[BurningHeart]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

they are sold at a horrible discount. a friend got a 1.6 corsa (one with chota boot) , one year factory driven 20k km for like 2.25L back when it was in production.

so that is how it goes.

A Corsa Sail 1.6 at 50% discount! (While the production was still done, it must've been terrific for that kind of quality). Not horrible of course.

BH.

[sidgo7]

on many instances some customers themselves come and ask for good deals on demo cars!!!so just remove the stickers and give it to them wid their full knwledge!or as said earlier mostly they are fully capitalised by the owners or one of the high ranking executives of the dealership.

[motor_breathing]

AFAIK, The dealers sell their "registered" demo cars like any other second hand car. One of my friend had bought an AVEO like this. The car has run 8500 odd kms and he bought it for sub 4 lakh price.

The unregistered ones they might be palming off to an unsuspecting customer

[vijaythacker]

The demo car is usually sold off in second market like maruti TV where is it been sold quoting is was a test drive vehicle, but sometimes does the dealers sell off their test vehicle as new ones to unsuspecting customers with bit few more discounts on it which lures buyers to get few more thousands off on their vehicles.

[anjan_c2007]

Some dealers opt to offer just serviced cars of other gullible customers for a demo, when the DEMO CAR is being used elsewhere.
Also I know of a dealer whose DEMO CAR is used to ferry the dealer and his people most of the time.
This is the flip side of the DEMO CARS concept which is bound to happen in the peculiar conditions in which such things thrive especially in India.

[Anthym]

Guys,

Most of you would be going for TDs at various auto dealers. Can you please put down your experiences including details like whether the TD vehicle was registered, was the odometer working, the dealer name etc general tell tale signs that gives us a clue if the dealer might be passing TD vehicles as new ones.
Can be useful for other guys to be vigilant when buying from notorious dealers.

[BeamerBoy]

Originally Posted by sparkplug

...

My suggestion (if manufacturers were honest enough) is to post list of engine numbers of demo-cars on respective websites... I don;t think they will do it.

This one is Cute! What to say if wishes were horses...

I do not believe it to be possible/prudent. The manufacturers will have to set up a separate team to update all the chassis numbers/engine numbers on their website.

Then comes the next problem. Once a customer has purchased the car, he would like it to be removed from that list. Whant next?

The simplest way is that Odometer tampering is not permitted. Rest, the market corrects itself. To sell this tiny sliver of car volumes...ethics will not be compromized by the manufacturers. Yes, but then exceptions can exist from the dealers' end.

[i74js]

How about the reporting of lemons by fellow BHPians or otherwise; is there no possibility that some of such sales are Demo Cars?

[risham]

i believe hyundai allows its dealers to sell demo cars to customers after atleast one year of use as a test car/ dealership car.
i was once offered a elantra crdi demo car for sale at 30 percent less than showroom price when it was in market by a faridabad dealer. (HMP - hyundai motor plaza- i think it is a company owned setup)
they told me that the parent company gives a discount to dealer beyond the dealer price of the car for a demo car with a fixed lock-in period during which the car can not be sold.

[Lukeskywalker]

Just came across this thread. My two cents on what happens to demo cars:
I had the opportunity to travel with the owner of a dealership, during our journey I brought up the topic of demo cars and what they do to them in their dealership. His reply was that they sell the demo cars to willing buyers at a discount after getting them to sign an indemnity bond stating that they know the vehicle was used as a demo vehicle.
He also told me that they give a warranty on these cars and refurbish them to almost new before selling, also in some cases they run the cars on a temporary registration so that the buyer of the said car becomes the first owner on the RC. But the invoice raised by the manufacturer will obviously show to whom the car was ordered for in the first place. The following picture is of a Demo car which I have been given to use as a loaner vehicle in lieu of my Safari which is undergoing some repairs. Note the temp registration. The car in the picture has run some 3500kms and is in immaculate condition.



Now, it is debatable if all dealers follow this practice, but like Gowda79 said in a post previously, a good dealership will not want to tarnish it's reputation for a sale that can be easily avoided.

[shankar.balan]

Internationally, it is an accepted way of business that great deals are generally given on demo cars. Dealers advertise these and call out the facts to the consumers so that one actually goes in with their eyes wide open (or shut) depending on which way one looks at it. Even here the dealer will typically not want to risk his reputation for that sale. Give our chaps also a break guys - just because they are our own desi Indian dealers doesnt mean that all of them are untrustworthy, unscrupulous scoundrels!

