Somebody you met online two days ago is in your driving seat, adjusting the mirror, about to pull into traffic in a car registered to you. That is a test drive. Sellers agree to them without thinking, because refusing feels rude and because a private buyer will rarely commit without one.
The rudeness is not the problem. The problem is that for the next twenty minutes your name is attached to everything that happens. If you are still weighing up whether to sell privately at all, the guide to a private sale, a dealer or a buyer service sets the routes side by side. What follows is only about the drive itself.
Who is insured while a stranger drives
Your policy is. Third party liability cover in the Netherlands attaches to the registered vehicle, so it does not stop working because somebody else is holding the wheel.
The obligation sits with whoever has the car in their name. The Rijksoverheid page on what to arrange when you buy a car states that once the number plate (kenteken) has been transferred into your name you must take out third party liability cover under the Motor Insurance Liability Act (Wet aansprakelijkheidsverzekering motorrijtuigen, or Wam). The government business portal describes what that cover does on its page about vehicle insurance in the Netherlands: it compensates damage you cause to others with your vehicle, and it does not cover damage to your own vehicle.
Read that second half again. Somebody scrapes your wing against a bollard and the other party is looked after by your insurer. Your own wing is a question for your own cover.
The part your own policy decides
Whether a prospective buyer may drive your car at all is written in your policy, and policies differ.
The Consumentenbond, writing about lending your car, puts the outcome bluntly in its own subheading: the owner of the car carries the damage. What it costs you depends on the cover you bought, and the advice is to make clear arrangements before the keys change hands. Some policies name the policyholder and nobody else, some allow any driver who has permission, and plenty apply a higher excess for a young driver, which a buyer in their early twenties will trigger.
None of that can be settled by an article. It is one phone call to your insurer, and the questions are at the end of this one.
What to check before you hand over the keys
Four things, and then you get in the car too.
Ask for the driving licence and actually look at it, at the photograph and the expiry date, and hold it long enough to read the name. Photograph it with your phone, or photograph the front of the licence next to the person. A buyer who objects to that has told you something useful about the next twenty minutes.
Second, sit in the passenger seat. Every time. A test drive with you in it is a test drive you can end.
Third, pick the route yourself and keep it ordinary: a few streets, a stretch of dual carriageway if the buyer wants to hear the engine, back again. You are not obliged to agree to an hour on the motorway, and you are not obliged to let the car go off alone to a friend or a garage.
Fourth, take the registration card out of the glovebox and put it in your pocket, along with the registration code (tenaamstellingscode) if you keep the papers together. There is no reason for either of them to be in the car during a viewing.
The excess, and what a claim costs afterwards
Suppose it goes wrong in the dullest way, a kerbed wheel or a scraped bumper. You have two bills, and only one of them is the repair.
The first is the excess (eigen risico), the slice of any claim you carry yourself, which is set in your policy and applies whoever was driving. The second is what a claim does to your claim-free years (schadevrije jaren) and therefore your premium at renewal. On a small knock, sellers often find the claim costs more over the following years than paying the body shop directly would have.
You can ask the buyer to pay. Nothing makes them. Writing down before the drive that any damage during it is theirs to settle will not bind an insurer, and it will not produce money from somebody who has none, but it does set the expectation out loud.
The Consumentenbond’s advice about lending a car applies exactly here: agree it in advance.
When the car does not come back
The uglier version is the one where the car simply drives away and keeps going.
Report it straight away, by telephone. A dedicated reporting desk for stolen vehicles is described on the RDW page about vehicle crime, reachable around the clock, and the page says plainly why delay matters: the shorter the time between the theft and the report, the greater the chance of finding the vehicle. Tell your insurer the same day. Then be realistic about what is covered. The Consumentenbond notes on its page about a stolen car that a payout is not automatic after a theft: it depends on the cover you hold and on the security requirements the insurer sets for the car. Third party cover alone pays for damage to others, so a car that disappears is a matter for a casco policy.
A car handed over willingly is not the same event as a car taken from a car park, and some insurers treat the two differently in their conditions. Ask yours. This is also why the registration card belongs in your pocket: a car that leaves with its papers inside is worth more to whoever takes it, and insurers ask for the documents when they settle a theft claim.
The car is also still in your name, and the Belastingdienst page on road tax (motorrijtuigenbelasting) says the liability follows the registration whether the vehicle is on the road or standing still. So the tax keeps being charged to you while the car is missing. Report it, then ask the RDW and the Belastingdienst what the theft report means for the registration and the bill.
Questions to put to your insurer in one call
Have the policy number in front of you and ask these, in this order. Who is permitted to drive this car under my policy. Does a person test driving the car with a view to buying it count. What excess applies if a driver who is not named on the policy has an accident. Is there a surcharge or an exclusion for a young driver. What is covered if the car is taken away during a viewing and does not come back. Write the answers down with the date and the name of the person who gave them.
If a test drive with a stranger is the part of selling privately you would rather avoid, that is a sensible reason to sell to a buyer. We quote on a number plate and a mileage, and the only person who drives your car is the one who collects it. Ask us for an offer and see what the figure looks like.
Frequently asked questions
Is my insurance valid if someone else drives my car on a test drive?
The third party cover required by the Wam belongs to the vehicle, so it keeps working. Whether your own damage is covered, and on what excess, is a matter for your policy conditions, and some policies restrict who may drive. Check before you agree to the drive.
Can I ask the buyer to sign something before the test drive?
You can, and it is worth doing. Note the date, the number plate, the buyer’s name and licence number, and that any damage during the drive is theirs to settle. It will not change what your insurer pays, and it does make the conversation afterwards shorter.
Should I let a buyer take the car to a garage on their own?
No. If they want an independent inspection, drive the car there yourself and wait, or agree a garage near you and go together. A car that leaves without you is a car you are relying on goodwill to get back.
What if the buyer has a foreign driving licence?
Look at it and note the number. Whether it is valid for driving here depends on the issuing country and how long the holder has lived in the Netherlands, so if you cannot establish that on the doorstep, do not hand over the keys.
Does a test drive affect my claim-free years if something happens?
A claim on your policy is a claim on your policy, whoever was driving. That is the quiet cost of a test drive that goes wrong, and a fair reason to keep the drive short.