Topic: Would you buy a demo?

[nana]

My 2001 was a demo, bought JAN 2002 with 500KM.  It was my first car I had purchase new and the dealer didn't tell me it was a demo.  I did get a lower price since it was the last 1 available before the new model came in.  I think I could have gotten more money off if I knew it was a "DEMO"!

I didn't even know of a such thing as a DEMO car, I didn't know much about car buying then.

But my car has been great, except my battery died early, probably not related to a demo car.  So I would buy a demo with say 200 - 500 KM again if the price is good.

But if there's a used one for an even lower price, I would go with that.

Otherwise, demand a brand new one with less than 25KM on it.  My current new car purchase had less than 20KM.

[dash]

Ghost, I think until a car is registerd, it can be sold as a Demo.
With demo's you must be aware of the in service date-the warranty starts counting from that date, therefore, all demo's have reduced warranty available.
In general I believe that demo's are not discounted enough, dealers are fighting for the lost PDI and margin, plus potential abuse of the auto. Most say that the car was driven by the owner, Ha!

[articsteve]

Ghost, I think until a car is registerd, it can be sold as a Demo.
With demo's you must be aware of the in service date-the warranty starts counting from that date, therefore, all demo's have reduced warranty available.
In general I believe that demo's are not discounted enough, dealers are fighting for the lost PDI and margin, plus potential abuse of the auto. Most say that the car was driven by the owner, Ha!

Ghost, I think until a car is registerd, it can be sold as a Demo.

Until it's official registered with the government in someone elses name it's a demo.

With demo's you must be aware of the in service date-the warranty starts counting from that date, therefore, all demo's have reduced warranty available.

Not quite.  The demo receives the full time warranty from the distributor.  Distributors have different guidelines on how long a demo can go before it no longer qualifies.

The mileage part of the warranty begins from whatever mileage is shown.

Now this has been covered here before, but demos that are autos, normal boring non sporty cars are not driven hard by virtue of them being as just described.  However, sport type cars get killed.  Sorry to lay that on some of you more naive types, but I have first hand experience.  It's just part of dealership mentality.  

[Panzer]

Otherwise, demand a brand new one with less than 25KM on it.  My current new car purchase had less than 20KM.

All my new car purchases (3) have always had 7-10 kms on them.

As for the actual 'used' definition, I'm not sure about the 'legal' number but I seem to recall 250 kms from somewhere (sorry, no links or or official claims on this).  Personally, I'd think that as long as it hasn't been officially registered, it's a demo vehicle and not a used vehicle.

When I purchased my Impreza, the dealer tried to sell me the very car I had tried out as a demo model for a grand less than the MSRP.  The car had 155 kms on it.

[Panzer]

Now this has been covered here before, but demos that are autos, normal boring non sporty cars are not driven hard by virtue of them being as just described.  However, sport type cars get killed.  Sorry to lay that on some of you more naive types, but I have first hand experience.

Strange.  I floored the demo Saturn SL1 I tried out a few years back a few times to see how much punch it had.  I certainly wouldn't call an SL1 a 'sport type car'.

Although I'd definitely agree that sport car type demos probably receive more of a 'beating' than regular boring car demos, I still do things to the boring car demo that I wouldn't do on my own vehicle during break-in...

[stodge]

So ex demo 2006 Sonata GLS V6 (I think it's GLS and not GL) with just under 10k is being offered at $22750. What should that be sold for?

[scottmcphee]

No, I wouldn't buy a demo.  And since I bought my car over the phone from another
city, I wrote "delivered with less than 20km on the odometer" on the sales order...
just to be sure.

[airbalancer]

To buy a demo
I guess it would depend on how far it was away from the Snowman

[articsteve]

So ex demo 2006 Sonata GLS V6 (I think it's GLS and not GL) with just under 10k is being offered at $22750. What should that be sold for?

Stodge; you gotta be exact.  There is a GL V6 with sunroof available. and then there is GLS V6 and GLS V6 Premium.

I sure hope you get a car soon.

Look at that 2003 4 cylinder Accord LX with 12K for 17K no GST.  You would be $18,400 out the door with sweet gas mileage @ $120. liter and an instant re-seller or

$26K for the Sonota with not so fantastic gas mileage and a dubious re-sale history.

[stodge]

I'm not in Toronto and I'm not overly concerned with resale.

[midtownguy]

a family friend of mine bought a demo 06 ML500 with fully loaded..(i mean really loaded,prob over 20k option) with
almost 10k km on the odo...
saved them around
7k +pdi and whatever after cost..that adds up to like $10k+ of discount..which i though it was pretty good deal..
thats why i recommanded them..and got a cool$1000 referre from the dealer =D
which comes to a grand total of
100k including tax and everything..heh which i think it's insane for anyone to pull that kind a amount in cash -_- and also they deducte 8 months of warrenty
which it sux =(
....btw they are new to the country...

what i really wanted them to get was a new ml350 with bi-xenon and navigation..but suprisingly bi-xenon was very rare for ml350 and more so with a navigation combined...we asked them to search across canada with no luck of finding one....and to order one from alabama..it takes around 3-4months that we didn't have...
and what suprise me the most is..even a ml500 doesnt make any difference on bi-xenon avaliablity...gosh..its pretty stupid when you think about it...looking for a optional
bi-xenon on a $75k+ ml500 which was no where to be found except for the one in the dealer
showroom  "demo" and the one in the Toronto auto show..lol which the salesman advise us not to get since alot of ppls were in and out of it..

so far there hasn't been any problem..
since they live right across my house if there is a problem...i prob be the first one to hear it and maybe take a partial blame for it..lol

[ju1ce]

No I wouldn't.. As they are testing it out, they don't really care about huge gaping potholes (atleast up in Canada), bumps, dirt, rocks hitting etc etc..

I rather start as close to 0 as possible.