[arun2014]

Originally Posted by shortbread

Most dealerships register the odd car to fulfill the test drive requirements of that model and sometimes the manufacturer insists them to do so, in these cases it will be pretty evident that it been used by the dealership as this will be stated in the RC book. At least this how the system is supposed to work. But that's not always the case.........

Almost all dealerships use the liberty of rotating new stock cars for test driving purposes. This is a well known fact as most of ourselves have been given test drives in brand new cars with temp. dealer plates on them. The dealerships benefit in many ways

A single test drive car of a model will not be able to satisfy sales/marketing demands. The dealership cannot afford to keep a few cars in stock and pay the bank installments. Also they do not loose out on depreciation when selling them.

Salesmen require to fulfill test drive appointments at various places at the same time, especially in cities. The field salesmen mostly roam around in cars most of the time. Other than this a ready car must always be available at the showrooms for walk-in customers. These demands can only be fulfilled by rotating various stock cars into these roles.

Salesmen will prefer a new stock car to a registered test drive one anytime.
Regular testdrive cars undergo a huge amount of abuse in the hands of customers and even more so in the hands of reckless dealership staff fulfilling there boyhood fantasies. The abuse on these registered cars will crop up during a test drive, potentially destroying a prospect sale. A new stock car is a far safer bet, Also u can use the brilliant excuse that the car lacks power because its not been properly run in yet.

Most customers can be fooled when they ask questions regarding this,

We are getting it registered soon
All Test Drive cars are sent back to the manufacturer for R&D purposes
These are digital meters and cannot be tampered with.
Nothing is farther from the truth.

Most of todays cars using digital odometers are much easier to fiddle with
than analog ones. One can disable the meter cluster or in some cases the odometer alone by removing fuses in the fuse box, most sales guys know this. Only at the point right before the test drive they plug it back in so everything looks normal to the unsuspecting customer.

In my former career as a salesman for three various dealerships, I have seen and been part of this first hand. I have sold a 8+ lac car used as a test drive car and logged more than 8000kms (Yes, 8000kms+) to an unsuspecting customer. The car gave various problems especially since none of the sales guys with whom the car changed hands, showed mercy to a new raw engine. Ive also sold a stock car that met with an accident during a Test drive and had two doors and the front panel replaced.

Im not proud of what I did, but as the saying goes, its a dirty job somebodys gotta do it.

If a dealership is offering hefty dicounts to one particular car or color be careful.

A color not in stock and in transit is always a safer bet.

Check the cars tyres of small threads sticking out. This is easily destroyed within a small distance, Virgin cars should have this intact.

Pray and Keep ur fingers crossed.

Hi guys, I've just book a car, and the SA is giving me contradicting answers. Couple of days ago, he said that the car is in transit and would reach in 5 days. Now he says that it has reached yesterday itself.

I'm seriously worried, particularly after reading this article.

However, the only silver lining is that this seems to have been posted about 6 years ago. Has anyone discovered a way to figure out if the car one buys is 100% New? Pls let me know. I'll be completing my payment by tomorrow

[Fiatanic]

Originally Posted by arun2014

Has anyone discovered a way to figure out if the car one buys is 100% New? Pls let me know. I'll be completing my payment by tomorrow

Hi,
There is an excellent article in team bhp about identifying the VIN number of a car. The vehicle identification number will tell you the month and year of manufacture of the car.

Link here http://www.team-bhp.com/advice/find-...anufacture-vin

Make sure the car is not too old(I would personally not go for a car older than 3 months). Then of course check the odo reading.

The VIN lookup is Must-Do. Make sure you check these before the car is registered in your name.

[rohanjf]

Originally Posted by arun2014

However, the only silver lining is that this seems to have been posted about 6 years ago. Has anyone discovered a way to figure out if the car one buys is 100% New? Pls let me know. I'll be completing my payment by tomorrow

To be safe, ask for VIN number before you make the payment, then use our VIN decoding article to figure out manufacturing date. Also see the week and year of manufacture of tyres (in XXYY format on the side walls, where XX gives the sequence number of the week since the beginning of year YY)

[ramzsys]

A 24k km done Polo 1.6 TDI test is for sale at VW Coimbatore. I am being informed that the dealer is asking for a 5.xx L ex-showroom.