I don't care what kind of car or truck it is. I'm not filling out a credit app just to go on a test drive. I've test driven some pretty expensive cars without ever doing that. Plus, it negatively affects your credit rating every time you fill one out. If my credit is taking a hit I had better be buying the car they're running my credit on. If that's what's required to test drive their vehicle I'm walking.
Soft inquiry is nothing to your credit, and hard pulls are so negligible that unless you're trash tier credit it's nothing anyway. Of course now, it's easy to have your own soft pull (giggity) and most banks or credit cards offer a free one routinely.
It's not expensive cars, generally, it's cars that are rare and are going to sell someone quick even if it isn't you. Double bonus if it inspires hooliganism. You can tart up an F-150 Platinum to the point it's way more expensive than two Broncos, but it's not rare. When Broncos were super constrained and dealers were at $10k ADM, you couldn't test drive one even if you had one paid for, the only exception being "mannequins" that Ford specifically provided for test drives. Dealerships would only let you drive 2-3 miles in those because they knew at the end of 6 months it was their car to sell and it'd still be worth thousands over MSRP, people were lined up to buy it, and they wanted to keep the miles off it. Any dealer will toss you the keys to the more expensive, but more common F-150. I drove several Raptors on test drives...but only one Bronco. Of course the market has turned now, so the Bronco isn't the example it was a few years ago.
Ford made maybe 4,000 Lightnings a year and they had no problem selling them, so that's why I'm saying it's not a sign of a bad dealer in that case. It's a rare vehicle that is going to command a premium, that the buyer will not want a bunch of test drive miles on, and that inspires hooliganism. I'd not be shocked if a dealer didn't want an agreed upon price, with the condition you like the test drive, before letting you drive one. Saw that on higher trim Corvettes and ZL1 Camaros a few times, and I was in the position to simply write a check for it so nothing to do with credit or ability to buy, and I pulled onto the lot in one, so no concern I couldn't drive one etc. Just making sure I wasn't a looky-loo. I told him I couldn't talk price because I didn't know how much I would value the newer one over what I had and that, frankly, I may like it less than what I had and at that point price wouldn't matter. I was not the buyer they were looking for, but they still sold it within 48 hours...and likely for way more than I would have went.