Ex Demo Models

dloob

What are peoples views on buying an ex demo model. 4-5 month old models. Are there any gotchas to watch for?

colm_mcm

make sure it's actually a demo, and not a hire car. nothing wrong with ex hire cars, but they are costing the garage less than demonstrators.

dloob

What would be a good way to tell them apart? Higher millage on the hire cars?

What sort of discount should you expect to get?

colm_mcm

it depends on how much of a discount you'll get on a new one! The extra discount is usually a percentage of the retail price. there's no set amount.
For a €20k car, I'd expect an extra €1300 off.

-Chris-

dloob wrote: »

What would be a good way to tell them apart? Higher millage on the hire cars?

I'd be looking for tell tale signs on the hire car like:
No number plate surrounds
No garage rear window sticker
No floor mats/owners manual/cigarette lighter in the car

These things will tell you that the car is prepped to be anonymous and that all the "knickable" bits are taken out of the car before it goes on hire.
A demo, on the other hand, will be kept in very good condition with everything in it's right place, as it's a display car.

colm_mcm

ex hire cars would be fitted with stickers etc. and reunited with the nickable parts before it gets on the sales forecourt. usually the time of year the car is for sale can be a clue, not too many hire cars back this early.

-Chris-

Ours weren't, but that's just lazyness in that case.

I'd think that any of those bits missing would be a giveaway, but having a car with everything in it doesn't guarantee it's a demo.

Also look for the dealer having several cars registered sequentially on the forecourt. Again, a tell-tale sign of hire cars.

Scottie99

My present car was a demo. It had done 7000km and I haggled €2500 off plus I got 6 months tax and mats. I've now had it 3 and a bit years and now done 81000kms without any problem (touch wood).

Go for it and haggle............and haggle!:D

TheBazman

My second and third last cars were ex demos and absolutely no problem at all (albeit the second last one only had 300 kms on it )

-Chris-

Demos are generally a great buy. They're pretty well looked after and they're normally spec'ed to be desirable, with just the right spec and colour.

Hire drives are a good buy too, but you wanna make sure that you get the additional discount that's available.

dloob

Thanks for all the tips guys.
I'm pretty confident the Bravo Sport I looked at is a demo it has stickers for the garage on it and the like.
Now I need to overcome my wariness of Fiats. :pac:

colm_mcm

buy one used and save a huuuge chunk. (If you can actually find one!)

dloob

colm_mcm wrote: »

buy one used and save a huuuge chunk. (If you can actually find one!)

Finding a used sport model is the problem, they haven't been on the market very long. Indeed the few that are on carzone all seem to be ex demos.

colm_mcm

I presume these are going up in purchase price and road tax as of Tuesday, would probably rule out importing one from N.I then. the 2007 in Cork isn't cheap enough, and is probably left over from last year.

dloob

Fiat aren't changing their prices tuesday, apparently they passed on the savings earlier in the year or in the case of the Bravo sport a 200 euro increase.
The Bravo sports VRT would increase by 1.5% going by the emmisions and SIMIs calculator.

colm_mcm

Ring or call into a good number of dealers and see what their bottom line on a new one is.
build up a picture of what they're worth new. I'm guessing they'll be keen to sell. at a guess, a demo one should be €1500 less than the cheapest new one you could get.

MarkN

I've got an ex demo too. The thing was probably washed and chamois dried everyday or second day while the dealer had it, it's loaded to fook whereas I was going to get a 08 of the same car but it wouldn't have had stuff like idrive and sat nav - basically the extras dealers load onto demo cars.

colm_mcm

OT, but what did you buy, Mark?

E92

He's changed again has he:D?

MarkN

Jaysus lads no.. I have the BMW 335 since Oct '07 Colm.

I did enquire about that M3 in Bolands last week but I've never been as insulted in all my life when it came to cost of change - even Duffy's would be angels compared to them.

OP - go for a demo once it's a nice, fresh example.

JHMEG

MarkN wrote: »

Jaysus lads no..

I had heard the motor industry in particular and the economy in general was gone into freefall since MarkN stopped buying...

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

MarkN

€53,000 for a 1 year, 1 month old 335i M sport with a little over 20,000kms. I nearly choked. Even an MSL dealer offered me quite a bit more. €28,000 depreciation in other words, on a car that has gone up €3,000 since midnight.