I bought a car last month (Skoda Fabia). The entireexperience of buying the car was less than satisfactory on many counts. I wasonly able to take a short test drive (2Kms) around the showroom. This was thesame case with all the dealerships. When I asked that I would like to take a longertest drive and in different road conditions, I was always indicated that itwould be difficult to manage & turned down. The sales folks went on ranting about the car technology, engine capacity and all the other features of the car not bother to even understand my needs.
For a layman like me, these do not mean much as I donot know if for my driving requirements a vehicle with a higher torque isbetter or how does the size of the wheel base affect my driving performance. Idid try to learn these things and make an objective decision. But in the end, Iwent on instinct and bought Skoda Fabia as I thought that it gave me thesmoothest drive and I felt most comfortable in that car as compared to allother cars (in my budget).
There has been no change in the way cars have beensold for a long time. Now, after so many years, Ford has come up with a way tomake it fun to test drive their car and instead of talking about the carsfeatures, lets prospects experience the features by themselves and share their experiencewith their friends as well. They have used the gaming concepts in designing theuser experience which I think is working very well.
What more could they do to make the car buyingexperience more enjoyable and fun?
