Test drive in Toronto and North America
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On my list of questions
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Sure. I will provide my 2 cents after the test drive. Mine is on Nov 12th. I highly doubt they are production units because test drive is only in the parking lot.
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I got a chance to drive the car in the parking lot for like few mins. I don't think I can give any review on driving experience because of how short the drive was. But it was a quiet cabin and lot of soft touch material.
Information I got from the sale rep : There will be approximately around 150 pre configured VF8 cars coming to Canada next month sometime. Vinfast agents will contact Vinfirst members soon who ordered to let them know which cars are available and their configuration. If we like the configuration we can confirm the order and get the deliveries in Dec else we can customize the car with all the options which we want and wait for a month or two to get the delivery.
Information I got from the sale rep : There will be approximately around 150 pre configured VF8 cars coming to Canada next month sometime. Vinfast agents will contact Vinfirst members soon who ordered to let them know which cars are available and their configuration. If we like the configuration we can confirm the order and get the deliveries in Dec else we can customize the car with all the options which we want and wait for a month or two to get the delivery.
Thank you for the info!
When I saw the video from one reviewer and how the pylons where placed (a very short, narrow and curvy track with almost no possibility for acceleration and speed) I instantly knew for myself that I would never call this a test drive. A good opportunity to get in touch with the vehicle and to get a feeling of the dimensions and the inside atmosphere but nothing valuable for driving experience imo. Also no chance to see how the battery behaves regarding range and charging. No testing of navigation capabilities and ADAS as well. Furthermore they obviously showed up with pre production vehicles (at least the one in the video).
To add to this, I asked some questions during my time there today:
When will more information for US customers be available?
Couldn't speak to the US market.
What's happening with the safety ratings?
No information yet.
Information on government rebate program?
Working on it.
Battery subscription options for reservations before Sept 1st?
Anything before that date will be honored price wise (if you choose to go that route).
leasing financing options
RBC confirmed and will provide more info when it comes time to handle that aspect of the order
when does the order system become active?
End of December (4 weeks)
are the test drive vehicles production vehicles?
Pre production
What audio system do you offer?
In house (no details given)
What company are you partnered with for the free charging?
Charge hub (umbrella of companies)
The sales reps I spoke to weren't exactly knowledgable, one person said they had just started working there the day before, but I'll forgive that as we are all learning. The regional sales rep was there and very friendly.
As a side note: the experience was cool. They offered us Vietnamese coffee, pens and places to sit and discuss the cars. The VF9 is huge, but wasn't happy with the trunk size and the pop out door handles suck IMO, I'm happy with the VF8 choice.
I agree with the OP, I wouldn't call it a test drive and was told they couldn't do it on real roads because of the safety or something along those lines. If I had to make a decision to purchase based solely on that drive I wouldn't be able to.
When will more information for US customers be available?
Couldn't speak to the US market.
What's happening with the safety ratings?
No information yet.
Information on government rebate program?
Working on it.
Battery subscription options for reservations before Sept 1st?
Anything before that date will be honored price wise (if you choose to go that route).
leasing financing options
RBC confirmed and will provide more info when it comes time to handle that aspect of the order
when does the order system become active?
End of December (4 weeks)
are the test drive vehicles production vehicles?
Pre production
What audio system do you offer?
In house (no details given)
What company are you partnered with for the free charging?
Charge hub (umbrella of companies)
The sales reps I spoke to weren't exactly knowledgable, one person said they had just started working there the day before, but I'll forgive that as we are all learning. The regional sales rep was there and very friendly.
As a side note: the experience was cool. They offered us Vietnamese coffee, pens and places to sit and discuss the cars. The VF9 is huge, but wasn't happy with the trunk size and the pop out door handles suck IMO, I'm happy with the VF8 choice.
I agree with the OP, I wouldn't call it a test drive and was told they couldn't do it on real roads because of the safety or something along those lines. If I had to make a decision to purchase based solely on that drive I wouldn't be able to.
It can be done but it was awkward lol. Kids will have problems with it. My wife complained that because the door was heavy the handle isn't intuitive. Like a random walking to your door might not know what to do. Again it was a pre production so maybe they'll do something different.. also, not sure how they'll handle the cold winters up here.
I loved the information here. Thank you
in the configurator it shows as large of a trunk as our atlas. Is this kinda what you saw?
because it is definitely not a suburban or an expedition but still plenty of room for a haul from Costco. And with the little room in the front trunk I am going to say I am okay with it. If this is what it actually looks like.
Yeah, that's basically it. Fold down the 3rd row of seats and you'll obviously have much more room. I didn't actually open the frunk in the VF9 as there were people all over the vehicle (a few families were going over it, and from what I could see they seemed to be happy with the size and vehicle overall). We love Costo hauls as well, but as it's just 2 of us the VF8 is perfect, I would say I'm bias bc of that point.
VF8 trunk
VF8 Frunk
I found a photo someone posted in one of the FB groups:
VF9 Trunk (Credit to Nirmal Srinivasan on Facebook).
The VF9 Frunk appears to be the same size as the VF8 Frunk (Credit to Nirmal Srinivasan on Facebook).
Yup. The actual retail location opens tomorrow and potential buyers will be able to test drive there as well, although as you said above, they won't be able to really drive it the way it should be test driven. I would have liked to see them use a location like, perhaps Downsview Park, which would have had much more room to do a closed test drive than Yorkdale, which is packed AF on weekends.
For me the trunks of both (VF8 and VF9) are absolutely ok and I think roughly the same size like other SUVs that are comparable to them. So the trunk size is what I expected. The frunk is a bit different: given the front size of both vehicles compared to others the frunk seems to be a bit underwhelming and to cluttered with a lot of corners so that its more suitable for a few smaller things rather than one bigger piece of luggage or whatever. But maybe it’s because of the perspective of the pictures and it’s bigger in real life than I think it is.
Also, keep in mind the models were 'pre-production'. We opened the fuse port for example and you could see things weren't neatly placed in there. There's a chance that things will look different by the time we actually have post-production models to review.
1000%. Despite the quick test drive I was really impressed. It definitely sold me on the VF8.
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