Anecdote 1: Around the 30’s, representatives from a car manufacturer now more famous for sewing machines, Singer, would regularly set off on cross country demo trips with a few cars for test drives. They had additional cars in crated condition following them a few days behind, or in the nearest port city. This soon became an organised mobile exhibition, with other small manufacturers joining in too. On getting an order, the new vehicle would be assembled in the nearest city, painted, and set up to the owners requirement – and then delivered a few days later as though by magic. Very often, cash rich buyers would pay premiums for spot deliveries of the demo exhibition cars themselves.

Anecdote 2: A distant relative returned to India after the First World War, and got into the automobile business in Peshawar. A typical year would include a trip by a few of them via road to Calcutta or Chittagong – driving in different models of cars and trucks, and carrying leaflets and other publicity material of newer models. Taking orders en route, and selling what they were driving before reaching the seaport, from where they would go by ship to the then wealthiest country in this part of the world – Mandalay / Rangoon, to buy slightly used cars being disposed off cheap by the rich people of Burma. Back to Calcutta – fix, paint, polish, and ready for sale, as good as new again.

Subsequently, after Independence, test drives were unheard of in India for a very long time. Maruti didn’t provide them either in their monopoly avatar, and the concept started in modern India only well after Hyundai came into the picture as competition.

The vehicles that we had available to us in India in the 60’s and 70’s, mostly on waiting lists, or available on premiums, were:

Cars: HM Ambassador and Contessa, Premier Padmini / Fiat 1100, plus the Premier 118NE. The Sipani Dolphin was never really a contender, nor was the Standard / Rover 2000.

Bikes: Ideal Jawa Yezdi 250cc, Escorts Rajdoot 175cc, Royal Enfield Bullet 350cc – and some variations now and then.

Scooters: Bajaj Vespa 3-gear, Bajaj Chetak 4-gear, and Vijay Super, the successor to the Lambretta. Brands like Fantabulus came and went too.



You considered yourself very lucky if you were able to choose a colour, never mind get a test drive. In contrast, there was a much wider range of commercial vehicles and mopeds in those days. And if you wanted anything else on wheels with an engine, you went to the STC auctions, and bid for the cars being disposed off by returning diplomats. There was also the smuggled and stolen vehicle option, as well as the vehicles hidden in various places after the abolition of the privy purses, but that’s an editorial article for another day, as that business seems to be reviving again – especially in the luxury vehicle segment.

Fast forward to London in the 70’s – there we were, without much money, and certainly not potential customers, itching to drive all the fantastic cars on the roads in the developed world. As a dear friend mentioned, “What fun – so many imported cars available.” The best way to do this would be to head for the showrooms, look around, and then simply ask.

More often than not, test drives were simply not refused – even if the salespersons and dealers could make out that we were not the buying sort. As one explained to me, it was all about building goodwill and engaging the aspirations of potential customers. This was strange logic for us, coming from socialist India, where aspirations were often frowned at as anti-National. This concept of ‘build on aspirations’ stuck in my mind for decades, and has been the cornerstone of every marketing effort I was involved in – successfully.

Of course, the product itself had to satisfy some basic fundamental requirements – otherwise aspiration would soon be replaced by contempt.

So, now we are in India 2010, and automobile manufacturers have never had it so good. But test drives are still a tricky subject, and often depend on the whims and fancies of the guard at the gate – who may put you off if you don’t fit his idea of a potential customer. As an extreme example, some of us were cycling in Noida, and happened to ride past a particular Maruti showroom when the Ritz had just been launched. So, two of us decided to take a break, and go in to ask for a test drive and a closer look, but the guard would simply not let us in! I hasten to add that Maruti’s test drive policy appears to be very impressive lately. But the fact remains, cyclists can be, and are aspirational car buyers too – if not for the new cars, then certainly for the large number of used cars lying in the same dealership.

Likewise, General Motors India have launched a media campaign for their cars around test drives mainly for the smaller Beat and Spark. But, go to their dealer outlets, and, sure enough, the push is to try and convert the potential buyer to a bigger car from the same Chevrolet brand – very smart and very intuitive thinking, pushing the aspirations of somebody who came to buy a small car towards a future dream of a bigger car.

On the other hand, there are the others, especially the purveyors of luxury cars, who will play very hard to get – not only as test drives are concerned, but also for those simply wanting a closer look. What’s the point of setting up huge boutique outlets in markets, when, leave alone entry, even peering through the plate glass show windows is denied courtesy the same bottom of the barrel front-end – the contracted security guard? How are these companies catering to the aspirations of today’s upcoming youngsters, maybe college students, maybe those who have just started working, if they can’t even enter and fuel their fantasies?



Certainly, there are issues of wear and tear, safety, as well as the sheer logistics of it. If Audi, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Volvo, or the other luxury brands started offering test drives to everybody, there would be lines around the block many times over. But there has to be a via media.

And that, in this day and age, is an electronic solution.

The last time I was in England, I walked into a showroom, off Hyde Park, of one of the most expensive car brands in the world. It fits the aspiration model brilliantly – they simply don’t make too many cars, and are very selective about who they sell to. All the same, they appear to have no dearth of tourists, as well as people who are very obviously not buyers, but still want to know more. And, if possible, experience the vehicle in some way or the other.

For them, and to weed out the totally non-serious, they have:

a) A ‘touch and see all you want’ mock-up lying in a semi-public kind of area. It is thoroughly cleaned very frequently.

b) A full feature simulator, with a nominal charge, available after booking and satisfying some basic queries on driving skills.

c) A shop selling products sharing that car’s brand, and, depending on what you buy, you get into their database for interesting offers on used cars as and when they may come along.

But there is no guard coming in and stopping you, and the rest of the world from coming in and gawking as much as you want.