No test drives available for 100 miles?

[ShakataGaNai]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and recently my wife and I have started shopping for a new car, EVs - obviously. During the holiday break we managed to test drive a Mustang Mach-E, Audi e-Tron and a Volvo XC40. The only two cars on our list we couldn't drive are the id.4 and the Model Y. We've got a Tesla Gallery in our city and living in the San Francisco Bay Area there is a gallery/service center/store every 20 miles or so. However, according to tesla.com/drive the closest test drive a Model Y is 100 miles away, the next best option is Fresno (170 miles away).

What is going on? Is this normal? This being the Bay Area it feels like practically 10% of the cars are Tesla, so I'd think there would at least be test drive units available in the area. Sure, they don't have inventory and the wait time is months to years depending on the model. The rest we drove we similar - Mach-E was 6 months, e-Tron same, XC40 was 2 month - so this isn't a shock or even a problem. But... no test drive?

 

[Terminator857]

I'm in mtn view, and model y for test drive is only a few miles away. And there are plenty of other places with Model Ys for test drives. You must live on the fringe of the bay area. I hear the Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are good too.

 

[bodosom]

I think it's simpler to go to tesla.com/findus, select Stores&Galleries and click on the closest one and select a Model. You should get a list of locations. E.g. if I pick the Van Ness location it returns Burlingame, Sunnyvale and Gilroy. If I pick Fresno it returns Fresno, Gilroy and Sunnyvale. In the past the locations returned could schedule a test drive within 14 days as I recall. Naturally it depends on the Model. The checks I made were for Model Y.

 

[ShakataGaNai]

I'm in mtn view, and model y for test drive is only a few miles away. And there are plenty of other places with Model Ys for test drives. You must live on the fringe of the bay area. I hear the Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are good too.

I live in the East Bay, but by no means the fringe. If you goto tesla.com/drive and punch in a zipcode of 94105 (Downtown San Francisco), right now... it returns Gilroy as your first option.

I think it's simpler to go to tesla.com/findus, select Stores&Galleries and click on the closest one and select a Model. You should get a list of locations.

Interesting. That redirects to Schedule a Test Drive | Tesla (or your applicable gallery zipcode), and returns different results than going through tesla.com/drive "front door". The closest is still on the total opposite side of the Bay, but 40 miles is a lot better than 100.

 

[tm1v2]

It's sadly typical of Tesla to sell most of their demo fleet at once before each EoQ, leaving barely any cars to test drive until they replenish the fleet a few weeks later with cars built the next quarter.

Don't get me wrong, Tesla absolutely should keep their demo fleet fresh. It's just that selling them all at once is silly and leaves these gaps where test drives are unnecessarily difficult to come by. Would be much better to gradually refresh the demo cars at a constant steady pace.

When my wife and I were car shopping this fall we had to wait a few weeks to test any 3, there were none to test near us, and not even a handful of Y's. They got new demo cars barely in time for us, we had almost finished payment and taken delivery of a different car when we finally got to drive the 3 and it turned out to be our top choice!

(Wife probably liked the Y more than 3 actually, it or another S was probably her top choice, but I ended up liking the 3 the most by far of all current Teslas and we already have a big hatchback with our old S. Since she liked the 3 too we got one, and she gets to pick the replacement for our old S when that time comes.)

 

[El joe]

Instead of driving 100 miles for a test drive, I’d seriously consider renting one on TURO for a day instead. :/

 

[ShakataGaNai]

Well the "closer" locations didn't matter because when I tried to book I got:

Test Drive appointments are temporarily unavailable in your area due to increased demand

So much for that method.

Instead of driving 100 miles for a test drive, I’d seriously consider renting one on TURO for a day instead. :/

Yea, I thought about the option of renting something. But at the same time I don't love the idea of paying $150 just to test drive a car.

It's sadly typical of Tesla to sell most of their demo fleet at once before each EoQ, leaving barely any cars to test drive until they replenish the fleet a few weeks later with cars built the next quarter.

Reading more on these forums I'm starting to see that trend now. So maybe the answer is we simply should wait a few weeks and got "unlucky". That's fortunate because we're not needing a new vehicle urgently. But it's a very frustrating experience that has no explanation. Volksvagen is similar with the id.4 - no test drives available, no plans on having one available any time soon. They are only one step better because they said that directly to us rather than me having to forum hunt for answers.

