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Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works.

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Hey, brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bam here. Have

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you ever test driven a new car with the salesperson

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sitting next to in the passenger seat urging you to

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open it up a little more find out what this thing

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can really do? That kind of encouragement

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might help sell cars, but it's a calculated

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risk on the part of the salesperson. Sure,

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if you're testing a car from a dealership and an accident

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occurs, there's a chance that your personal car

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insurance may be considered responsible, but

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that's not as common as you might think. Each

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state has different laws that determine responsibility.

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We spoke with Jeff Willoughby, director of Large

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Accounts at Centry Insurance, a US mutual

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insurance company. He said the customers

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insurance can come into play depending

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on state statutes and whether or not their coverage

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is considered primary or the dealership's

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coverage is considered primary, and that's

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different across the country. Furthermore,

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Willoughby explains crashes during

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test drives don't happen all that often, though

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no one really keeps track of the exact numbers. As

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a proportion of test drives taken but

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when they do, he said, it's normally covered

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by whatever company handles the inventory

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for that dealership. Car dealerships

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are considered niche markets by the insurance company

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and require specialized insurance, which can

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come from a few different places. A

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property and casualty insurance company

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is able to handle the needs of a business such as

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a car dealership, but Willoughby points

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out that car dealerships can also buy insurance

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through the manufacture of the card that they sell, or

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through the lender they use to finance their inventory.

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Thanks to these specialized types of insurance,

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a car dealership doesn't have to individually

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ensure every car on the lot. Rather,

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the cars fall under a blanket policy, which

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makes things easier since a dealership's inventory

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changes daily. So how much

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does a dealership pay for coverage on all of its

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cars. It varies a lot, depending

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on the size of the dealership and whether it's a small

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business or part of a larger dealer network.

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Willoughby estimates a single point dealership

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in an average sized town might spend

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between forty thousand and sixty thous and

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dollars a year for coverage. A

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multilocation dealership will spend anywhere from

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a hundred thousand up to millions of dollars.

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This coverage protects all of a dealer's inventory

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and isn't just for test drives, so

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chances are if you wreck a car on a test

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drive, the car dealership and its insurance

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company probably has it covered. But

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since it's still a risk to just let anyone

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come in off the street and drive a new car, car

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dealerships have several best practices to

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help minimize the potential for problems.

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You might be annoyed by a salesperson's nosey

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chit chat, but the salesperson is actually

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assessing the risk you pose, as well as

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how likely you are to buy a car that day. A

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dealership's insurance company generally expects

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the dealership to follow specific procedures

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during the test drive as well. Willoughby

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said, the salesperson goes with them on the test

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drive to control the exposure, and

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also best practice is there's a predetermined

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route that the test drive takes, because you want

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to have a test drive route that consists primarily,

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if not solely, of right hand turns to

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avoid the extra exposure that exists when

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you're making left hand turns. Some

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dealerships allow customers to take cars home

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overnight, and, as you might guess,

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their insurers are not exactly fond

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of this practice. Willoughby notes that if

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a car is damaged while it's in a customer's care overnight,

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the scenario becomes a lot more complicated.

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A car dealership also has the right to refuse

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test drives. Some common scenarios

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where the dealership might decline to let a customer

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test a car include the person not

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having a driver's license, the person appearing

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to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the

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car they want to drive being rare or unusual,

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or the car they want to drive being very high

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performance. So if you have your

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eye on that limited edition Speedster, just

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be aware that the sales team is going to be wary

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of anyone who just wants to go for a joy ride.

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Willoughby said, that's at the dealership's discretion.

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Every dealer kind of makes their own call on that.

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Most dealers aren't going to let those specialty

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cars out of their sight. Meanwhile,

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what would happen if you were out on a test drive and you've got

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a speeding ticket. Most of us would have the usual

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choices pay the ticket or fight a in court,

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unless you're the CEO of sports car manufacturer

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Lotus. In January,

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fifty four year old Jean Mark Gals, who

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already had a storied history of moving violations,

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successfully argued his way out of a one hundred

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and two mile per hour speeding ticket in

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a seventy mile per hour zone near Norwich,

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England. Gayle's reportedly told

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the court that he was testing one of the company's newest cars

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and was given a pass. Today's

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episode was written by Shery's three Witt and produced

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by Tyler Klang. For more on this and lots

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of other high performance topics, visit our home

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planet, how stuff Works dot com.