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BMW, Mercedes etc. offer pre-owned but unregistered cars on sale via their website. These are probably cars used for initial testing/test drives or for any other reason but not sold to any customers. The cars are relatively new (less than a year mostly) and the usage is minimal too. The discounts seem reasonable but I am not sure if this is worth giving a shot considering the investment. I have pasted link from BMW and Mercedes below for your reference

BMW used cars

Mercedes used cars



I am primarily concerned on the following areas

1. Warranty - how different it will be as compared to new car?
2. Service - would I be receiving complimentary services like in new cars and can I still go for service packages?
3. If anybody has any experience in buying such cars, is there a window for significant negotiation on the quoted price?
4. The discounted price quoted are ex-showroom, the registration charges would be same as new car? and
5. How convenient it's to buy a unregistered car that is sitting with a dealer in some other state?

On a separate note, how convenient is the finance options provided by BMW or Mercedes? I saw in BMW's website that they provide flexible EMI options, has anyone made use of flexible EMI's? Below is a pdf brochure from BMW on financing options

@Mods, please move this thread if it's not in the right place

Thank you,

As far as BMW is concerned, anything that you see less than 500 Km can be considered as New, these will be cars which BMW billed to the dealer as Demo but due to varying reasons, these were not put in actual use. Due to Audit requirements, the dealership will run this 200-500 Km carefully. Expect these to be priced about 8 -10% cheaper than similar brand new.

The ones with higher mileage are Demo cars, which should be avoided due to multiple reasons, single hand owner car even if expensive will be far better than any Demo.

A friend of mine bought a demo Audi Q5 a few years back, no complaints, he just bought a 3GT for around Rs 8 lakhs off.

High end demo cars tend to be carefully maintained however, with the introduction of events like the Xperience drive or airstrip based events, sometimes the dealer cars are loaned for these events, I would be a bit wary of those particular models used.

^^ This :thumbs up.

I know a bit about the BMW range. Most cars would likely be dealer TD cars. Sometimes they do get used for promotional events. But nothing that would actually affect the car's life or quality. Especially when you consider the money you would save on the discount. Which more than justifies the low TD milage. All cars are maintained to the highest standard.

There are sometimes BMW India owned cars as well. Those are a great catch.

Warranty starts from the date of registration. So if you get a demo car which has still not been registered then the warranty will begin with you. The ones which are already registered and older than the warranty duration can still be bought with BMW extended warranty. Something they provide for certified used cars. Although always good to check with the dealer on that to be sure.

I would say in the end all depends on the specific car and the age/mileage/price that comes with it. Hope you find a great deal!

1) There are most likely Demo Cars.
2) These may have been used in Off Road Experience programs if they are SUV's. I would stay away from such cars.
3) Warranty is from the date you buy the car so that is not a problem.
4) Resale value is from the date of manufacturing not registration so that is a loss to be factored in.
5) There is always a chance that they were used for Demo and the meters either reset or disconnected. Less likely in premium brands but you never know.
6) Go ahead if the cars are in good conditions visibly. Check the tyres. (Date and condition should match the Mfg date) this will give away any misuse.

Frankly, I couldn't ever get myself to buy a demo / test-drive car. Would rather pick a car driven by one person for 10,000 km than a 5,000 km TD car driven by hundreds. There is a big difference in the way that Indians treat their own property vs that of others.

Of course, it really depends on the odometer reading & discount too. If it's 1,000 km or in the whereabouts at a steal of a price, it would be hard to walk away from the deal. But anything more than that and it's a no show.

You must also avoid media cars. Trust me, they are terribly abused pieces.

Agree, but at the end of the day, there is not much abuse one can do to an automatic car from these stables.

Got to check the suspension, AC etc but am sure the dealerships take care of these before putting them for sale!

A known friend picked up a used 730 Ld and had no trouble for 40K kms before he switched to a brand new 7 :D

Reason for change was purely financial benefits!

Mercedes Benz atleast here in Pune holds auctions for the cars used by their top management. Their policy is that the car needs to be replaced within one year or 20k kms whichever is earlier. The cars are always chauffeur driven and maintained immaculately.

Seriously, if I had the moolah, I would have purchased one from their inventory right away. The cars come with standard warranty as well as additional extended warranty which can be purchased since they are almost never older than 1.5 years.

These cars are registered though in the name of Mercedes Benz India but IMHO provide a terrific value if purchasing them. I would definitely vouch for them if ever I was in the market to buy one.

PS:- I am not associated with them in any way. Its just my nature of work which allows me such information.

Maybe the car won't see the clutch being burnt, but people will definitely test out the suspension, acceleration, handling, braking before they put their money on the car - even though they will never drive their car like that over poor roads!
Heck, most will not even buy the car but will just want to see how it is!

Will the company fix it? I am not sure - I am seeing nearly new demo cars with scratches etc. on the bumpers, so I doubt they do!

