Saturn to Deliver Test Drives at Home

“Test Drive at Home” is a new program from Saturn that does exactly what its name implies. If you want to test drive a new Saturn, simply call your local dealer and he’ll deliver a car to your door for a test drive. According to the company, this isn’t a part-time or limited plan, it’s a service Saturn hopes will set it apart from others in the market. It’s based on similar programs that are commonplace in Japan.

To us it speaks to two things:

• Americans are very lazy busy these days, and the added convenience could spark more interest in Saturn.
• As almost all new cars become increasingly better in quality, car companies need to go above and beyond in the customer service department to differentiate themselves.

The test drives will not be overnight, like past GM trials, but they will allow shoppers to test cars on familiar streets. Of course, these tests will only be offered during normal showroom hours.

[No Need to Visit Saturn for a Test Drive, Chicago Tribune]

Comments

Is this similar (and in no way a coincidence) to the Opel 3 day test drive they have in Europe? With Saturn becoming the Opel brand in the U.S., this would completely make sense and should be a great addition to Saturn's reputation of no haggle purchasing.

David D.
No, this is supposed to be more of a valet type service like they do in Japan. You only get to take it for a short test drive like you would at a dealer, except without having to go to the dealer and choosing your own route.

Oh good, I get to have a car salesman know where I live.

Have you ever had a salesman come to your house to tell you about some home renovation? They don't like to leave without a sale. Then there are the follow-up calls. It might be faster and easier to go to the dealer yourself so you can just walk away.

Well LT I would have to think Saturn's no haggle policy will have to include a no harassment clause for this program ;)

If you go to a dealership and take a test drive, the salesmen is going to know where you live anyway because you're going to need to show your driver's license.

I pity the salesmen that work at Saturn dealerships that will have to drive to every schmo's house that wants to test drive a car but can't even step foot out of their own front door. Tire kickers are a big enough waste of time when they drive to the lot.

I'm sure there will have to be some sort of parameters in place for this to work, to keep people from just flat out wasting time (and additional gas money).

From a safety concern I'm sure the sales people won't be visiting any designated "bad neighborhoods". Otherwise it will be car-jacking made easy.

KJ, good point, this could conceivably bring accusations of racial profiling if they won't take cars to certain parts of town. Also, think of how many miles they'll rack up on their "new" car inventory by driving them all over the place. I can also see some staffing issues, if salepeople are at customer's homes, who's minding the store? It may seem like a good idea at first to distinguish Saturn customer service, but I think logistical / practical problems may kill it after a while.

Are you guys really that stupid? My local Toyota dealer started offering 'at home test drives' TEN years ago. The local paper said it was the dealerships way of getting more over 50 drivers to buy from them than from the local Buick dealer. I guess it worked as they still offer the program and the Buick dealer closed shop two years ago. Since they have offered this service I have never heard or seen anything related to it in the local crime stats that are printed monthly in our paper. I think Saturn is on to something and wouldn't be surprised if it works well for some dealerships and fails for others.

I think the 'test drive' program just might work for a while. It demonstrates a strong drive for sales, and customers will feel special, as far as customer service goes...

Who knows, it just may be the think that tips the scale as far as the sale goes...

I think that if the program yields lots of people who just don't buy, they may come up with some type of a paramter...

Maybe you might have to supply a credit card, and perhaps a $5 or $10 service fee to get the at home test drive.

No real money bringer-inner, but it would definately help to seperate the serious and the fake.

Well, that's my take, and I'm gone.

Elleyby, J

As a saturn salesman i have been with saturn over 3 years and going strong. At saturn we try our best to be professional and serve great customer service. I have recently been going through bad times and our customers have no time from there busy schedule to look for new cars. Now that school started and sport activities are going on, parents have no time in there time schedule to take 5 hours in a dealership. Also, imaging having 3 kids and have to spend over 3 hours with your kids at a dealer. So taking a hour from the dealer to show a vehicle at a customers house is the best thing for both parties.