Test drive for potential buyers

[diro]

Hi all.
Just wonder if anyone who been selling a car with diesel engine ask a potential buyer not to to rev engine excessively? I mean up to red line or something?
Personally myself I drive a car quite gently and give revs up to 3-3.3k occasionally but never go above. I think its enough to blow exhaust to give it a good clean.
Today I was just fuming when a chap took a car for a test drive and was reving nearly to the red line on 3 and 4 th gears. That’s OK engine can handle it but I just started thinking I will not allow to do that anymore for any other potential buyers politely asking not to rev above 3-3.3k.
Its not a sports car and should be driven wisely. If they buy a car later they can do with it whatever they want.
What are your thoughts about it? Should I ask or not? I mean some may start thinking I try to hide something but reality is a car still my property. Car pulls ok and if it would go to limp mode you could not do more than 2k revs/m
Thanks for your thoughts

[cheshired5]

I'd be ok with it so long as the engine was fully warmed up and they weren't an idiot with gear changes.

[skyship007]

If the engine is fully warmed up, max RPM will not do any harm, although with older high time turbo diesels it's a good practice to keep the revs low during normal operation, as it will help increase the life expectancy of the turbo bearings.

[volvoid]

Its your property, you decide

[mantee78]

If I'm buying a car and have to check it on the test drive I'm checking everything, from idling to high revs, steady braking and harsh. I need to know what I'm buying, as this is what the car has to withstand. I know that this is a pain for an owner, especially he takes care about his car, but red field would start at 3-3.5 rpm if it would be dangerous for a car.

If owner would not allow me to fully check his car, I would just walk away to look for another one. Test drive is a "test drive" - not touristic cruising, but it's still your car, so you decide.

If I'm a seller, than I know my car's limits and then obviously inform/warn the buyer about, to not cause any serious damage to the car.

[GrahamBrown1]

As said as long as its good and warm it wont do any harm. they do exactly this at MoT time with no load on the engine which is worse to test for smoke density.

They buyer needs to test the car, there are often threads of d5s going into limp mode when revved over 3k for example which means the car has a fault. you don't want to buy a faulty car so you want to know everything is tip top. There is however a definitive line between testing the car and generally abusing it and that I would not stand.

But the car still belongs to you so as others have said its your call. if your selling it do you really care that someones going to rev it anymore. your hoping they will buy it and it wont go bang on an occasional test drive so don't worry, when it chucks a rod out they should hopefully be at least half way home haha

[volvorocks]

It is your car Diro, so you are free to do request whatever you fancy, although people may wonder why you are making such a request and you could lose a sale. I like to fully test out a car before purchase, not flog it to death, but a good workout to ensure it is suitable performance wise in all conditions.

[Billggski]

A good point, how would you react if the owner said "don't Rev it over 2,000".
You would think they had something to hide!

[Craig S]

I think it has been covered but from a personal point of view I would always be suspicious of someone who told me "you can test drive the car but you can't rev it more than X revs", in exactly the same way as I prefer to test drive a car from cold, just to know that there are no cold starting issues etc.

It would make me think that there is something wrong with the car, like a flat spot, misfire, excessive smoke, roughness etc and that the seller is trying to shift an absolute shed of a car.

Red lining it in 3rd and 4th I'd have an issue with more because of the legal side of things.....I know from my D5 red lining it in 3rd is about maximum motorway speeds, so red lining it in 4th most definitely is breaking the law by a long way.

[diro]

Thanks for your thoughts. Sad but its just the way it is when you try to sell a car.