 

[tm1v2]

When we scheduled our test drives over the phone, the rep we spoke with explained the EoQ situation. I agree Tesla should clarify it on their website too though!

 

[bodosom]

I'm sure it depends on the store but the folks at the closest service center did explain to me that inventory fluctuated and that demo vehicles would be available in about N weeks where N was three as I recall. That was correct and they immediately reached out to us to schedule a test drive. I was there last Friday for new car fix-ups and they were out of demo vehicles again and only had two Tesla loaners.

 

[Zebelkhan]

No test drive vehicles available in Orange County,CA. They must be getting ready for the real 2022 models.

 

[carz]

As tm1v2 said, Tesla sells all their test drives cars at the end of the quarter to report better sales numbers. The test drive fleets will be replenished over the next couple of weeks and you should be able to test drive a Model Y at any Tesla center.

 

[mrwug]

Definitely a quarterly thing. There were no test drives to be done in late June / early July when I was in that position.

 

[roblab]

I live in Angwin, up the hill from St. Helena in Napa Valley and have an S and a 3. I've given test drives to anyone who wants one, and six of those bought Model 3s. If you're in the area and want a test drive, give a call to PzeroQ, AWC, ++GX. If I'm home, and we usually are, you can try them both.

The only caveat is that I have found is that if you drive one, you'll likely buy one.

 

[RedTesY]

Do you have any friends who own a Model Y and would be open to giving you a test drive? We live in central WA state and the nearest stores are a 3 hour drive either west or east. We give test drives quite a bit, and spend a lot more time talking with folks about the car than a sales rep would. Good luck, you won't regret waiting!

 

[ShakataGaNai]

Do you have any friends who own a Model Y and would be open to giving you a test drive

Alas. I do not. Only MS, which Isn't quite similar enough. I was going to go the Turo route this weekend but had to cancel.

The test drive fleets will be replenished over the next couple of weeks

It seems to be happening in the very near future. If I goto tesla.com/drive?zip_code=MYZIP it now shows the 3 closest galleries as options. However when going into booking it says the same "Test Drive appointments are temporarily unavailable in your area due to increased demand". But those galleries showing is an improvement.

 

[thesmokingman]

You're in the Bay Area, check your with neighbors...

 

[Lccjblu]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and recently my wife and I have started shopping for a new car, EVs - obviously. During the holiday break we managed to test drive a Mustang Mach-E, Audi e-Tron and a Volvo XC40. The only two cars on our list we couldn't drive are the id.4 and the Model Y. We've got a Tesla Gallery in our city and living in the San Francisco Bay Area there is a gallery/service center/store every 20 miles or so. However, according to tesla.com/drive the closest test drive a Model Y is 100 miles away, the next best option is Fresno (170 miles away).

What is going on? Is this normal? This being the Bay Area it feels like practically 10% of the cars are Tesla, so I'd think there would at least be test drive units available in the area. Sure, they don't have inventory and the wait time is months to years depending on the model. The rest we drove we similar - Mach-E was 6 months, e-Tron same, XC40 was 2 month - so this isn't a shock or even a problem. But... no test drive?

When i went to test drive a model 3 at the end of December, the sales associated told me that they would not have test drive cars for the first 2-3 weeks of 2022 because they planned to sell all of their tester cars by the end of the year (presumably to boost their sales figures?).

Can you consider test driving a "used" tesla either at carmax or at tesla itself?

 

[Zebelkhan]

When i went to test drive a model 3 at the end of December, the sales associated told me that they would not have test drive cars for the first 2-3 weeks of 2022 because they planned to sell all of their tester cars by the end of the year (presumably to boost their sales figures?).

Can you consider test driving a "used" tesla either at carmax or at tesla itself?

You can always find them on Turo. Can rent them for a day or more.

 

[DogtownTX]

I ordered my MYP before driving one (had driven friends M3 so was 99% sure of the purchase). The earliest test drive I could find was around a week before it was delivered. Crazy business model they have, but seems to be working so

 

[ShakataGaNai]

This week the options have been slowly reappearing in the Bay Area. As of last night I could book (and did) at the local gallery options. Some places had a week out start, but many were starting as soon as today.

So my test drive is on monday