[sukhbirST]

I went to KIA showroom to see cars but, there were none on display. They said all models are fast moving. With long waiting period, dealers are finding all means to sell. Thanks for making all potential buyers aware of this malpractice.

[aniketi]

New cars comes wrapped in plastic all over interiors. If they are not proper, you can be assured that its used car for some purpose. Also new car has typical smell which never comes in used cars, just smell that

[apollo_1999]

Originally Posted by PaddleShifter

Is it Test Drive cars being sold as new or new cars being used for test drives?

An additional point that can be kept in kind is:
When planning to buy a new car, check if the dealership has a proper test drive car with thousands of kilometers on the odo (unless a new launch).

Many dealerships do not invest in test drive cars. The Nexa dealership from whom I bought S-Cross did not have a test drive car and were using new cars from their stockyard for test drives. A random TC plate is attached to the car which is then sent for TD. Such dealerships keep on changing these so called TD cars at freuqent interval so that car does not put up a significant odometer running.

The Nexa dealer in Kolkata also does the same.
I went to did a PDI of my friend's s-cross to the dealers stockyard, which is about 12 kms from the showroom. I was surprised to see that the car which the SA took us to the stockyard was a new baleno and the odometer was disconnected. when confronted he mentioned that it was the dealership's owner car.
owners need to be more vigilant before buying any car and back off if they find anything suspicious.

[Kanna_8118]

Originally Posted by vredesbyrd

"Mahavir". One should be vary of that name. A proper second-hand used Skoda from a shady dealer would be a better option than a demo car from Mahavir.

I second that, they kinda own all the major skoda outlets in Andhra and Telangana. The experiences my friends had were horrible. I can say they single-handedly made me not look at Skoda or Mercedes ever in my life; Yes you heard that right they even have a monopoly for Mercedes.

[sad:)]

My updates on the Odometer reading for demo cars.

For New cars : As I know, there should be a possibility to reset some of the parameters in an ECU before the car is delivered. usually the car is in a mode of "transport mode" till then. Basically used to move the cars within the manufacturing plant, transportation and so on. So the data could be : fault codes generated during manufacturing and testing, distance accumulated and so on. This is usually a one time enable feature, So once this reset is done, it is not possible to be done again.

For Running cars : This is surely possible. Ask any yellow board driver, and he will tell you that they reset the meter (they usually refer to Shivajinagar area in Bangalore) for a few hundred bucks. usually Yellow board cars need frequent Fitness check to be done, and it is a practice to reduce the accumulated kms before the test. This enables them to use the car for a longer time, before it reaches the hard limit for FC failure due to accumulated kms.

[arnieshwartz]

This thread definitely needs a huge thank you from the community - definitely need to spread awareness regarding a known problem, now further exacerbated by a global shortage of semiconductor chips due to supply chain issues and the ongoing geopolitical conflict, and just plain greed.

[Raghu M]

Whoever thinks the odo tampering is a complex job, let me tell you it's not something that is impossible to be tampered with. It's the digital world and a simple software run can override literally anything on the car. Nowadays cars stop on highways not because of mechanical issues but software issues. So, being careful while buying a new car has gotten all the more challenging. I can't believe that the showrooms are resorting to such practices. The used market is grey anyway, but showrooms? Authorized dealers are taking advantage of customers urgency and the chip shortage too. The govt. should introduce a rule which puts a ceiling to waiting periods. OEMs should also share their inventory vs. orders. This circus can't run forever. I mean how can a car have a waiting period of over 2 years? Even Dassault was able to deliver our Rafales sooner. Companies go bankrupt over a bad quarterly statement, how can customers wait for 24 months for a car that can even be outdated by the time they get their delivery.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by GTO

Have received confirmed reports from a reliable source of test-drive cars being sold off as new at dealerships. 1 OEM is also well aware of this practice and is doing nothing to stop it. The number at this OEM itself has gone beyond 300 cars.

Maybe this OEM should be named for the benefit of everyone?

[Tanmay007]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

Whoever thinks the odo tampering is a complex job, let me tell you it's not something that is impossible to be tampered with. It's the digital world and a simple software run can override literally anything on the car.

This is true, I have heard from several sources that Mahindra has an option in their diagnostics tool to reset ODO (albeit limited to x number of times) before delivery.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

I mean how can a car have a waiting period of over 2 years?

Well assuming you're talking about the XUV700 here, then Mahindra's capacity is max 6000/month, with over 1 lac bookings you do the maths.

