Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vocal bam here. Have you ever test driven a
Speaker 1: new car with the salesperson sitting next to in the
Speaker 1: passenger seat urging you to open it up a little
Speaker 1: more find out what this thing can really do? That
Speaker 1: kind of encouragement might help sell cars, but it's a
Speaker 1: calculated risk on the part of the salesperson. Sure, if
Speaker 1: you're testing a car from a dealership and an accident occurs,
Speaker 1: there's a chance that your personal car insurance may be
Speaker 1: considered responsible, but that's not as common as you might think.
Speaker 1: Each state has different laws that determine responsibility. We spoke
Speaker 1: with Jeff Willoughby, director of Large Accounts at Centry Insurance,
Speaker 1: a US mutual insurance company. He said the customers insurance
Speaker 1: can come into play depending on state statutes and whether
Speaker 1: or not their coverage is considered primary or the dealership's
Speaker 1: coverage is considered primary, and that's different across the country. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: Willoughby explains crashes during test drives don't happen all that often,
Speaker 1: though no one really keeps track of the exact numbers.
Speaker 1: As a proportion of test drives taken but when they do,
Speaker 1: he said, it's normally covered by whatever company handles the
Speaker 1: inventory for that dealership. Car dealerships are considered niche markets
Speaker 1: by the insurance company and require specialized insurance, which can
Speaker 1: come from a few different places. A property and casualty
Speaker 1: insurance company is able to handle the needs of a
Speaker 1: business such as a car dealership, but Willoughby points out
Speaker 1: that car dealerships can also buy insurance through the manufacture
Speaker 1: of the card that they sell, or through the lender
Speaker 1: they use to finance their inventory. Thanks to these specialized
Speaker 1: types of insurance, a car dealership doesn't have to individually
Speaker 1: ensure every car on the lot. Rather, the cars fall
Speaker 1: under a blanket policy, which makes things easier since a
Speaker 1: dealership's inventory changes daily. So how much does a dealership
Speaker 1: pay for coverage on all of its cars. It varies
Speaker 1: a lot, depending on the size of the dealership and
Speaker 1: whether it's a small business or part of a larger
Speaker 1: dealer network. Willoughby estimates a single point dealership in an
Speaker 1: average sized town might spend between forty thousand and sixty
Speaker 1: thous and dollars a year for coverage. A multilocation dealership
Speaker 1: will spend anywhere from a hundred thousand up to millions
Speaker 1: of dollars. This coverage protects all of a dealer's inventory
Speaker 1: and isn't just for test drives, so chances are if
Speaker 1: you wreck a car on a test drive, the car
Speaker 1: dealership and its insurance company probably has it covered. But
Speaker 1: since it's still a risk to just let anyone come
Speaker 1: in off the street and drive a new car, car
Speaker 1: dealerships have several best practices to help minimize the potential
Speaker 1: for problems. You might be annoyed by a salesperson's nosey
Speaker 1: chit chat, but the salesperson is actually assessing the risk
Speaker 1: you pose, as well as how likely you are to
Speaker 1: buy a car that day. A dealership's insurance company generally
Speaker 1: expects the dealership to follow specific procedures during the test
Speaker 1: drive as well. Willoughby said, the salesperson goes with them
Speaker 1: on the test drive to control the exposure, and also
Speaker 1: best practice is there's a predetermined route that the test
Speaker 1: drive takes, because you want to have a test drive
Speaker 1: route that consists primarily, if not solely, of right hand
Speaker 1: turns to avoid the extra exposure that exists when you're
Speaker 1: making left hand turns. Some dealerships allow customers to take
Speaker 1: cars home overnight, and, as you might guess, their insurers
Speaker 1: are not exactly fond of this practice. Willoughby notes that
Speaker 1: if a car is damaged while it's in a customer's
Speaker 1: care overnight, the scenario becomes a lot more complicated. A
Speaker 1: car dealership also has the right to refuse test drives.
Speaker 1: Some common scenarios where the dealership might decline to let
Speaker 1: a customer test a car include the person not having
Speaker 1: a driver's license, the person appearing to be under the
Speaker 1: influence of drugs or alcohol, the car they want to
Speaker 1: drive being rare or unusual, or the car they want
Speaker 1: to drive being very high performance. So if you have
Speaker 1: your eye on that limited edition Speedster, just be aware
Speaker 1: that the sales team is going to be wary of
Speaker 1: anyone who just wants to go for a joy ride.
Speaker 1: Willoughby said, that's at the dealership's discretion. Every dealer kind
Speaker 1: of makes their own call on that. Most dealers aren't
Speaker 1: going to let those specialty cars out of their sight. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: what would happen if you were out on a test
Speaker 1: drive and you've got a speeding ticket. Most of us
Speaker 1: would have the usual choices pay the ticket or fight
Speaker 1: a in court, unless you're the CEO of sports car
Speaker 1: manufacturer Lotus. In January, fifty four year old Jean Mark Gals,
Speaker 1: who already had a storied history of moving violations, successfully
Speaker 1: argued his way out of a one hundred and two
Speaker 1: mile per hour speeding ticket in a seventy mile per
Speaker 1: hour zone near Norwich, England. Gayle's reportedly told the court
Speaker 1: that he was testing one of the company's newest cars
Speaker 1: and was given a pass. Today's episode was written by
Speaker 1: Shery's three Witt and produced by Tyler Klang. For more
Speaker 1: on this and lots of other high performance topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.