I also had a Julia Roberts moment. Having had a car crash (not my fault and mercifully nobody hurt), my car had been written off. Had been saving to replace it anyway, as I was doing a lot of home visits that involved muddy lanes and needed a 4x4. Went into the show-room of a well-known brand of 4x4 in my Saturday morning clobber (jeans, t-shirt, anorak) with quite a lot of money in my pocket for a cash purchase (well, not literally) and looked round the cars on display. One caught my eye, and I requested a test drive. The salesman looked me up and down and said that wasn’t possible. Not sure to this day if that was snobbishness or sexism.Stung though. Ended up buying a brand new 4x4 at another garage. Told my then bf, now my husband, and we decided to go in together, a bit more dressed up, and look at that car again. The salesman fawned over us and volunteered the offer of a test drive to my bf. Which was when we said, no we’ll buy elsewhere, thanks. Bit childish, I suppose.
But then, it might have been a man thing. Had previously gone in a showroom with my male trainee (he didn’t even have a driving licence then) after work in a neighbouring town when I was driving the courtesy car after the crash. Looked at one vehicle, and the salesman spent the whole time talking to my trainee about the car, even referring to me as the “little lady” (I’m 14 stone!), even though I was the one looking for a car!