Understanding the Car in Just One Test Drive

Every few months, I get the chance to test drive cars at dealerships or ride in cars owned by acquaintances. But I always find it really difficult to fully understand a car from just one test drive.

Especially since I’m not very knowledgeable about mechanical details, I tend to rely on a vague feeling to form my impression of a car, and my perception often gets influenced by the car I drove just before.

If I can drive the same car two or three times, I gradually become more focused on that car itself, but understanding it in a single, short test drive is truly tough.

On the other hand, my husband has driven many different Porsches at dealerships and owned by friends (the title says over 50, but that was around early 2022, so the actual number is probably higher). He also shares various Porsche and car test drive reports on his blog.

When he rides in a friend’s Porsche, the test drive usually lasts about 15 minutes on the Royu Driveway, but many readers ask, “How can you gather so much information in just 15 minutes?”

I wondered why my husband can absorb so much information from a single test drive… and I realized there’s one thing he always does when test driving a Porsche. Today, I’d like to share that with you.

What My Husband Always Does When Test Driving

What my husband always does when test driving a Porsche is to check exactly which options the car has. This might be obvious to many readers, but I often forget to do this kind of check.

With Porsche, the driving experience can be completely different even within the same grade or model depending on the options installed, so confirming the presence or absence of options is really important. (Of course, besides options, factors like mileage and usual driving style can also affect engine response and ride comfort…)

My husband often says this about Porsche test drives:

For example, if you test drive a base grade car at a dealership and think, “Wow, even the base grade rides really well!” and decide to buy that base grade, you might find that when the car is actually delivered, it feels completely different from the test drive. Of course, it’s natural that the ride softens a bit after some driving, but still, sometimes it just feels different. One big reason is that dealership test cars often come loaded with options. For example, with Panamera or Cayenne, many test cars have air suspension, or if the ride feels flat and roll-free, it might have PDCC… things like that happen a lot. So when I’m seriously considering a purchase and test driving at a dealership, I always ask them to send me the spec sheet afterward to confirm the options.

Makes sense, right?

Once, I test drove a 911 at a dealership that felt incredibly stiff, and I thought, “Was the 911 always this stiff?” It turned out it had the sport suspension option. Also, cars with the sport exhaust option have louder engine start-up sounds, and when switching from normal to sport mode with the sport exhaust and Sport Chrono package, the engine sound clearly changes. But if the car doesn’t have the sport exhaust, the engine sound doesn’t change much. So it’s important to remember that the car you test drove isn’t necessarily representative of that model as a whole. Well, Porsche is complicated anyway because even grades differ a lot. For example, the plain Macan I’ve been borrowing as a loaner recently feels very different from the Macan Turbo I drove before. It’s really tricky.

Still, my husband also says this:

But because Porsche changes so much with options, on the flip side, it’s easy to understand because adding an option definitely changes that aspect of the car. When you realize, “This car had this option, so it drove like this; that one didn’t, so it felt like that,” you start building a personal database. Then, just by looking at the options, you can roughly imagine how the car will drive and feel. That way, the amount of information you get from a single test drive changes, and you can better decide, “If I buy one, this option is a must-have, and that one’s unnecessary.”

The Presence or Absence of Porsche Options

For me, the importance of options is something I can only say, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” (laughs) But I think it’s good to be more aware of options when test driving in the future, not just the drive itself.

I’ve written various articles about Porsche options before, so I’d be happy if you could also check those out:

ポルシェの人気オプション スポーツエグゾーストはつけるべき？

ポルシェの人気オプション スポーツクロノパッケージはつけるべき？

ポルシェの人気オプション エアサスってつけるべき？

ポルシェの人気オプション PASMはつけるべき？

ポルシェの超高価なオプション、PCCBって実際どうよ？