Glossary / General

road test

13 Episode Mentions

Too Afraid to Ask

It’s a drive where the testers check how the car feels, brakes, and handles on real streets.

Technical Definition

A road test evaluates a vehicle's real-world performance, handling, and comfort on public roads.

Hear It Discussed

"There's a reason we as a repair shop, we road test every oil change. I don't know a lot of shops that do that."
Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - May 9, 2026 - Hour 1 - Why Your Car Is Quietly Burning More Gas Ron Ananian The Car Doctor 03:36

"And whenever I see cars like this, I always think, well, if it's not been designed for road use, then it'll never be in a road test because because our requirement is, [1911.8s] we have, you know,..."
BONUS: Your letters with Prior and Matt Saunders, road test editor My week in cars: the Autocar podcast 31:34

"We have this typical road test that we do, it's three miles round trip and it involves going down the road, the road curves bends, goes up and down hills, basically kind of all the stuff you want..."
The Weirdest Ram Failure We’ve Seen (Fixed) The Diesel Podcast 07:50