buying Cars. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm your host, Meredith Reynolds. I hope you've had a great month in January so far. My last week was a little rough, but that's okay. That week is over. It started with a customer who came in and test, drove a car and had nothing negative to say about it until about five hours later when he sent me a message. It is telling me a laundry list of things that were wrong with the car, and then finishing with a sexist remark about how I wasn't really the one in charge at the dealership. So. that really set me on edge. then we had an angry customer who was calling us up about four months after buying the car and expected us to fix something that went wrong with it. And that's just not part of our business model to fix something. At that point we give a three month warranty, but this was month four. And also it was something that's not covered in the warranty. And rather than talking to us rationally, she just was a bit hysterical really to my husband. He took the brunt of it, then left us a nasty review. But the thing is, we frequently help people outside of the warranty with things that aren't covered when they call us up and are. Nice. We are known for going above and beyond and helping people because that's just who we are. But when someone tries to attract more bees with vinegar rather than honey, it doesn't work. And then finally I joined a business group and. In the very first meeting, the presenter was making kind of like wink, wink comments about how terrible used car salesmen are. I mean, she didn't know I was in the audience or who I was, but still it just felt very piled on. So it was not a good week for me in my career. But like I said, that week is over and things are looking up. We've since gotten two more positive reviews on Google. I am, happy about that. Okay, so last time we talked all about the things you should be looking for before you go on the test drive. If you haven't. Listen to that one. You don't have to listen to it before this one, but you will wanna listen to it before you go on a test drive. Today we're going to talk about what you need to be listening for and looking for during your test drive. Okay? And I have eight important things to talk about. So let's go ahead and dive in. Okay. number one, So as you are taking off, I want you first to stay off the highway and drive in town where you can start and stop. So where you are going to stop lights or stop signs. So when you are first driving, you're gonna be going from a full stop to acceleration, okay? Your car is going through different gears. You're going from first to second to third, et cetera, even if it is an automatic, you're still going through those gears and you will feel it a little bit if you really are paying attention. You absolutely though should not be feeling a hard transition from first gear to second gear. You'll hear just a slight difference in the engine. You'll feel just a slight movement, but it should not be a strong movement. If there is a strong movement as you are going through the gears, that is a potential problem with the transmission, you're going to want to point that out and talk to them. Now, certain cars sometimes need a transmission flush, which is not a replacement of the transmission, and that will take care of the problem. But either way, it's something you certainly need to talk about and seriously walk away from if, no one seems to think you are feeling what you're feeling. Number two, so you've gotten it up to speed. And what you need to do is find a place to break. So you need to be at a stoplight, a stop sign, or go into a parking lot and come to a stop. Okay? You're feeling how the brakes feel. You should not be having to press extremely hard to get the breaks to work. It always is a little jarring when you drive a different car for the first time because you are used to the way your car drives, and so if you have slowly been wearing out your brake pads and not realizing it and you've slowly been adding a little more pressure to get your car to stop and not really realizing it, then these might feel really touchy. It just takes some getting used to. So you wanna make sure that the brakes, respond to you Well, if when you first take off, you hear some screeching from the brakes, don't be alarmed. When you first get in the car and take off and you're easing up off the brakes or using the brakes in the parking lot, it's possible you're going to hear some screeching. If you continue to hear screeching throughout the entire test drive and still when you come back and park the car, that's something to be concerned about. But initially it is very common if we have had rain or snow, some kind of condensation to get on the brakes If a car is sitting for several days without a test drive, a small amount of rust can settle on the brakes. And then when you are using the brakes, you're gonna hear the rust scraping off. Okay? So if that is a temporary thing and you don't hear it later in the test drive, that's probably what it was. It's perfectly fine. But if you are hearing noises throughout, that is a concern. number three, When you are idling, so you found a place to break and now you're just sitting there not in park. You're at a stoplight or a stop sign if you feel some shimmying or some vibration in your steering wheel, there could be an issue with the front rotors, which is part of the brake system. If you are feeling a shimmy or vibration in the brake pedal, it could be an issue with the rear rotors, so you're going to want to bring that up. Rotors are pretty pricey. You're looking at a few hundred bucks. So if you suspect there might be an issue with the rotors, make sure you're bringing that up to see if they will fix it before you buy it. The fourth thing you're going to be noticing is acceleration. How quickly you are able to accelerate. So for this, you need to get on the highway. A lot of people. Uh, maybe a lot of women, I mean, I hate to generalize, but it does feel like a lot of women are maybe a little too cautious to take this car that doesn't belong to them and get on the interstate. We are right next to I 35, which is really busy, very chaotic, and I can understand why. People feel reluctant to get on the interstate, but you really need to, for starters, when you are going down the ramp, you need to be ramping up your speed, right? You're going from potentially a full stop if you were at the light to 