I’ve been telling people for decades that you should never buy a vehicle without taking a meaningful test drive. Not around the block, either. Get it on the highway, drive it on rough pavement, park it, back it up, make sure you can get in and out comfortably, and spend enough time behind the wheel to determine whether you can actually live with it.
But there is one test drive almost nobody takes, and I think it has become increasingly important: Drive the vehicle after dark.
Think about how we buy cars. We usually visit a dealership during the day. We walk around the vehicle in bright sunlight, admire the paint, sit inside, take a test drive and look at all the technology. Everything seems great.
Then we buy it, drive home one night and discover we're seeing an entirely different automobile.
Today's vehicles have tremendous variations in nighttime visibility. Headlight designs are different. Automatic high-beam systems behave differently. Some vehicles illuminate the road beautifully while others may leave you wishing for more light. Interior lighting varies enormously, too, and today's giant infotainment screens can look completely different at 10 p.m. than they did at 2 in the afternoon.
None of this shows up very well on a daytime test drive.
Headlights would be the first thing I'd evaluate. This is especially important as we get older. Our eyes simply don't perform at night the way they once did, and that change happens gradually enough that we may not realize how much difference good headlights can make.
Don't just turn them on while the vehicle is parked. Drive with them.
How far down the road can you see? Is the light evenly distributed, or are there dark areas? How well can you see the shoulder of the road where a pedestrian, bicyclist, animal or disabled vehicle could be? Do the low beams give you enough confidence at highway speeds?
Try the high beams, too. If the vehicle has automatic high beams, see how they work. Some systems impress me with how quickly they respond to oncoming traffic and vehicles ahead. Others can make you want to turn the feature off.
If the vehicle has adaptive headlights or some other advanced lighting technology, this is your chance to determine whether you actually appreciate the feature instead of merely admiring it on the window sticker.
Next, pay attention to the interior.
Modern dashboards can be beautiful at night. Digital instrument clusters, ambient lighting and large center displays can make the inside of a new vehicle look like an airplane cockpit.
That doesn't necessarily mean you'll like driving it.
Can you dim everything enough? That's a big one for me. A bright display that's gorgeous in the showroom can become distracting on a dark highway. Find the dimmer controls and use them. Don't assume you'll figure it out later.
Look at the instrument cluster. Can you read the speedometer and other important information instantly without taking your attention away from the road? If there's a head-up display, is it helpful or distracting? Can its brightness and position be adjusted to suit you?
Then start operating the things you use regularly.
Change the temperature. Adjust the fan speed. Turn on the heated or ventilated seats. Find the rear-window defroster. Change the radio station. Turn on the windshield wipers.
Can you do those things easily in the dark?
This is where the movement toward touchscreen controls really becomes noticeable. A physical knob or button can often be located by feel without looking away from the road. A touchscreen generally requires you to look at it. If basic functions are buried two or three menus deep, I want to know that before I own the vehicle.
The same goes for steering-wheel controls. Are they illuminated? Are the symbols easy to understand? Can you distinguish one switch from another without staring at the steering wheel?
Now put the vehicle in reverse.
Backup cameras can vary dramatically after dark. A camera that looks crystal clear in daylight may become grainy or washed out at night. Check the rear camera and, if equipped, the 360-degree camera system in a poorly lit area. See whether the image actually helps you identify objects around the vehicle.
Mirrors matter, too. Evaluate the outside mirrors and the rearview mirror with headlights behind you. If the vehicle has an automatic-dimming mirror, see how it performs. If it uses a camera-based digital rearview mirror, make sure your eyes adjust comfortably to it. Some people absolutely love digital mirrors. Others don't.
Here's another test I would perform: drive through a dark residential area and then into a brightly illuminated commercial area. Your eyes have to adapt to changing conditions in real-world driving, and that's when glare, reflections and overly bright displays can become much more apparent.
If you regularly drive rural roads, find one. If most of your nighttime driving is on an interstate, get on the interstate. As I always say about test drives, duplicate the driving you actually do.
And if you're buying a vehicle for your spouse, both of you should drive it at night.
This becomes particularly important if one driver has more difficulty seeing after dark than the other. What looks perfectly acceptable to you may not look acceptable at all from the other side of the windshield.
I realize taking a nighttime test drive isn't always convenient. You may be shopping on a Saturday morning or trying to complete a purchase during daylight hours. If you're seriously considering a particular vehicle, however, I think it's worth making another trip to the dealership.
You're probably going to own this vehicle for years. Spending another 30 minutes evaluating it under completely different conditions isn't asking too much.
We spend an incredible amount of time comparing horsepower, fuel economy, towing capacity, safety features, resale value and monthly payments. Those things matter.
But if you routinely leave for work before sunrise, drive home after dark, take road trips at night or simply find nighttime driving more difficult than you once did, there is another specification that matters just as much:
How well can you see?
If you use a Car Pro Dealer, or if you use a good, caring dealership, ask to take an overnight test drive. Most will agree and that gives you time to evaluate more carefully, see how the vehicle fits in the garage, and how it feels after the sun goes down.
The vehicle that looked perfect sitting on the showroom floor at noon may feel very different on a dark highway at 10 o'clock.
Find that out before you sign the papers.
Not after.