[deehunk]

I recollect my experience with Kropex, Bangalore in October 2011 about a Sail-UVA. I was willing to buy a demo car which I had known well personally, it was a 2009 model silver color and had done 26K but was in excellent condition. I had known the sales guy for couple of years and initiated the buying process through him but the management declined to concede anything and offered free insurance and 2-din music system as freebies, the deal ended. there itself. It is all upto dealers how they discard the good demo cars

[Mik]

Many of the demo Maruti cars make their way to the Maruti True Value outlets. The customers are informed that these are 'company cars', giving the impression that some Maruti bigwigs used those cars
An interesting anecdote I heard at the Ford showroom in gurgaon. Many newly rich people in Gurgaon have their quirks when it comes to cars. An elderly gentleman came in and this is what happened.
Gentleman(touching the bonnet of a Endeavor on display) : Maine haath rakh di isspe. Ab yeh meri gaadi hai (I have put my hand on this. Now its mine)

Showroom guy: Sir this is the display vehicle. We have stock in the yard.

Gentleman: Bas ab yeh gaadi apni hai. Yaad rakhna yehi khadi rahey. Daamaad ji aake showroom se hi chalaake le jaaenge shaadi ke waqt. (Never mind, this is ours. Do remember that it should remain on display. My son-in-law will come and drive off from the showroom itself on the eve of marriage!)

Ofcourse, the payment was done then and there in cash and showroom guys had their easiest sale and a story to tell

[joybhowmik]

Some people get pretty good deals on a year or more old display cars. V&V for example got a MY2012 Toyota Etios (top variant) recently for less than 4 lakhs.
Its about recognizing enduring value , and ensuring that the vehicle has not been ill-treated.

[Autolock123]

i had once interaction with the car dealer and he told me that they would sell the vehicle at a good discount.

But as a informed customer , shouldn't we also check on the manufacturing date of the car before purchasing?

[arjab]

Almost all OEM's operating in India have clear cut policies for the sale of demonstration vehicles.
The rules are well defined such as : length of time / kilometres the dealership has been MANDATED to keep the vehicle, When can they can sell, To whom they can sell (individual, Govt & Statutory bodies, Consulates etc), What kind of warranty dealers can provide on demo vehicle sales, Free services and finally the recommended discount.

However, in reality, very few dealers follow these procedures in disposing off their demo cars. The OEM's sales and marketing product group along with the regional or local dealer development department are supposed to look into these aspects but seldom is it enforced stringently.

Take for example, dealer demo registration. It is mandated that all demo vehicles have a permanent, black on white registration plate and that at the time of sale, the dealer clearly explains to the potential customer that the vehicle he will buy will be treated as a used car and the customer's name on the vehicle documents would reflect that he/she is the "2nd owner" of the vehicle - but in reality dealers are loathe to do this, as customers simply will not "buy" a used car from a "new car showroom".

So you will find dealer demo's running around on TC plates and at the time of sale the customer's name is the "first name" on the RC.
The trickier part is warranty. If the dealer sticks to the rules, usually OEM's give a slightly reduced warranty for the dealer demo.
If the dealer had registered it as a demo, uploaded the details on the OEM's internal Dealer Management System and later again mentions that he is selling the car according to the demo car norms - then there is no problem: the reduced warranty from the date of sale from dealer to customer applies.

The problem starts when the dealer does not register the demo car in his name. Because the dealer tends to hide the fact that the "first ownership" on paper was not the "dealer" : warranty claims become tricky; because the date of sale of the car to the dealer, at the OEM end is still the date the company first whole-saled the car to the dealer!
Now take a very realistic situation: you buy a 2012 January demo vehicle, which according to the OEM has a 2-year/40,000kms warranty. On your vehicle registration document, the present date of 2014 September is stamped, and you are under the impression that warranty will apply, two years hence i.e. till 2016 September. Now you move to another city / dealer of the same OEM and at that time some failure occurs and you take it to the OEM's workshop. OEM Workshop will check the vehicle records against the VIN/Chassis number and they will tell you that it is a 2012 January vehicle and can actually deny you warranty!

Proper documentation w.r.t. vehicle's history are the biggest gaps and pain points in procuring a dealer demo in India.
Luxury car marques are very insistent in maintaining transparent practices in this area: take for example Audi who regularly advertises in main line media to the disposal schedule of their demo vehicles. This is because the OEM's reputation, customer segment etc are totally different. Also volumes are much lower and easier to manage.
For mass market, high volume models it is difficult for the OEM to monitor; as the large number of dealer demo vehicles spread across the dealer network.It becomes pretty difficult for an OEM who is headquartered in Northern, Southern or Western India to keep a tab on the status of their dealer demo's in remote Tier - 3 towns, deep in the heartland of Bharat!

Not that it cannot be done. Ultimately it is the will, and the willingness of the dealer to follow clean business practices, which is the biggest enabler of dealer demo car sales in a transparent way to potential customers.
Till that is not implemented "willfully & spontaneously" by dealerships, such purchases should be thoroughly scrutinised before you put down your hard earned money.

[amitpunjani]

Excellent thread!

My question is slightly off-topic, how much discount OEM offers to Dealer for these Demo cars. Is it the dealer who bears all the registration & insurance charges for the running the vehicles.

Amit

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by deehunk

it was a 2009 model silver color and had done 26K but was in excellent condition. I had known the sales guy for couple of years and initiated the buying process through him but the management declined to concede anything and offered free insurance and 2-din music system as freebies, the deal ended. there itself.

Was this model selling at that point in time? If yes, then dealer might not have had any commercial incentive to sell the demo car. He would have to buy a new demo car as replacement.

