Tips to consider while Test driving a car

These are few tips that I feel are important to be considered during TDing cars.

TE:- To try out all these, you may need to TD many times (with different people, in different roads, etc). DO IT!! It is worth, before buying an expensive vehicle.

It is always good to go with a group for TD. You can take your family and also your friends who already own cars. Different people will give different perspectives which is sufficient to confuse you . Anyway, you have more data to decide.

Interiors:
Even though you can have close look at interiors on its quality, etc in display vehicle itself, it is still good to watch them during test drive to check if any issues like rattling or so crop up during movement.

Ride and Handling:
This is more important for drivers, so watch it!! Drive in flat and bumpy surfaces/roads and see how vehicle handles the road.

Try out cornering at regular and high speeds, U turns/90 deg turns/etc (to check driver's visibility, bumpy or not, etc).

Try out breaks at different speeds/gears/roads. If possible, try out breaking in wet surfaces too.

Does suspension feel good in rough roads, potholes, etc?

Engine, gear and steering wheel:
Try out acceleration, pulling up in slope with enough passenger loads with AC on, coming down in down hill and moving in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Check how fast it goes to higher speeds (if this factor is important for you) and how easy it feels.

Check how easy it is to shift gears up-to-down and vice versa. Does it feel hard in lower gears?

Check how steering wheel feels at different speeds. Do you feel pain of driving a heavy weight vehicle or very easy to control with just fingers?

NVH:
Drive for sometime by closing all windows, observe cabin noise at different speeds. Then put all windows down and then observe noise. Of course not much to investigate, but you should hear significant difference in noise (after filtering traffic sounds) - this confirms sound proof in cabin.

Try out different speeds for fan and check if the noise is decent or too much - during my TDs, I found drastic difference between 2 cars.

Observe vibration during idle and running. In modern cars, you shouldn't feel it (or may be, very slightly).

Find out how drive feels at lower/higher speeds to check if it is harsh or so.

While observing Noise, switch off stereo and also ask salesperson to shut his mouth, believe me it helps!! They always divert your attention by giving marketing gimmicks.

ICE:

 When ICE is standard, then you can play different varieties like melody, rock, etc to feel the difference - this is nice to do, but not sure on practicality.

AC:

 Very important to observe during TD.

Manual: Try out different settings. Observe cooling yourself in driver seat and ask passengers in front/rear seats (if it cools enough and how fast it cools).

Automatic: Try out different temperatures settings and observe if it cools enough and how fast it cools. TD vehicles are normally driven by everyone right after each other, previous guy might have kept at any setting.

For very short trips, AC may not really show any change as you intended. Wait for sometime, drop down windows, etc to ensure your settings will take effect.

Ask people sitting in front passenger seat and rear seats on AC effectiveness - do they feel it as you do?

Visibility and ease of use:

Check how these are viewable from driver seat: signal light, vehicles on sides, front and rear. You should get good view of all these.

How easy it is to access various controls (AC, stereo, etc) from driver's seat?

How much difference does it really give when you adjust seat height and slider.

Are you comfortable to look through ORVMs without tilting head too much? Is steering wheel adjust sufficient for you at different settings of driver seat?

Try out taking reverse without guidance from anyone to see if you are comfortable while alone and see if no object in car hides your vision (if so, be aware of it before buying!!).

Misc:

Check leg room and head room for you to see if sufficient. Similarly, ask your family folks for comfort of seats, leg room, and head rest comfort.

Source- http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports/26688-tips-consider-during-test-drive-cars.html

Author- Sathya Nars

Thanks Bhardwaj for bringing in here.  I happened to discuss test-drive before (elsewhere).  The same are summarised there from (2 posts) & appended herein below just to add to the above (nothing new)….

• Drive the car mainly on the highway and a little in city conditions also (our major usage).
• People generally tend to get diverted by the interiors & features - those could be examined later.
• While test-driving a car we should concentrate ONLY on engine performance- check the pick-up/acceleration, gears/clutch, AC, road-grip, suspensions, handling/braking etc.
• Try & feel the difference in power/pick-up with & without AC - can switch on & off while driving constantly at a particular speed. 
• Besides driving at higher speeds, also drive at lower speeds in different gears & see how the roll-on acceleration is - check the acceleration therefrom without changing to lower gears. Like-wise, check the acceleration/pick-up in each gear. 
• Handling & braking is obviously important - check those at different speeds - especially in top gear at high speed.
• Behaviour of the car, if possible, on turns/u-turns (handling & braking).
• Steering feel (at low & high speeds).
• Driving comfort & road view are also important - see how comfortable you feel.
• NHV (Noise, Harshness & Vibrations) Levels.
• Also take the family along - so as to know how comfortable they feel (space/comfort) - they are the ones who would normally travel with you.

PS: Importantly... compare / test-drive different cars in similar/identical driving conditions & style, and feel/observe the difference in performance etc.

The more the better.

Thanku

Bharadwaj,

Thank you for nicely written information. We the Buyers spends hard earned money not in few ks, should be careful. It is always better to hear for experience and ultimately decide. Iam now in the same position. After almost ten years driving with Maruti Omni (just driven 60000Km), now decided to go for new one in the price range 4 - 6lakhs. Really confused - which one is better. Your article has given excellent tips. If you have more information and worth while links, please pass on.

Thank U

apkrishna

Krishna, for your query on which new car to buy, I suggest if you can create a new thread & put your queries, preferences, requirements (run/usage), family size (space/comfort required) etc.  It will be notice & responded well.  Here's a LINK to do that.

really good tips. Am taking a TD of chevy spark this weekend ! Will keep these points handy ;)

Nicely put forward.  I also do keep the above points when I do the TD of cars.