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