... they have to for the test drive/insurance reasons?

^ do they also get to refuse to give you the photocopy when you return from the test drive with car unharmed? I've had that happen to me.

Even the bank doesn't photocopy your IDs when they lend you a million cash

During my Hummer test drive, the test drive guy said someone took it for a joyride and was arrested after getting back to the convention center.

It's bad apples like these that cause dealers and event organizers to collect waivers and photo IDs. Unfortunately not everyone behaves.

Are you daft man? They have every bit of your info and more, just verifying your ID through sighting it and, nowadays, at TD they ask for a PIN AND they ask for a code they text to you. Also you might note they write "BCDL: #######" on their receipts too.

You go into a dealership, their cars are on an insurance policy, they have NO IDEA who you are and you take their cars out, of course they need to collect your ID in case of an incident or the test drive is unaccompanied and you disappear with their car.

It's a rebadge of a Rogue but the PHEV tech is their own.

I find it a bit odd how a dealer/salesperson decides if they send the customer out on their own or not. The Lexus dealer had no problem sending me off on my own while the Honda dealer sent their guy with me - generally I find the mass market brands like to have their sales people come along while the luxury brands are hit and miss.

I'd much rather be sent off on my own even if it means I have to pay a small fee for it - when I'm serious about a car I want it for at least a couple hours to really feel it out. Back in 2019 I was able to get a CX-5 for half a day but that was cause the sale guy was here on RS while the Honda guy said I could only get 30 mins with their CR-V.

I don't know what factors into that either, I've not test driven many cars but I've experienced both. Dark didn't come with me when I took a G70 out but that's because he knew me from here I think. I'm sure they make judgement calls on their impressions of people too haha

It's a crapshoot if you don't know the sales people.

It's definitely helpful if the customer is not familiar with the car or roads, or they look like they would need help with the functionality. There's also the age old adage that you make the sale by talking the customer's ear off in the car.

A lot of the mass market brands follow the old school way of sales where they come with you talk your ear off. Toyota, Honda, VW all do that.

We've had pretty random experiences with the luxury brands. We were looking at Openroad Audi, knew no one, and they just sent us off with an A3 and A4.

We've been sent off with cars at BMW before, but also denied test drives (the iX recently at Autowest came to mind)

The sales person came along on 2 different instances at MB(C350, GLC), but they left us alone other than directing us to better roads to actually try out the car.