I can book a flight to Tokyo in about 90 seconds without talking to a single person. I can book a same-day haircut in three taps and get a text confirming the time. But if I want to test-drive a new SUV this weekend, there’s still a good chance the process starts with hold music.
That contrast isn’t just frustrating; it shows up in the numbers. According to CDK Global’s 2026 Friction Points Study, more than three-quarters of car buyers say the test drive is what ultimately sold them on their vehicle. Separate research from Autotrader found that 81% of buyers rated the test-drive experience an 8 out of 10 or higher. Buyers like the test drive. The problem is what happens around it. Once F&I and paperwork enter the picture, that satisfaction score drops to 67%. Somewhere between the walkaround and the signature, dealerships are giving back some of the goodwill they just built.
Most dealerships already recognize this, even if they haven’t put a number on it. Sales managers can tell you which salespeople give a great demo drive. Fewer can tell you how many prospective customers waited on hold trying to book one, how long it took to get a callback or how many gave up before they ever reached the store. The test drive isn’t the weak link. It may be the strongest part of the process, surrounded by steps that haven’t kept pace with what buyers now expect from nearly everything else they book online.
Customers Want a Seamless Experience
That expectation shift didn’t start in automotive. Consumers have gotten used to managing more of life on their own schedule — booking, rescheduling and canceling appointments without waiting for someone to call back. Yet parts of car buying are still built around business hours and a phone tree. Buyers notice that mismatch, even if they can’t always pinpoint why the process feels harder than it should.
A growing number of dealerships are closing that gap by adding online scheduling to the front end of the sales process, letting shoppers book a test drive the same way they’d book almost anything else — no hold music, no waiting on a callback. It sounds like a small fix, but it addresses the exact moment where interested buyers are most likely to lose momentum: the gap between deciding they want to see a car and actually getting behind the wheel.
I’ve seen the effect of that shift firsthand. At Test Drive To Go, where I’m co-founder, dealerships that add online scheduling see roughly a 23% close rate on scheduled test drives — nearly one in four shoppers who book one go on to buy that vehicle. That number isn’t a case for any particular piece of software. It’s a case for what happens when a dealership removes friction from a step that was already working in its favor. The test drive doesn’t need to get better. It needs an easier way in.
Remove the Friction from the Test Drive
For dealers, the takeaway doesn’t require a technology overhaul. Look at your own numbers the way CDK and Autotrader looked at the industry’s: where does customer satisfaction start, and where does it end up by the time a deal is signed? Pull the data on how test drives actually get booked at your store today — how many calls go to voicemail, how long shoppers wait for a callback, how many never call back at all. For many stores, the issue may not be that the sales team needs more training or the showroom needs a redesign. It may be that somewhere in the gap between “I loved the test drive” and “I bought the car,” too many buyers are still being asked to do things the hard way.
Closing that gap isn’t about chasing the next AI trend. It’s about removing needless friction from the parts of the process that should already be easy.
Related Stories: