My husband and I are shopping for a new car — now that we have two kids, it’s time to give up my trusty Honda Accord and get something a little bigger to accommodate our growing family. We’ve assessed what we like and done our research — narrowing it down to the Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot.
I’d never driven either, and I’ll be the one driving this new baby the majority of the time so I wanted to be sure to try them out before I made my final decision. However…the idea of giving up one of our precious Saturdays to drag both kids down to a nearby dealership for a couple of hours sounded like complete torture — that is, until my husband came home from work one day raving about a new local start up called Tred.
Tred Test Drive: They Bring The Best Deal To You
Basically, Tred is a company that makes new car shopping fun and easy. You comparison shop for cars on their website, choosing everything you want in your new car right down to features and colors. They’ll give you guaranteed car and trade-in pricing from local dealerships without you ever having to so much as call a dealer.
Then — here’s the BEST part — they deliver that exact car right to your doorstep. You pick where you’d like your Tred test drive to happen and they bring you the vehicle. There is no obligation to buy and the purchase is made at the dealership, not directly from Tred.
Tred Test Drive: We wanted to try a white 2014 Honda Pilot with leather interior — so last Saturday, that’s what showed up in my driveway.
Tred: Car Test Drives For The Whole Family
Our Tred driver, Keoni, helped us load two car seats into the back seat and accompanied us on our test drive — you get to go up to 15 miles, which is far enough for us to get from our house out to the freeway, down a few exits and back. I loved being able to try it out on surface and highway streets, and when we got back we could even drive it into our garage to make sure the bigger sized vehicle fit. That’s not something you can do at the dealer.
Plus, Tred employs college-educated “experts” to deliver the cars and all have some industry experience. The Seattle start-up is financially backed by former General Motors chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, but is all that enough to get people to use the service? For me, yes! Our test drive was done in 30 minutes, start to finish. No messing up nap time schedules, no cranky kids whining at me (my three-year-old thought the whole thing was totally exciting), and no dealing with salespeople. We’ve had a few local dealerships follow up with us since then, but even that has been pretty hassle-free.
I can’t recommend this enough — if you have kids, this is hands-down the best way to shop for a new car, and no this isn’t a sponsored post. I just loved the service and thought I’d let you know about it too. Tred is only available in Seattle for now, but I hear they’re expanding and could be coming to other cities soon. Great news, too — it looks like they’re running a special right now where you can get your first car delivery for free with the promo code “JUNESPECIAL” (the regular fee is $19). Check it out and book yours today, or follow along on Twitter and Facebook.
Thanks for a great test drive, Tred! Can’t wait to get my new wheels.
This is a great idea. Thank you for sharing.
I have absolutely no time to drive to a car dealership and it would cost about $19 in gas so this is a win-win.
Oooo what a cool idea! I love that car too btw.
What a fun way to shop for a new car! That is so cool that they deliver the same car you pick out right to your house to test drive, and that Honda Pilot is so pretty!
I never heard of anything like that around here-it would be worth the 19.00 just to NOT go to a dealership and hassle with the salespeople!
That’s easy-peasy. I love Honda’s. I have a Honda. Thanks for the info.
Now that is just awesome. I think we need something like that here in Boston!
I think that is awesome! everyone hates going to the dealerships because of the run around.. this makes things a little easier that you already know the type and features you want.. just go in and deal..
What a great concept for those in the car market. Will be sharing this to others. Nicely done!
That sounds awesome! We are looking for a new car too. We have lived with one car for 8 YEARS!
Nice! My brother-in-law just bought a new car, otherwise I would totally pass this along to him. I love the idea!
I only have 1 kid but boy, I could use a big car like that. When we travel we basically carry the whole house with us, and by that I mean my daughter’s stuff.
That sounds awesome! I’d be more willing to test drive that way, than go to a dealership and have someone pressure me into buying a car.
The passenger seats look roomy! Looks like you have some great choices there. We recently purchased a 2014 Dodge Journey with optional third row seating. I’m looking forward to using it when my kids are old enough for booster seats and we can ditch the car seats!