I just found out the car that's supposed to be delivered to me on Thursday has 228 miles on it!

So I cancelled my order. Was that the right thing to do? 228 seems like an awful lot of test drives that were done on this car. The dealership claims 128 miles were from driving the car from one dealership to another, and it's perfectly normal for new cars to have that many miles.

What do you think?

 

Too many miles unless they are giving you a hefty discount.

 

ask them which dealers it was driven from/to.

 

mine had 7 miles on it.

200 miles could be a lot of test drives. a local dealership here in saint petersburg let all the sales people take cars off the lot to "get used to what they're selling", almost every rx8 had 100+ miles on them. I didn't return there after finding that out.

 

The guy at CarsDirect said he felt bad and offered me $200 below invoice. But I'm reading here about cars selling for $1,000 to $2,000 below invoice, probably without 228 miles on them.

I don't blame CarsDirect. It sounds like the dealer they're working with is doing exactly what dealers do, which is why I went to a car buying service in the first place.

Maybe I'll just buy the car the normal way. If I can negotiate the price to $1,000 below invoice, that seems worth the time and effort. Remember, this is an 04 we're talking about.

 

Try for $2k under invoice

 

Mine came with 230 miles. But my dealer had to get it from another dealer (this other dealer was 210 miles away). Without the transfer, the car only had 20 miles. I agreed because the color i wanted (plus the Navigation system and GT package) was not in their lot. Anyway, to make the story short, I got $2500 rebate on the MSRP and 2.9% interest. So, it's not bad.

 

Hmmm, I wish I was so comfortable with the idea of a stranger putting so many miles on my car. If they were offering me $2K below invoice, I guess I'd be stupid not to take it. But they want invoice on an 04, which makes me feel entitled to a near-perfect car (< 20 miles).

 

Sounds like a few too many miles for the cost...

Jason, which dealer in St. Pete?

 

gt1, I don't recall the name of the dealership, it was on Route 19, around clearwater. Maybe a little above clearwater. There was a lot of construction going on, but this was about 5 months ago.

 

Possibly Russell Mazda, I 'ran' from that dealer (just in case someone asks why I stated this without a reason: They wouldn't do a dealer trade with another dealer, just bad business on their part, and they wouldn't negotiate one bit on the car I was looking to buy (they wanted invoice + $400 dealer fee or something outrageous) + really arogant in general)

 

The dealership I'm talking about had "Zoom Zoom" stickers in the rear window of all their RX-8s.

 

Mazda does indeed drive the car from one dealer to another when they do dealer trades. When I got mine the only one in my region that had the color/options I wanted was at a dealer 115 miles away. My sales guys insisted on driving it from the original dealer to my dealer.

You can see my original thread about this here: https://www.rx8club.com/purchasing-financing-insurance-56/dealer-wants-drive-my-car-115-miles-23210/

Long story short, my sales guy promised that they would send an experienced person to get it, not some high school kid who normally washes the cars, and they would observe the break in rules during the trip.

When I signed, it had about 140 miles on it. I've not had any abnormal problems, and at about 8000 miles now, I'm sure I am much happier than I would have been if I got a different car with the wrong equipment that had <10 miles on it when I signed.

Of course, I was looking for a very specific option/color package (sport with nav) and there was only one in the entire region. If the car you want is less unique then by all means walk, and get one at a different dealer.

---A

 

I'm in the process of working out the details on my new 04 RX-8 - it's supposed to arrive this week. I asked about the kms (I'm in Canada), and he told me it should have no more than about 100 kms (about 55 miles) and that's just from testing. If you're getting a demo, it's different, and then you should get a discount.

 

why would they "Test" your car for 55 miles?

Did you ask them for the test report?

 

55 Miles? Normal? Not where I live.

Mine had a total of 9 miles on it when I signed on the dotted line.
...That included my test drive BTW. Most 8's on the lot (Oaktree Mazda in Santa Clara CA) had less than 10 miles on them at the time I bought mine.

Do what you wish, but I wouldn't buy any car represented as "new" which has more than 50 miles on it. IMHO a car with >50 miles on it isn't exactly new, it's a demo. ...And this should be taken into consideration on any deal you sign.

Why should they have to drive the car >50 miles from dealership to dealership? Isn't that what car carriers are for? They don't drive the cars from the dock to the dealership in the firstplace ...do they? Maybe this is just another way for the salesguys to "get the feel of the car". I wouldn't let them do it at your expense if I were you.

If I wanted a specific option package that was only available at a dealership 100 miles away, ...then fine I'll go buy it from THAT dealer and drive it home myself. Why get more than 1 dealer involved in the sale? Why let ANYONE ELSE drive YOUR car?

Ok, I'm done ranting now. ...sorry if I offended anyone.

 

I'm personally not overly worried about 230 odd miles on the ODO at point of purchase if the deal is right. (Heck, they can't drive it any harder than I do) Now, with that said....check the car for scratches, nicks and tire/wheel scuffs. People are buying 04's for upto 2k under invoice. So $250 under does'nt quite seem right. The bottom line is, if it's the colour and spec you want and you feel good about the dealership you are buying it from...go for it. Oh yeah, print out some of the threads on here, go back to the dealer and GRIND a better more common deal.

- Irish