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An organization I'm in offered a "test drive" event of a car manufacturer to its members. Since I have an interest in cars, I opted to go.

The purpose of this event is obviously to promote their cars. However this is a high-end car manufacturer, and I do not foresee I would be able to afford their cars in the near future. I, therefore, have no intention to even consider buying one, I just want to know how it "drives like".

Considering that the car manufacturer needs to allocate resources (cars and staff) for the event, I feel it would be rude to take their offer knowing it would never have turned out to be a customer of them. If the sales asks me "why are you here", how can I reply without being seen as rude?

Ael
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kevin
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    "Is it rude" is an opinion based question that we can't really answer in this format. – apaul Nov 14 '18 at 07:23
  • @apaul hmm I see quite a number of "is it rude" questions on this stack. Apologies I'm new here. How can I make it not opinion-based? – kevin Nov 14 '18 at 07:25
  • @apaul: I think this might be ok, as the goal of such events is marketing wise usually well defined and hence I could see this being not too opinion based. But I will wait a bit before answering to see if others share your view. – dhein Nov 14 '18 at 07:33
  • @kevin According to the [help center](https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/help) this question is very much [on topic](https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) if you reword it to ask for the "the written and unwritten - but well-established and expected - rules or conventions of behavior in a specific setting (also called etiquette)." – Elmy Nov 14 '18 at 07:36
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    Trim off the "is it rude" and focus on how to communicate with the sales people. I'm certainly not unquestionable here, just my experience on this stack. – apaul Nov 14 '18 at 08:04

1 Answers1

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I would dispute the comment saying that it is opinion based. It is something that was offered to you, and if you want to do it then go for it.

It is not rude, and no organisation putting on any event has any expectations that it's attendees will go into business with them. Usually these types of events whether it is for cars or otherwise are about networking, and getting that companies name out there, so if you are ever in the position to make a purchase, you will think of them.

There is no expectation to buy anything and therefore it is not rude.

As for what to say if asked why you are there. Be honest, not brutally, but what you said here is fine:

I like cars, and I wanted to see how [insert car brand] felt to drive.

This is exactly the response expected from this kind of event and obviously if it turns into a sale on the day, they would be over the moon but it is not expected of anyone.

All of the above comes from personal experience at this kind of events, both cars (Ferrari) and many other industries.

Negotiate
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  • Precisely - the car company knows what is going on, so they won't be insulted in the least. Last weekend I was at an event where Ford had a bunch of new 4x4 pickups and would let you drive them around the 4x4 track. They knew that everyone there already had a 4x4 vehicle, knew that nobody was buying one on the spot, but were there for the awareness and marketing. – Jon Custer Nov 14 '18 at 14:14