[arjab]

Originally Posted by amitpunjani

Excellent thread!

My question is slightly off-topic, how much discount OEM offers to Dealer for these Demo cars.

Depends on make & model. Safari demo's can be wholesaled with a discount as high as 20% whereas Ecosport demo's are pushed in with barely 10% off the sticker price.

Is it the dealer who bears all the registration & insurance charges for the running the vehicles.

Amit

They are "supposed" to !

[vivekgk]

What exactly is a demo car? Is this the same as the test drive car, with the extra stickers and stuff, or the 'for display' cars that are meant for the showroom floor, with better finishing and sometimes, unique shades?

Most TD cars are disposed off after 2 years or less, because they clock up so much mileage that half the life is gone. Also, it would've been driven rashly by the showroom staff and enthusiastic customers, have had multiple replacements, shunted and then quickly fixed on a budget, and generally abused.

A n example is the demo Safari, a 2007 Dicor 2.2, KL-01-AR-70 from Tata's erstwhile dealer in Trivandrum, Kulathunkal Motors. It was quite horrid when I TD'd it, and I saw it parked, gleaming, at a used car dealership some months back. Last month, it was on sale in OLX. If you're in Trivandrum and looking at used Safaris, avoid AR-70, cuz it's been through hell.

The display cars are another story though. Around the time we bought our Indigo CS, there was a display car in a unique shade of dark metallic Copper in the showroom, a few days after we'd taken delivery of our car. The panel gaps were unusually tight, the paint finish was awesome, and the overall fit was also much better. A week later, I saw it in the city, some lucky guy had picked it up. The same this also happened with a limited edition eCS when we went to TD a Punto. The model on display was in a shade of greenish grey I'd never seen before and the paint finish was superb.

So, a showroom display car would be a great buy, as the engine would not have been abused at all, as well as the improved finish. But a TD car, I don't think they should be sold to customers at all.

[Leoshashi]

There is also another way of disposing such used cars. The erstwhile Maruti Dealership of Ranchi named Ms Sushila Auto used to rebuild the demo cars, refurbish everything, put funky shades and label them as Sushila Special Cars, or limited edition at dealer level, and used to sell them at prices a notch below the regular cars. But I don't think the customers were informed as one of my dad's colleague had fallen victim to one such car. It was revealed when the paint started to develop bubbles and the base colour surfaced up, near hood.
They reset odo etc, and there was no way you could find anything wrong, unless you looked underbody-often shade mismatch would give the clue.

The dealership was also notorious for selling damaged cars. I once noticed a Unique paintjob on a Swift ZXi with two tone roof etc. I had gone to take delivery of our SX4 in 2007, we were one of the earliest owners of the car. When inquired, the car had apparently fallen on its right side while unloading. The workshop had repaired it completely on the surface-the chassis underneath the panels still had dents on them. And now the car was up for sale. This info was given to me by dealer's driver.

Later, the dealership was terminated by Maruti, in 2012 or so, and the stock which the dealer had was sold at a very cheap price. I saw brand new SX4's going for as low as 5 lacs, Swift ZDi's for 4lacs and so. Many brand new cars like Estilos A-stars were sold in used car market. Reason being the cars had no warranty & support as per Maruti's rule. The dealer had stock of about 200 cars when suddenly Maruti gave a termination notice.
The dealer owned workshop is still running, but its probably on its last legs. The employees indulge in "self employment using company resources" practice(I hope you understand)- TIT for TAT!!

[Ruchitya]

We bought a linea in June. Later I learned how to decode VIN and unfortunately the car was already four months old. Anyway the invoice and everything was done already so not point crying over spilt milk. From what I remember, the car we got was the same shade as one used for display at the showroom when we checked it out initially. Does the car need to be registered in the dealer's even to be displayed in the showroom? We didn't buy a second hand car, did we?
OT, we are getting around 13-14 kmpl right now. Is it normal to get slightly lesser mileage when the car is new?

[Leoshashi]

Ruchitya

A display car is not required to be registered in dealer's name, unless it is intended to be used as a demo car/TD car. In display car, there should be nothing wrong, only people might have sat in the car, and put some marks etc on the beige color/lighter plastics. If that is not the case, please rest assured, there is nothing wrong with your car. Enjoy your drive

Regards,
Shashi

[Ruchitya]

Leoshashi,
Thanks man that's a bit of a relief. Also we bought a multijet so I guess not many enthusiasts would have driven it anyway;-) yeah the car looked to be in good shape, although with the engine it's all internal. Hoping for the best.
Thanks

[ahmad.007]

Well, we bought a demo Chevy Beat-D Lt(O) from the dealer. It was the test drive vehicle but without the stickers and stuff. It had clocked some 18k kms in 1.5 years but the condition was immaculate. The on-road price for that model was 6.93 lakhs at that time (The most expensive Beat anyone could buy). We got it for 4.75 lakhs! Huge discount! With alloys, airbags, ABS it was value for money. Though it may have been abused by the Td'ers, it's OK by me as I knew what I was getting into. It now stands with 46k on the odo, returning 20+ (23 best), even in city. There have been no problems, just that the engine feels a wee bit 5% weaker than say a 30k driven Beat.

[Visaster]

Most of the premium test drive cars are given at throw away price to the inner circle so no one gets to know of it depreciated existence.
There was a case when a friend picked up a Honda accord in 2009 for 7 lakhs with 17k on the odo just 1.2yrs old.
Having a insider friend helps in the luxury segment.
But I would never want to go for a vehicle handled by hundreds of people.
No machine on earth is made to take the abuse of multiple people.

My Santro is lasting for the past 13yrs because I am the only one who has driven it, but again what happens when I give it to service... I don't want to think of...