Test Drives/Home Deliveries Are Permissible

Establish Dealership Policies and Use Good Common Sense

Dealers may have recently heard in a webinar that test drives and home deliveries are prohibited following recent Executive Orders (EO) by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, it is our determination, and that of most attorneys, that test drives and home deliveries are permitted because they are essential to the sale or lease of a vehicle.

The reason for this is that last month, the State Legislature gave the Governor broad powers to declare a State of Emergency and respond to it by superseding existing laws, rules, and regulations. To handle the COVID-19 crisis, and using his emergency powers, Governor Cuomo shut down all but the state’s “essential” businesses.  In this case, Governor Cuomo has determined that the sale and service of cars and trucks are essential businesses and since test drives and delivery of vehicles are essential to the transaction, they are deemed permissible.

GNYADA has also asked DMV about these issues and they have informed us that they do not see any issue with dealers doing test drives or home deliveries. We have also spoken to other Dealer Associations across the Country, who now have similar EO’s on “essential businesses”, and similar directives on permitted car sales and have overwhelmingly taken the same position as GNYADA.  

In the same webinar mentioned above, it was discussed that dealer insurance policies would not cover the dealer if an accident occurred where no dealer representative accompanied a customer on a test drive.   We have checked with several insurance carriers about whether this was true or accurate and we have found no such limitation of coverage. 

GNYADA fought hard for its members to make sure you could stay open to meet your consumer’s needs. We have also been working to provide you the clearest guidance possible during what has been an ever changing time. In that effort, GNYADA created a Sample Test Drive and Vehicle Delivery Policy, which can be found by clicking here. 

In the Sample Test Drive and Vehicle Delivery Policy, we go into detail on how you can best follow these rules while keeping your sales departments open. This sample policy is designed to ensure the safety of your employees during lease returns, vehicle deliveries, and test drives

What is most important throughout is that you use common sense as well as follow the State Health Department and the Centers’ for Disease Control protocols on social distancing, personal hygiene, and disinfecting of the workplace. 

Just because test drives and vehicle deliveries are permissible, if you do not feel you can set up a system that follows the guidelines in the policy, then you should consider not offering test drives. 

The policy is a sample policy, for legal advice or to obtain a customized dealership policy consult your dealership attorney.

If you have any questions on how these guidelines might apply to your business, do not hesitate to contact GNYADA at 718.746.5900.