[Fiestaboy]

As I work in car industry, I see that this is typically a customer sentiment in India (to a higher extent than other countries) & across the globe as well.

Coming to my Organization, irrespective of the rationale with which these vehicles are driven, we never give dealer the option to reset the odo to Zero.
However, the extensive check done on the car in plants (random checks) will be acknowledged by Management & a signed letter will be handed over to the customer to make him aware that his/her vehicle has gone few additional quality checks & hence little bit higher odo.
For these reasons, I love my organization & believe me or not, this has an impact in my personal habits too to follow utmost transparency.

[madrasilemon]

Back in 2016 my Bolero was delivered with 900 km on odo and 55ps on the four tyres. Upon my query, the salesperson told that the vehicle was driven down from factory. Wonder how much mahindra cares about road safety by allowing insane air pressure while driven down the highway for the sake of km pl. Anyways, those bridge stone duelers lasted 86k and was sold on olx to a force traveller operator.

[kar_thikr]

When I took delivery of my Wagon R back in 2005, it had 89km on the ODO, when we asked SA about it, he told us that its the distance from the main stockyard, and we were fine with it. Later, I started to notice whenever we are traveling on that route at night, these non-registered cars will come flying behind us, they wouldn't slow down for any speed humps or even large potholes to a point we would feel sad for those cars. These deliveries were made with zero regards to the run-in procedures stipulated by the manufacturers , So each time I see such cars, I'll think that my car was once one among these.

When I took delivery of my Swift back in 2012, I made sure that the ODO read less than 15 km, as there is a new stockyard near our town.

Later during my college days, I had the chance to be one of those guys who did the cruel delivery drive, as these showrooms will pay part-time workers, especially college students to deliver these cars in a 100 km radius from the main showroom/stockyard. The payment was done per delivery, So no wonder they drove like that. This was the same for cars and bikes as well.

[PratyushJaya]

Okay, so what to do if the initial odometer reading is very high?
I already paid for the vehicle and got all the paperwork done.

[Raghu M]

I think no matter how particular we are about the odo reading, we must understand that it can be tampered with at the yard. I am not sure if my car which had a reading of 12 kms, was not driven by any other person apart from the dealership employees. It could have even gone for a test drive or two. But since we have the VIN and other details, it's always good to take a latest car. The more time the vehicle has spent in the yard, the higher the chances of it being used for test drives or other purposes.

A good PDI and a little offline chat with the SAs will yield a lot of information. For me my car shouldn't have been driven for more than 50 kms, that is the acceptable limit.

[BhaskarG]

Anything under 100 is OK provided the dealer can explain it. My first car had a reading of 15 kms and my second had around 70.

Here is something interesting: Sometime back, when I requested TD of a Brezza AT for my friend&neighbour, the dealership brought a new car to our apartment. I was reluctant to drive when i saw a new car, not a TD vehicle. What made my eyes pop out was when I saw the odo: 450kms. "Are you going to sell this to someone?" I asked. "Happens with AT cars, Sir", the SA said, "We do not have AT cars as a test drive vehicle because of low demand."

Then I remembered. I had bought my second car at 70kms, and it was the same car that I had taken TD in. It was an automatic.

But 450? Seriously?

[naj]

Hello ,
In 2016 when I got the Mitsubishi Outlander GT V6 in the US it had 5 miles on the odo.
When asked the SE said these have been directly imported from Japan and dont need to be tested as much .
Pretty amazed then and surely the Crossover performed flawlessly ever since Thanks - NAJ

[RMN]

Has to be below 50km for me. Anything over that raises my eyebrow. They could have used the vehicle for a joy ride or as a TD vehicle.

If there is a genuine reason such as the yard being a bit far away, I tell them that either Ill drive it down from the yard or at least accompany them. If they say that the customer cannot be seen sitting in an unregistered vehicle, I offer to drive along


When I purchased my Freestyle in 2018, they arranged the variant and I color I need from another district (Trivandrum). I expected them to have transported on the trailer. Luckily, I inspected the car before they invoiced it and saw 250km on the odo! Thats a used car not a new car. Turns out they drove the car from Trivandrum to Cochin! The roads back then were at the worst condition and I outright declined the vehicle. They eventually got me one that had less than 60km on the odo.

