[07CR]

Voted NO. And I would like to clarify won't buy a Honda car, whether demo or brand new.

I feel for you. And this is not just a Lemon case.

Honda's QC has degraded quite seriously and I am saying this basis personal experience. Our Amaze 2013-2020, had no issues in engine department, but a lot of issues almost everywhere.

[tazmaan]

Voted yes.

But only if the car is throughly checked along with several test drives and service history. Its like buying a used car and like GTO said a 10000 kms driven demo car is to be assumed as 50000 kms driven used car. The main advantage here is the car will be in warranty for a long period. Also I would pick the Japanese as a demo car over the Germans. My brother bought the Isuzu V-cross automatic via this route and there are no regrets.

I feel OP bought this car without due diligence or has limited knowledge of cars. There are enough visual clues (Even when not rusted) like the front weld points near the fenders.

For the people who have limited car knowledge the route of demo cars or even used cars is a like playing roulette.

Here I also feel even though the buyer has bought a lemon the car is under warranty and no matter what Honda has to honor warranty claims. Even if it was damaged by accident or floods the work was done by Honda dealer. If repairs were done off the record onus is on Honda to prove that and again it puts Honda dealer at fault. Either ways warranty has to be honored.

I suggest the owner should either be willing to put up a fight with Honda and get it fixed or should just sell the car and move on. We all make mistakes and here in India buying a new car also does not guarantee a good piece.

[qr20de]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

This is life, we all make mistakes, and learn from it.
You were tricked into buying a LEMON.
Sell it and move on.
All the best.

Short and sweet. The best solution. If however your friend is not inclined to do this, ask him to park the car outside the dealership main entrance and go back home with the keys.

Force them to address the problem

[shamanth]

Rusting shows that car had major accidents, with shoddy repair patch work, which is opening up within few days.

Sell it in cars24 or used car dealer even for a loss of 2-3 lakhs and have peace of mind. It wont be easy to sell to genuine individual buyer with so many issues.

[Miel]

That Amaze has been heavily abused. Period!

What all has the dealership covered under the extended warranty? Looks like the car needs a lot of patch work and painting, and an expensive AC repair.

I would ask this owner to not wait around for far serious mechanical problems to arise. Limit your losses and get rid of the car - Right Away!

[MOUNTAINMAN]

Originally Posted by Sanidhya mukund

Going by the sales contract, he paid 8.5 lakhs for it. According to Carwale, the onroad price for this Amaze model is 10.65 lakhs, so that translates to a discount of roughly 2.15 Lakhs.

Voted NO. Demo cars are prone to rough use and accidents, besides their service center also adds up as a ''in-house cover-up facility'' to hide all the problems.

The discount (20%) doesn't look lucrative to me for a 2 year old DEMO car. I would expect more than 10% depreciation per annum in the initial years on a well maintained privately owned car.

[vishwasvr]

I've been once bitten twice shy. One of my purchases was a demo vehicle and overall the vehicle was decent. But that feeling of something going wrong was omnipresent. I'd rather pay that extra money and get a brand new one.

[McLaren Rulez]

The poll doesn't make much sense as phrased now. Without knowing the discount, one cannot answer.

Demo car with 10% off, maybe not. Demo car with 30% off, absolutely! If you know your way around a basic PDI, you can land a damn good deal. The only issue here is that a PDI was perhaps not done as carefully as one should, even for a non-demo car.

[RavSam]

Having worked at a dealership before and knowing what the demo test drive car goes through I wouldn't even go anywhere near it. Sometimes demo Cars are so badly treated that the potential customer rejects the car based on TD. They also think that this car might not last as long when they see the rattles and all.

Display cars are second in the list. Never ever wait for your car delivery when you know it has arrived at the dealership. Changes are that the walk-in customers would be checking out your car when it's there as a display (but non TD car).

[Comrade]

Never buy used rental and dealer-owned cars at all cost. They are lower priced than private-owned used cars for a reason.

In this case, I would suggest OP to just sell the car and move on. This is a costly mistake but dealer will not fix all the problems highlighted.

[crdi]

Originally Posted by Vinod_nair

This is life, we all make mistakes, and learn from it.
You were tricked into buying a LEMON.
Sell it and move on.
All the best.

And please don't be crestfallen by this fact. Everyone gets tricked in their lives. There's at least a saving grace here that it was a known demo/td car and that it wasn't passed on as new old stock or under some other pretext.

[Ravi Parwan]

I voted yes.

Even though my family does not even let me talk about a second hand car, I wish to buy a thoroughly researched and verified car at a sweet discount.

I have had 2 cars in my extended family which were demo cars bought and used for a couple of years. while I never got involved in the maintenance and servicing of the cars, I do recall that they were largely trouble-free.

When buying a demo car, keep in mind that it is still a second hand car. I agree with BHPian Mclaren Rules that the discount on the car has to be substantial for it to make sense, given the lack of empathy with which demo cars are "ab-used".

Thanks to BHPian Sanidhya Mukund for his detective work on the price for the car. Going by his calculations the team-BHP fan who bought the car paid almost 80% of the "present" car value after 2 years. keep in mind that the price of the car must have been revised in the preceding 2 years but at least 50K (only my opinion - not based by hard facts). A 2 year old car should have been depreciated by at least 30% from a single owner seller. More for a demo car. So the buyer ended up paying almost 85-90% of the price of a new car for a 2 year old car which was abused pretty badly.

As many other members have pointed out, the other mistake he made was buying the car without a PDI, trusting the dealer. This car, due to the mistreatment meted out during its short life span, has become a lemon. the rusting issues treatment will be very expensive and if Honda or the dealer do not honor the trust of the buyer, he should approach the consumer courts for redressal.

I would call his experience an expensive lesson in buying a preowned car. Buying a preowned car is a gamble. if you can get a good deal from the dealership and do your due diligence in inspection, you can end up with a preowned car backed by the manufacturers warranty (for what it is worth) at a tasty discount.

Given the way things are happening in our auto industry, I won't be surprised to see even new car owners going through similar (if not as horrendous) experiences at the hands of the dealers and the manufacturers.

[a_myth]

My suggestion would be to stay away from car models which are most popular, say for example the Swift, Baleno, Nexon, Brezza, etc. These vehicles are test driven by all kinds of people and are generally abused the most.

My friend had shortlisted a Ciaz demo vehicle which was up for sale with a discount of almost 2 lakhs. The vehicle was only driven about 5k kms and was in immaculate condition. I made enquirers with another personal friend working at the dealership who confirmed that the vehicle was in great condition. My friend went ahead with the deal. I see the car frequently, and its in brand new condition till date. No issues.

[PrasannaDhana]

Voted No

I would rather wait for a year or two, save up and buy a brand new car or if I desperately need a car, I would buy a pre-owned car from someone I know or from a mutual friend who can be trusted.

Dealership cars are treated like sh*t. I was offered a very healthy discount 5 years ago on a display car, which wasn't used as a test drive car.

I could just not find value in the discount when the thought of a hundred hands opening the doors, fiddling the interiors/ac vents, controls etc overshadowed any financial gain I was looking at.

[hdman]

Thanks for this post. I might have considered getting a demo car before reading this, but this is a perfect example of what can go wrong.

Hope the owner gets a resolution from Honda on this - this isn’t fair.