Car buyers ask weird questions
Can I take it home to show my dog? Can you make it left-hand drive? And many more . . . reports.
An automotive shopping website in the United Kingdom has revealed some of the strange things that used-car buyers ask dealerships when considering a vehicle. Among the oddest was a customer who wanted to take a car home to check if his dog liked it before he committed to buy, while one consumer wanted to know if he’d be able to fit a coffin in the back of a Ford Mondeo. Presumably an Estate.
CarGurus, created by TripAdvisor cofounder Langley Steinert, has surveyed thousands of used car dealers to find the strangest questions asked on the forecourt.
While the survey results show a common theme of buyers asking questions around price and payment terms, CarGurus has also compiled a list of the 10 weirdest questions asked by consumers before they decided whether to buy a car.
Here are the top 10 . . . by strangeness.
1. Will a coffin fit in the back of a Ford Mondeo?
2. Can I take the car home to see if my dog likes it?
3. Can you make this left-hand drive?
4. Would you take animals/property as payment?
5. Can I check the chassis number to see if it’s lucky?
6. Can I take my 80-year-old wife for a test drive to scare her?
7. Can you fit it with a radio and tape deck?
8. Can you deliver it to Australia?
9. Can you put the seats down so I can see if I can sleep in the back?
10. Can you fill it with balloons and put a bow on it?
Also included in the results was a plethora of customers who were overly concerned about fitting sometimes odd possessions in the car: these included a tuba, a long bow and arrow, a double bass and one optimistic buyer was keen to find out if he could install his baby’s child car seat on the rear shelf of a two-seat midengined Toyota MR2 sports car.
While the most common questions fielded by dealers are typically about more conventional things – whether or not the car has a proper service history, what the dealer’s ‘‘best price’’ is, or how long the used car has been on the market for – some customers take things much further.
Several dealers reported being asked whether a car could be taken for months at a time without payment as an extended test drive, after which the buyer would decide whether or not to purchase.
Similarly, many dealers are often asked if payment for a car can be delayed, or if they can take a vehicle off the market for up to six months to allow the customer to raise the cash.
Others report being asked to transport cars hundreds of kilometres away so that the customer can view it in person and it’s not uncommon for used car dealers to be asked to deliver cars as far away as Australia, Malta and Nigeria.