No one is forcing customers to wait and if the customer finds a better options he/she will cancel the booking and go for that. The fact is there is no better option even after 1 year of it's release. The moment others launch an option with same feature set and price point as XUV700, people will go for that.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

The govt. should introduce a rule which puts a ceiling to waiting periods.

Sounds good but in practice has a lot of downsides. Imagine Mahindra stops taking bookings after reaching a certain threshold. Then they will have to periodically open up bookings as stock improves and you know what happens then? Dealers will be the first to grab those slots within a day and then sell the slot at a premium or customers will have to keep playing fastest fingers first each time bookings open up.

Existing methodology is way better. People have to just book and forget, those who wait will get their fair slot without having to track and worry about when the next lot opens up.

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by vijaykr

Your comments on doing a VIN check and thorough PDI are best practices to be followed religiously by all, at the very least by folks who rely on this forum for unbiased feedback and advice

IMO, PDI can be fudged by dishonest dealers.

[rkv_2401]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

What is possible is to change the value in both locations. Dealers have the equipment to do so. Because if they change a speedo or an ECU they need to adjust the new unit for the correct mileage. Unfortunely the same can be used to alter the odometer, I.e. roll it back. On some system rolling back the odometer will leave telltales on the system, but you need a pretty advanced OBD scanner to read those. I have three OBD scanners but mine can’t do it.

Yes, not only is it possible, it is easy to do so inadvertently.

Our '04 Elantra that had run 150000kms+ had a dashboard light go out, so they replaced something and the new reading was 0kms. Even though this service center had the previous mileage reading, they just updated the new ones to say 0kms. This was only 10 years or so in, and back then, the car was maintained well enough that the idea of it being such a low-mileage car was believable. :P

This one was pretty advanced for it's time: common rail fuel injection, ABS, TCS, 2 airbags, remote central locking, an immobilizer (apparently some 2016 and later Kias don't come with an immobilizer!!) etc. so I'm inclined to believe it may be possible, or worse, just as easy, on newer cars too.

[handsofsteel]

Originally Posted by Sivacar

The odometer tampering is possible with manual transmission cars. For cars with Automatic transmission it is impossible to disconnect or tamper odo meter

My automatic Honda jazz had its ODO tampered by a transporter who I hired for interstate transport off the car doing relocation. Got to know after a few days as the garage where this was done turned out to be a known acquaintance. No tell tales on the car at all. Even the svc couldn’t tell when asked point blank. A charge conversation with the acquaintance a week later revealed that he had reset the ODO by 1500km.

[CarWorld]

When we go for test drive we should ask showroom sales guy about where is their demo car. If the showroom doesn't have any and if they are providing customer cars for demo, i would say, do not book car from them and let them know the reason too. Because tomorrow there is very good chance that your new car will be given to next prospective customer for test drive. I have seen this from some showrooms and the reason given was showroom itself not getting demo car allocated due to supply constraints ! And they have right to test any new car for 20 to 30 km atleast ! But on the other hand, some professional showrooms had their separate demo cars specifically for test drive purpose only and can be identified from stickers and odometer reading.

[BoJack]

A while back I went to test drive the E class for a family member, the dealer said they will arrange a test drive but we will have to go to the yard to get the car. We were taken there in a GLA with red TC plates and when we got to the yard, my man just took off the plates from the GLA and slapped it on a brand spanking new E (which probably was a customer car). The same thing happened with the same dealer last year when we went to look at the C class.

There was this one time when I went to a Hyundai showroom and asked for a test drive of the Santro AMT but none were available. So seeing that we were inclining towards the Tiago AMT (which we ended up buying) the SA told me she will bring one home for us. They came that evening itself and as it was getting dark i noticed the lights were not working and asked what that was all about, they (the SA and a mechanic) told me that they pulled out a fuse and when i asked why they did that they told me some random nonsense. Then i asked them to put the fuse back in and when they did that the lights came on and the MID which was blank all that while turned on to show 20 odd Kms ond the odo. The dealership is 30 Kms away from my home.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Sivacar

The odometer tampering is possible with manual transmission cars. For cars with Automatic transmission it is impossible to disconnect or tamper odo meter

Could you elaborate? Whereas, as I mentioned earlier it is difficult to disconnect the odometer on modern cars, tampering is possible on all odometers, if you have the right equipment, which a main stream dealer always does. If your odometer is ever broken it will be swapped for a new one and they will program your old odometer reading into the new unit. Manual or automatic transmission doesn’t matter.

Jeroen