A test drive with a stranger: what to settle first

This is not only about dented metal. A test drive can produce three different kinds of loss, treated in completely different ways: damage to another vehicle or person, damage to your own car, and loss of the car altogether. Only the first is reliably insured.

Then there is a fourth case almost nobody thinks about: the offence. Speed, red light, parking — the plate is recorded and the keeper is written to. Anyone who did not record who was driving either pays themselves or explains it laboriously later.

Both Swiss and German road traffic law impose keeper liability: the keeper is liable for damage arising from the operation of the vehicle, regardless of fault and regardless of who was at the wheel. That is why third-party cover attaches to the car and not to a person — it pays for the damage the prospect causes to someone else.

The driver is liable too, generally where at fault. Between you and the prospect that is the decisive point: whoever culpably damages your car owes you for it — which helps you little if he cannot pay or cannot be found. So the question of who he is matters more than the question of what the law says.

What third-party cover never pays for is damage to your own car. That is a job for comprehensive insurance, and that is where it gets interesting.

Whether a third party may drive your car is set out in your policy, not in the law. Many contracts cover any authorised driver, some restrict cover to named people, and a few carry a clause on minimum age or how long the licence has been held. That is the one call to make before any test drive.

Two questions are enough: is a test drive by a prospective buyer covered, and what is the deductible on a collision? The second is the expensive one. If your comprehensive policy has a high deductible, you effectively carry a dented wing yourself — and a claim also worsens the keeper's no-claims position, not the driver's.

From that follows an arrangement many sellers make and both sides find fair: the prospect covers the deductible in the event of a claim. That is not insurance and does not make him an insured party; it is a private agreement about an amount — and it has to be in writing, or it ceases to exist after the accident.

Ask to see the licence, not just hear about it. Look at whether the photo matches the person, whether the category is right and whether the document is valid. With a probationary or very recent licence you may decline the test drive; that is not rudeness but the same check every car rental firm makes.

Note the name, address and licence number in the agreement and photograph the document, saying that you will delete it after the sale or after a reasonable period. A prospect who refuses need not have bad intentions — but you need not let him drive either.

One extra data point costs nothing: what did he arrive in? Someone who comes in his own car leaves a plate behind, and someone who is dropped off has a companion you also see. That is not suspicion but the ordinary attentiveness a transaction of this size deserves.

Two situations justify a no without further explanation: a driver with no valid document, and a prospect who turns up with a second person who is not buying but wants to drive. In both cases you can offer a test drive with you at the wheel — that answers the questions about how the car behaves just as well.

A test-drive agreement is half a sheet of paper, signed by both before the engine runs. It settles exactly the points people argue about after an accident, and it takes five minutes. Print it and keep it in the glovebox and you never have the conversation at all.

It is not a vote of no confidence but what every rental firm and every dealer does too — and you can introduce it exactly that way. Prospects who have ever taken a dealer test drive know the routine and find it unremarkable. Anyone who refuses has given you information worth more than the drive.

Riding along is the normal case, for three reasons that have nothing to do with suspicion: you see how the car is being driven, you can answer questions about its behaviour on the spot, and you are there if something happens. A prospect who wants to drive alone to “listen properly” can do that on a quiet stretch with you in the passenger seat just as well.

If you exceptionally do not ride along, then only with a deposited ID, a signed agreement and a clear arrangement about time and route. And then your spare key is not in the car, and neither are your documents.

From the passenger seat one rule is easily forgotten: you remain jointly responsible for the drive. Letting someone drive who is visibly out of their depth or has been drinking is your own problem, whoever owns the car. Calling the drive off in such a case is not rudeness but the only sensible response.

One of the least conspicuous ways to lose a car is a test drive with the full paperwork on board. The vehicle document, part II of the registration certificate and a spare key in the glovebox turn a test drive into a handover you did not intend — and the case quickly becomes a misappropriation in insurance terms, which is treated differently from theft.

So: the spare key stays at home, part II of the registration certificate or the vehicle document stays in your jacket, and only what the law requires for the drive stays in the car. For a test drive the prospect needs his licence, not your paperwork.

For the same reason the test drive does not happen on collection day but before it. Put viewing, test drive, negotiation, a trip to the bank and handover into a single appointment and you end up with a car containing everything and two tired people looking for shortcuts. Two appointments cost an hour more and take the pressure out of the process.

On return you add the mileage, walk once round the car and look at the wheels, bumpers and underside. It takes a minute, and it is the moment a fresh kerb strike can still be attributed. Two days later it cannot.

If something has in fact happened, record it at once, with photos and both signatures under a short description. The rule that carries the whole sale applies here too: whatever goes on paper on the day is no longer a question of memory later.

And if nothing happened, say so too — a line under the agreement that the car came back undamaged protects the prospect from later being blamed for damage he did not cause. A seller who offers that sells more easily.