Volvo resumes Test Drive+ service

Volvo has restarted its Test Drive+ service, which allows buyers to book test drives electronically.

Initially the service will be provided via local dealers, but Volvo says that once lockdown restrictions are eased and it is safe to do so, arrangements can be made for cars to be delivered to and collected from customers’ homes or places of work.

At a future date, extended test drives of up to 24 hours will also be available.

Test Drive+ was launched in 2019, in line with Volvo’s move to online sales, and was developed to make it ultra-convenient for customers to experience the brand.

Each test drive is hosted by a Volvo specialist, equipped to respond to all questions on the car and purchase options.

The service was suspended in accordance with lockdown restrictions.

The decision over whether to offer car buyers test drives during COVID-19 'Lockdown 3' was rendered “purely moral”, however, after clarification of the law in England by Lawgistics.

Lawgistics legal advisor Nona Bowkis obtained documentation stating that the UK Government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) which clarifies COVID-19 ‘Lockdown 3’ test drive legislation with Trading Standards authorities across England and determines that the service is allowed.

Bowkis told AM that the correspondence – provided in connection to a car retailer’s successfully contested case – served to back-up Lawgistics’ ongoing assertion that test drives have been legal throughout ‘Lockdown 3’.