[masraum]

I've heard of folks buying cars directly over the Internet, not even having seen the thing in person. I've also heard of folks (here on the board) buying a particular car without a test drive. I've never done either. And most of my test drives are short, but once I'm almost definitely buying a vehicle, I take it on a longish test drive (but still probably only 20-50 miles). I can generally tell what I think about a vehicle in that time, although as you discovered, some things you are likely to only notice once familiarity has set in.

When we test drove the wife's Outback, we probably had the car for 2-4 hours. I think I went and drove it a bit. Then they let me leave with it and go take the wife on a drive. I think I took it back a few hours later.

I haven't ever done it, but I have heard of folks test driving a car for 24-48 hours. I even know someone that once test drove a car for a week (more than once at multiple dealers). I don't know if you could get away with that these days or if it takes a special person to get away with it.