60, 70 miles an hour. So on that ramp is a great time to notice the acceleration. Now if you are driving five kids in a minivan, acceleration may not be something you're very worried about. Okay? You don't really care how long it takes to get from zero to 60, but. If it seems like it's really struggling to get to that 60 or 70, you might have a problem with your O2 sensor. A spark plug, catalytic converter could be something easy to fix. Could be a more expensive fix. So on that on-ramp, notice how much of a struggle it is to get from zero to 60, 70. Now some cars are going to just naturally do better, and that doesn't mean there's anything wrong If you have a four cylinder versus a six cylinder, it won't have as much power and you're not gonna accelerate as fast, but it should not feel like a struggle. Now we come to a part of the show. I like to call cars. I love the car. I love. Today is the Subaru Ascent. It is a three row SUV. A smaller three row SUV. This is not big like, uh, Chevy Traverse Kia Telluride. Yukon, things like that. It is bigger than the Outback, but probably more comparable to an Acura RDX. It can see up to eight people, but the third row. would be pretty tight with adults back there. That's a back row. That's really probably more meant for kids your pet or storage. It comes standard as an all-wheel drive and it can call up to 5,000 pounds. Okay, so this is an active vehicle, but it's also a great city vehicle. It has a very high safety rating as Subaru always does. Lots of bells and whistles in that department, blind spot monitor, lane keeping assist, forward, crash warning, et cetera, Some trim levels have driver monitoring system, so it's actually going to let you know when you're taking your eyes off the road for too long. It will actually track your attention, your eye movements, your drowsiness. Okay. I drove another vehicle that would say things like, consider pulling over and taking a break because apparently I was looking a little tired, so really great safety ratings there. You're gonna get good gas mileage on the highway. they're saying mid twenties, but there's been reports of it's being closer to like 28. It is a four cylinder, so that's why you would get better gas mileage. City driving is like low twenties, so it's quite a bit less than the highway driving. One thing that I think some of you you'll appreciate is that Subaru has been slow to jump on the technology bandwagon. Now, it does have a touch screen, but the radio and the temperature controls are dials. That is a preference of mine and I talked to a lot of people that that's a preference. They want to be able to just reach over without looking and turn up the radio or the heat. One of the main reasons I really like the ascent is, you know, it has a very Subaru look. You definitely know it's a Subaru when you see it, but inside it's a little bit more elevated. They just feel like a little bit you know, a tiptoe closer to luxury than Outback, forester, and Cross Trek. Just a little bit nicer. So if you love Subarus, but your family is growing and you need more space, or if you are just in the market for a three row SUV, definitely consider the Subaru Ascent. Now let's get back to talking about the test drive. And that brings us to number five. Once you're up to full speed, do you feel any vibrations or shimmying? If so, this could be a problem with the tires. Maybe the tires need replacement. Maybe they just need to be rotated and balanced, but that vibration at full speed is potentially telling you that the tires need to be attended to. So make sure you're bringing that up number six. while you're on the interstate or the highway. Stay on for a while. Try the cruise control. Make sure it works. Most modern cars have a blind spot monitor. If yours does, then pay attention. Someone's passing you. Is the blind spot monitor lighting up to let you know any other safety features on the car this is the time to try them out. If you have a lane departure warning, then find out what happens if you start getting over the line just a bit without your blinker on, it should be warning you. So you wanna make sure that all of those things work. Don't just assume that they do. Number seven.. The next thing you're doing when you're going down the interstate, now you're going really fast, but I want you to very gently and carefully and lightly take your hands off the wheel, okay? Don't let them go far. Is the car pulling hard to one side now wind. Can knock you around a little bit. So if it's an extremely windy day that's going to mess up this test. But if it is not an extremely windy day, do you fill a hard pull to the right or to the left? You should be staying fairly centered. Maybe not a hundred percent perfect, but pretty close to the center if you're feeling that hard pull. That means you need an alignment. So that's a pretty easy fix, but it needs to be done. Otherwise, it will wear out your tires unevenly Number eight. Throughout the entire test drive, I want you to have the radio off. You should already have tested the radio to make sure it works, but now you should be driving with it off because you need your ears perked up the whole time you are listening. For anything that just seems off rattling, whining, thumping, clicking, who knows what those could be? It could be a whole lot of nothing. It could be, the temporary license plate clanging against the back of the car could be something more serious. So keep your ears open for any random noises these are the most important things that you really need to be focusing on during the test drive. Some of them don't have to be deal breakers, okay? If it needs an alignment, that's something I would ask the dealership to do. It'll cost 'em, I don't know, a couple hundred bucks, and that's important. If it's not accelerating well that might just be a clogged filter. If it's shifting hard, I would be having some serious conversations about that because a transmission issue, I would not buy that car unless I took it to a trusted mechanic who told me something is not as major as it seems. That would be something a little scary, but again, transmission issues does not always mean transmission replacement. If you know someone who's gonna be shopping for a car at some time in their life, send them this episode, please. I would love for you to share it with them. I would also love for you to follow my show or subscribe. Thank you so much for listening and happy driving.