Will you need a test drive before you purchase a Slate?

[solate]

I'm a January 2027 delivery, and I'm wavering between excitement and hesitancy. I do minor garage fabrication and 3D printing, and the Slate offers many unique customization opportunities. At the same time, I always thought my next car would have blind spot detection, and no radio is a big drawback for my wife. Is my first big Slate project figuring out how to install a radio head unit and speakers? I find that project kind of fun, kind of tedious, and at least $500 in additional cost and time.

My main concern is the drive. No reviewers have gotten this up to highway speed, and I doubt there will be any situation where I can test drive it in advance. I thought maybe a used 2023 bolt was right for me, but I test drove it and it felt only fine, not fun. There wasn't enough I liked over my 2010 Prius. Having a truck bed would open up a lot as a second car, so I know it's not exactly the same as the Bolt, but the Bolt test drive showed me a lot.

So, for most of y'all: how do you feel about not test driving before you buy? What makes you feel ok about that?

 

[WV Slateman]

I'm not buying if I can't take it for a test drive. Stop and go traffic, rough roads, hills, curves, and interstate speed WILL be part of that test drive if they want my $$$.

 

[E90400K]

I was hoping to get a test drive in BEFORE I had to commit $300 to order the FN sometime this Fall. So, that is disappointing. I hope to at least see the FN in person before I actually order it. I'm still on the fence on my tolerance level of buying it completely sight unseen. I'm $300 in so far. It's a big country and now being August there is little time for Slate to get trucks out to the market for review by real customers before we have to order sometime in November - December.

Internet influencers are just looking for clicks, so I find their reviews useless. The auto journalists are pretty much crap now too; I mean the Car and Driver review from the New Hampshire review - good God.

I'll guess my opportunity for a review will be in DC/Northern Virginia. I hope Slate makes it an invitation-only private show for people have put up $300 to reserve an order spot, so as to keep out the riff raff. That would only be fair.

 

[meedgar]

No problem for me. The most it will be driven at one time is 90 minutes at the most to get up into the mountains to backpack/mtn bike/trout fish. The rest is doing truck things around town.

 

[KHN707]

My main concern is the drive. No reviewers have gotten this up to highway speed, and I doubt there will be any situation where I can test drive it in advance.

Looks like this guy drove it on a two-lane rural highway.
"The Slate is fun, roomy, and far more convincing behind the wheel than its appearance suggests."
https://www.businessinsider.com/slate-truck-test-drive-electric-pickup-ev-2026-7

I need to sit in one before I buy it but don't need to necessarily drive it. It's a suburban chore truck for me. I don't need a canyon-carver nor a boulevard ride for long road trips. Unless they screw up the basic engineering - it'll be fine for me.

 

[kvermeer]

I thought maybe a used 2023 bolt was right for me, but I test drove it and it felt only fine, not fun. There wasn't enough I liked over my 2010 Prius. Having a truck bed would open up a lot as a second car, so I know it's not exactly the same as the Bolt, but the Bolt test drive showed me a lot.

I trust it would get me from A to B, and that's enough. The repairability, safety, privacy, customizeability, compactness, and other factors are way more important to me than the driving feel.

Published service manuals on Slate U, reviewer engineering studies and teardowns (waiting on Munro's next video!), and early adopter deep-dives are more important to me than a test drive. They've talked a good talk, and the showroom prototypes look pretty (though that's not particularly important, I'd drive a Telo if it was affordable), but all that talk is still "coming soon".

I've driven dozens, maybe as many as a hundred different models over the years, and they're all fine. It doesn't need to feel like a Prius. (I've driven a Prius, and I think that's an odd baseline, to be sure, but whatever floats your boat!) My buddy's autocross-modded Miata was the most fun, but I've come to terms with the fact that no EV and no practical daily will or should achieve that kind of feel, and I don't think it needs to.

I'd learn more about my long-term ownership prospects given the opportunity to poke around with a trim removal tool for 30 minutes than the same half hour on the road in the driver's seat.

 

[cadblu]

So, for most of y'all: how do you feel about not test driving before you buy? What makes you feel ok about that?

Hopefully you watched some of the latest reviews, and for the most part they are all positive. But again, these reviews were based on prototypes so we are not judging the final product.