Thing is, its not about buying a pre-owned well maintained car, but one that has probably seen 50% abuse in those few kms.
A 10Kkm privately maintained vehicle (driven by one or two drivers) may just be better than a 5Kkm run Demo car (driven by 100's of drivers).

Would I do it? Probably, but only if I got a terrific deal, the car had less than 5Kkm on the odo, and I was going in for an extended warranty and service pack.

If it helps my parents bought an Audi A4 (2.0 TDI Technology pack IIRC) demo car from the dealer in Calcutta around April 2015 for about 30 lacs (which I understand was a near 14 lac discount on the sticker price). I can't quite remember what the mileage on it was but I can tell you they've been more than happy with it since. The only niggle they had was after the first service when it was found that it was missing a protective floor pan component, which the manager apologised to dad for and replaced for free. Other than that it's been hassle free, they basically got all the warranty benefits of a new car.
I know it's kinda common for folks to get a well kept dealership demo car in the UK but I wasn't aware of it in India (I mean I test drove a Nissan Micra Active and I have never driven a shoddier car - I was incredulous at the state of it when they bought it over - really abused the poor thing).

TLDR-
1. They got a warranty akin to a new car.
2. Service options were basically what they had offered for a new A3 at the same time.
3. Dad definitely negotiated. I think mum had organised a TD for an A3 and heard he was finalising buying an A4 when he found he could get the demo car for the same price. In fact the same dealer in Calcutta helped mum buy a Nissan Micra Automatic at a 90k discount earlier this year right as people were rushing prior to GST implementation.
4. Sorry, I don't quite remember this but am happy to ask should you need?
5. No idea about this one.

To link this to my earlier point. The same Audi dealer helped organise a TD for a Polo Automatic and then the Micra Automatic we ended up getting when Mum decided to get a new car so there's definitely an element of there being a significant sweetener in terms of customer retention there. I know my Dad has gone from not really being an Audi person to ending up convincing his buddy to get a Q3 and now stating he'll probably only upgrade to another Audi (though Mum has her eyes set on a Range Rover next..she's incorrigible when it comes to shiny things..sigh)

Aha

That reminds me. So I had been part of TATA's Konkan Experience program and the program was very well managed but I remember noting how the press crews were driving. They literally abused the cars and tried to get the Aria and Safari Storme stuck in mud, slush etc... besides driving at excessive speeds on road shoulder obviously seriously impacting the suspension. If one of those cars were put up for sale I would say that they would have been through 100,000kms of abuse in 5000kms.

Recently went for BMW's X Drive program at Amby Valley. It was badly managed (but that is a story for another day.) The main thing was their X5 and X3 got stuck on their own planned route after overnight rain and again am sure if those vehicles were up for sale then then the buyer is looking at 4L worth suspension work at the minimum level in the first year itself. Yes it would be covered in warranty but the vehicles would not drive like brand new ones ever and when buying a new car one wants the vehicle to drive like new.

I myself am not too gentle when test driving a car. When testing the Superb the aim was to see if it gave the kick in the back feeling in just 1-2 kms of driving. When driving the then newer Scorpio the aim was to check out stability and braking. When Driving the Aria and Storme the aim was to see if it stalled in 3rd gear at speed breaker speeds. In the XUV the aim was to see how the rough road came through relative to the Hexa and so on. The first set of clutch and brake pads can be expected to have a shortened life. If one drives with these type of objective then 5K on the ODO is effectively 100-200K.

That said Sedans may be left in slightly better condition than SUV's, but who doesn't heck out the ride, suspension and brakes of any car that she tests.

Thanks a lot. You answered all my bigger worries. For 4 and 5, I think the best is to speak with dealers face to face and find out. I plan to visit a local dealer in Chennai this week or latest by next week, I will post the response here

From various test drive events, I can vouch for the quality of these cars and the drivers. Sometimes when being fetched for an event, we put the driver in the back seat and takeover the cars which are immaculate. Although the drivers are contracted, they are trained about the car. I know one driver was a madman but he is no longer there.

As for media events, Mercedes are strict about the cars and rarely let them out unsupervised. The Star drives are heavily supervised and might seem to be lame compared to the X Drive experience but you know why!

Dont test drive cars also require to be registered? If yes, then mostly these unused but unregistered cars wont be from a test drive IMHO, but from other uses which for some reason I think would be mostly display related or being driven off public roads.

For me, it would be very difficult to go with such a car. I would second GTO here. I would rather go with a 100,000 km history verified car than a 5000 km unregistered car but used car. Only solace here is that it is being sold by the authorized dealers but int he current age, you really cant be sure of what an unregistered car has been used for/involved in. I wouldn't take any chances

Exactly! I went to the recent Luxe Drive event hosted by Mercedes Benz in Pune. I would describe it as being mediocre at best. Haven't been to any X drive event but have heard from others who attended and they surely make one feel special.

Also, the drivers at the event were professionals employed by Mercedes themselves and IIRC some off them were rally drivers with vast knowledge.

Even I second that but mostly dealers of such premium brands usually undertake full servicing and check up on their own cost before selling such cars to the customers.