So you may remember that Jeremy Clarkson opened his mouth on Top Gear and said you can get a Vectra for 2 days for free? Yes?

So onto the website and put my details down, thought it would be nice to take a spin in a 3.2 V6 and see how it compares to the Scooby.

So sure enuff someone from Vauxhall calls me back, this is 3 weeks ago at least, takes my details and says another person will call me back to arrange a booking.

Another 2 weeks pass! and they call back, only to tell me that although I wanted to book the GSI for 2 months away, it wouldnt be possible because of high demand, so I say what about the 2.0 SRI Turbo? sorry sir same problem. Great, so I say forget it.

Thanks Vauxhall for wasting my time - do they really want people to buy their cars? judging by this Id say no, they certainly wont be taking my business. Tw4ts.

AP

Let's be honest, did you (or anyone else who phoned) actually have any intention of buying one of the cars after having test-driven them? We all know that Vectras are sh1te, and that most people phoning would have been looking for a cheap/free alternative to train travel at the weekend, and that the cars' engines would have just been ragged silly before being handed back to the dealer with a slightly unconvincing "quite nice, but we've decided it wasn't for us". ;)

I thought that was what test drives were all about..to test-drive...not to test-definitely-will-buy....

sure I had no intention of buying one, but it was still a total sham and a bad public relations act - and Ill tell the world about it too, its just bad business as far as Im concerned

I got one

Did the sensible thing and opted for a diesel...got to choose my weekend and the model spec, went for the elite for August. Leaves me enough time to sort something out.

J.

Most people take test drives in cars they're not really thinking about buying. Then they think "actually this is quite nice, I quite fancy this" and possibly buy it. It's how salesmen flog stuff that's not so desirable they can sell it out of the brochure.

I think you've missed the point of Clarkson giving out the telephone number.

Seems like he's caused Vauxhall the most amount of grief and hassel possible.

Love it when a plan comes together :D

Why oh why oh why can't Ferrari or Lamborghini etc. offer this kinda deal :(

Vauxhall doing this reminds me of this knob of a kid that lived near me as a kid, aggressive, stupid, unpleasant etc

His parents threw a party for all the local kids to try and bribe them not to avoid their brat like the plague, didnt work...

Sound Familiar ?

Actually I think it's Clarkson's fault.

Vauxhall would have attempted to figure how many cars would be needed based on their estimates and where they advertised. It's a business decision. We want to sell more cars, how can we persuade people.

The fact that a TV presenter opens his mouth and spills the beans to a petrolhead audience is going to throw things completely into a spin. The number of booking would have shot up and presumably a large proportion of those new booking would be for the 3.2 V6 or the turbo.

I think GM and Vauxhall have made a lot of horrendous decisions over the years but until Mr JC opened his mouth, not in this case.

Vindaloo.

"I thought that was what test drives were all about"

Yeah, but the point Marko's making, is lots of folk are just looking for free wheels for a couple of days. Few have any intention of even considering purchasing one. Those that can't get their "test drive", will just have to find another way, instead of taking the p!ss out of Vauxhall.

Mind, it's a stupid idea and they (GM) should've realised this would happen, so I haven't got that much sympathy.

Cheers