[Big_Turbo]

Originally Posted by Fiestaboy

Coming to my Organization, irrespective of the rationale with which these vehicles are driven, we never give dealer the option to reset the odo to Zero.
However, the extensive check done on the car in plants (random checks) will be acknowledged by Management & a signed letter will be handed over to the customer to make him aware that his/her vehicle has gone few additional quality checks & hence little bit higher odo.

Yes I agree with You. I don't think manufacturers give dealers that option anymore( not sure if this is a govt. directive)
The customer could be happy if his car is delivered from the plant with 20-30 km as this could be some sort of random quality inspection!

[arjab]

Pre delivery odometer readings used to be highly suspect even till 5 years back.

After the introduction of the VAHAN portal which offers dealer registration of new vehicles, where the dealer uploads the new vehicle details through their respective VAHAN login, the number of commutes undertaken by a new vehicle to and from the dealership to the RTO has lessened.
Also not all manufacturers have restricted dealers to resetting the odometers. Most odometers can be reset till 250-300 kms, (depends on the OEM), and dealerships particularly in rural areas take advantage of this.
And finally, the age hold act of simply unplugging the odo cable from behind the gearbox still remains, so that no accrued mileage is recorded.
With the advent of electronic VSS, (Vehicle Speed Sensors), the work is even simpler. One just uncouples the connector on top of the VSS and can merrily give test drives. It'll just flash the "check engine light" but the vehicle will be driveable.

I still feel the best way to "understand" how much your "new car" has been "used" is to do a physical, visual inspection of the vehicle model & unit you intend to buy.
Things like:
Is the engine bay mucky?
Do you see scratches under the sills?
Pedal rubbers scuffed perhaps?
Alloys and tyre sidewalls bearing battle scars?
Bumper to body alignment iffy with light scratches?
Any colour mismatch on any body panels?

Finally, drive the vehicle. Any abnormal shudders from the driveline? Is the AC working proper? Keep your "nose" open too : smells of spilt and leaking lubes or fuel are a potential giveaway towards abusive usage!

In short, stick to the old adage of "seeing is believing" !

[kamilharis]

I don't recall how much was the ODO reading on my car while taking the delivery from the showroom, but I would be okay with anything between 0-50km.

50+km would be a stretch but I might still accept it if the sales team could convince me with the details or keep me pre-informed.

[hisimbaness]

Hello everyone. I am in a fix and need some advice.

Tomorrow is scheduled delivery of my car. Last three days the trolley was stuck at some place 350KM from my hometown. Showroom kept on telling me that car will be here in time. Now today they inform me that the trolley broke down and hence their drivers will drive down the car for remaining 350KMs. Should I still buy it?

[khanwasif1]

Normally if there is a mishap during the way from factory gate to Dealership premise, it usually gets delivered in another truck from the location of mishap. You need to be doubly sure and validate it if it actually gets driven from the location with proper documents.
Another aspect to check is.... of the likely damages that may have occurred onto car body if the truck/trolley broke down because of accident or just it was just a mechanical failure and car had to be de-boarded and driven by self from that place. Get them validated.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by hisimbaness

Now today they inform me that the trolley broke down and hence their drivers will drive down the car for remaining 350KMs. Should I still buy it?

We have no clue how it will be driven by the driver, it’s not a short distance either. Please make it very clear to the dealer that you will not accept the vehicle in this manner, they have to organise another trolley/truck to get it down. It’s not our problem the trolley broke down and it’s the dealer’s responsibility to organise alternative transport. The dealer is just trying to saving himself time, trouble and money.

Cheers

[Turbohead]

Originally Posted by hisimbaness

Hello everyone. I am in a fix and need some advice.

Tomorrow is scheduled delivery of my car. Last three days the trolley was stuck at some place 350KM from my hometown. Showroom kept on telling me that car will be here in time. Now today they inform me that the trolley broke down and hence their drivers will drive down the car for remaining 350KMs. Should I still buy it?

Please don't accept it.
1) it may be a genuine break down but we have no clue how it'll be driven down.
2) this must be some cheap way to dispose some car in their showroom which was used as a temporary test drive car.

Either way, there is no guarantee of how it's driven and the probable consequences it could cause.