Eg. “The Slate does everything it was designed to do. Meets expectations. Fun and reasonably nimble. It’s toy-like looks hide a serious pickup.” And so on…

I think it’s important to align your expectations consistent with a $25k truck. If you’re expecting BMW-like performance or Mercedes luxury you may be sadly disappointed.

And finally It really comes down to your personal driving style. If you appreciate a solidly built, low cost, small purpose-built pickup then the Slate is going to impress you. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones who got to ride in one. And I must admit that I was duly impressed.

 

[whasupjohn]

I didn't drive my Jeep Wrangler before I got it. Can't see being upset -- I've driven alot of vehicles having traveled for work -- so I've driven most of the usual suspects. Unless its horrific, I'll be fine with it. I guess we will get an idea of the driving characteristics from "real people" once the prod units come out. I would suggest that there should be some demo trucks to drive wherever we'd go to pickup ours. Should be some options prior to delivery, we will have to wait and see.

 

[schpungus]

I'm good. Easily 90% of my drives will be less than 20 miles roundtrip; and of those drives, most are going to be less than 5. No plans to get rid of our Explorer, so for anything longer than 150ish miles we'll be taking that anyway.

 

[evilsaloon]

Me receiving it will be my test drive. That does make me a little nervous, but I don't think it's too big of a deal.

We as early buyers are all taking a gamble on this vehicle and company -- the obvious ones being long term reliability, maintenance, service network, etc etc. Lemon laws cover the most egregious failure modes short term, and our long term questions will all be answered as our vehicles age, whether we're happy with the answers or not. I'm happy to make that gamble, others might not be and that's fine.

The real question is: what is the test drive a proxy for? What does it do for you? You might NEED to test drive a 13 year old used car (much like I drove my '13 Escape and had the dealer fix an alignment issue before signing the paperwork) to rule out issues that might plague you in the next 6 months, where insurance won't cover a dud, but between the warranty, lemon laws, and full insurance coverage on a Brand New Car, there isn't much that can go wrong.

At most you're vibe checking your own expectations, in my mind you can't possibly intuit what the 10+ year owning experience of a car will be during a test drive (at least I can't, I've only been driving full-time for a year. If you can, I'm jealous!) My expectations are already pretty low: I'm not expecting nice cloth floors, a power tailgate, or Dolby 5.1 cinema surround sound speakers for $25k, and it's not something that I need.

I'm Russian, so owning a car is already a luxury in my mind. If it has 4 wheels, I'm pretty happy, and a test drive can't change that fact (unless the wheels fall off or something!) I guess I might need to get a lumbar support pillow for the occasional road trip, but I don't need that to come with the car.

TL;DR if the major issues are covered by the holy trinity of warranty, lemon laws, and insurance, I don't see the use of a test drive other than vibe-checking my own expectations.

 

[D’Roc]

Can this question be a Poll?
For me, as others have said, I need to have done a test drive in various environments before final payment and acceptance.

 

[solate]

Ok, poll added.

Fair points all around: Driving a reasonably priced, mass market vehicle on its own probably won't be entertaining. Warranty and Lemon Law Buybacks provide ample protection for new vehicles.

I would be very surprised if they had any test drives before launch. Maybe a road tour in larger cities/hubs where you could drive it for 5-10 minutes, but I don't see that happening with a company this size in the immediate time frame.

 

[Buffalo]

I was hoping to get a test drive in BEFORE I had to commit $300 to order the FN sometime this Fall. So, that is disappointing. I hope to at least see the FN in person before I actually order it. I'm still on the fence on my tolerance level of buying it completely sight unseen. I'm $300 in so far. It's a big country and now being August there is little time for Slate to get trucks out to the market for review by real customers before we have to order sometime in November - December.

Internet influencers are just looking for clicks, so I find their reviews useless. The auto journalists are pretty much crap now too; I mean the Car and Driver review from the New Hampshire review - good God.

I'll guess my opportunity for a review will be in DC/Northern Virginia. I hope Slate makes it an invitation-only private show for people have put up $300 to reserve an order spot, so as to keep out the riff raff. That would only be fair.

 

[Buffalo]

As I’m a old guy, what does FN mean?

 

[swami37]

My thought is @ $25k price point the ride will be what it is. I do not expect it to be the best thing I have ever driven. I am not going to over think it. IfI need luxury I will use a different vehicle.