I'm selling a car on behalf of my sister in law who has emigrated. Its a 2006 Nissan Tiida with 5000ks only. Someone came to look at it today, and wanted to test drive it. My wife had the 2 kids, and didn't want to get in the car with an unknown driver with our 2 kids, which I don't blame her for, so the guy wanted to test drive himself.

Whats everyones take on the whole test drive procedure? Whats the legalities regarding damage/insurance etc. What should you ask for (license/signed waiver) etc?

Its been a while since I sold a car, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Cheers

Steve

trust no-one

If your wife can't go with the car, then advise the buyer that he can only test it on saturday arvo etc

Insurance is your responsibility...

I only ever take people for drives, never let them drive, why do THEY need to drive the car? I won't let anyone drive my car let alone let anyone take take my car without me.

Maybe organise people to come look when you are there and not when its only your wife!

am gonna be in this situation in the next month.. selling my forester. nobody will be test driving the car except me. if they ask why i will simply say due to insurance reasons... they will get a good enough idea of how it runs without driving it anyways.
and i certainly wouldn't throw them the keys and say "bring it back when your done". No way.

yeah, its a risk, I'd more then willingly drive someone around in a car they wanted to buy from me, but beyond that it's too much of an insurance risk.

No way would I let anyone test drive any of my cars that I've sold I take them for a drive. We did let a woman take one of our old beetles for a drive that we where selling for $1,200 and we're sure she nearly burnt out the clutch just driving it out of the driveway. So no one drives any of them when we sell a car from now on. Just tell them its an insurance thing.

I wouldnt buy a car without driving it, not even a brand newy. You get a much better feel of the comfort, ease of driving, and how it feels mechanically. Even little things like the steering wheel is at uncomfortable position or something silly and little can make a car a pain in the ass to live with. If someone didn't let me drive it, I'd walk away unless it was a reeeeeally good deal.

I recommend checking their license to make sure they've got a valid one, and making sure they leave some collateral to make sure they come back eg. partner, their wallet, car keys or whatever. To me you minimise the risk as much as possible, but at the end of the day I accept there is still a possibility for proverbial to hit the fan.

When we sold my girlfriends car, we made up 2 pre-printed receipts. Basically along the lines of

i agree with hewey id never by a car without having a decent test drive
having sold a few cars recently myself im happy to let the potential buyer drive as long as theyre happy with the fact that im coming with them
ive test driven alot of cars over the years tho and 95% of the time the owner hasnt come along but i always offer to leave my car keys as security but most ppl dont worry about it

"insurance risk"???????? What do you mean by that?? If they have an accident they pay the excess...so how does that become a risk for you??? I have never bought a car without test driving it (except for once which was a bad VW experience) and I wouldn't have a problem with the owner tagging along...No drive no buy....like suggested above,make a suitable time for a test drive.

excess isnt much use if its 3rd party insurance, and unless you collect the details of the guy beforehand they may be less then willing to hand over their information after crashing your car, as for them paying for a burnt clutch...

I let them drive the car, but I always want to see their licence first. I take down the details and I always go with them.
Never accept a dog or a car as a return deposit. There have been recent media reports about people saddled with stolen dogs and/or cars and non-returned cars.
I also never BS them about the car's condition. I point out the good points and the faults and explain that that's why the car is priced as it is.

mmm so you guys who are all for it are telling me if some knob comes to drive your car and crashes it, you honestly think the majority of the population would turn around and happily offer you the excess......I think you'd have a shit fight on your hands.

Why does anyone need to drive the car, if they are looking at it, then they are interested, they should know its what they want and a drive in the passenger seat can show them that the car has no issues, if you need to feel where the steering wheel is, then you can sit in the car stationary and feel it?!?!?!

i won't buy a car without test driving. i'm in the process of selling my polo gti. if someone is seriously interested, i'll tell them over the phone to go to a dealer and test drive one then come have a look.

no one generally drives my cars but me. in the case i'm selling an old dub then i make the decision based on the person. if it is someone in the vw scene, who i know or know of, eg- a forum member then i am happy to take them and prob give them a test as i live in a quiet area.

just my 2 cents.

Isn't that a bit weird, that you won't buy a car without driving it, but you won't let anyone drive yours when selling.....double standards?

If I personally know someone then I will let them have a drive, but certainly not some Joe Random.

Think about if you had a 10sec show car, or even just a hypo turbo Jap car, the joyrider coming to go for a blat probably wants just that, no way would you let him drive it, plus you can drive the car alot better than he can so you can show him the full potential, a 36hp 50's beetle is a different story I guess!

talking of test driving cars ive just come back from test driving a magna for a freind
i rang the guy and asked to come and have a look at it
i turned up at his door half an hour later he said im watching the cricket heres the keys take it for a spin LOL
not a care in the world and no it wasnt some shitty old $500 TN magna either
most ppl will happily let u test drive their car but i always expect them to come along but they rarely seem to
most ppl with performance cars are usaully abit more cautious tho
check out the amount of WRX ads that say no joyriders

I wouldn't buy without driving where possible. If someone is at the test drive stage, it should mean that they are a buyer, if the car is right. Until you sort that out, and sort out that the price is right for both parties and how the buyer is intending to pay, they aren't ready for a test drive. A lot of people set out to buy a car for $x and find they can't get the money. If you're still unsure of the person after all that qualifying, take a deposit on the car, subject to a test drive. If they refuse, they weren't a buyer. If they accept, it's good as sold. (As long as the seller has told it like it is).

The guy who sold us our Beetle let us drive it on our own. I did a few tests with steering, acceleration, brakes. He wasn't fussed.

I have never sold a car, but I would just get their licence and hang on to it if it was a common car. If it was rarer or more desirable, I would go in the car with them. I would expect them to want to drive it before buying.

When I sold my bmw for $40k I took them for a good drive and showed them what it can do. But I spose its a bit different with a new car, they can test drive one at the dealers to know how they drive or more that likely they've owned one before so know what to look for. They didn't want to drive it just brought it.
Trust no one.
And always put on the receipt sold with all faults if any duplicate copy and have them sign it as well as yourself. This covers you I know from experience.