Cool-Blue-Dad

zeliggusgus you won't find consensus here.

Some of the members were so fastidious they insisted on being present when their pre-ordered RX-8 was unloaded from the truck at the dealer or otherwise held the line at, "If someone else test-drove it, I won't buy it."

Other folks slam dealership who discourage them from 'seeing what it can do' even if you're only going 5 miles with an engine with 10 miles on it.

The solution is dealer-demo cars, but that program has been warped into something that disgusts even the easy-going Cool-Blue-Dad. When I was RX-8 shopping a local dealership (*cough* Binghamton, NY *cough*) tried to convince me that a slight discount off MSRP was a "great deal" on a dealer-demo RX-8 with no options which had 3,000 miles on it. "It's in great shape," they told me. "The owner's son was driving it for a few months." Nice, the owner's son didn't mop up the last time he slopped his espresso in the cup-holder. I wonder how badly he trashed the engine.

Shortly after I'd bought my brand new RX-8 (121 miles on the odo when I got there) I saw a lady pull up at my kid's dance school with a new SUV with the window sticker still in it. Now, I immediately think, "POSER!!! What kind of loser tries to draw attention to themselves with their sticker?" but, hoping to turn the conversation to how awesome *my* new car is I ask her how she is enjoying her new SUV. Well, she pauses, then says it's not really hers, her husband owns a dealership and she just drives different "new" cars for a while.

After the experience in Binghamton I started asking dealerships if they had any deals on 'dealer demo cars' when shopping. If they said, "no, we don't do dealer demo cars here" I'd say, "Good, I think it's a disgusting practice and wouldn't have considered doing business with you if you did."

Cool-Blue-Dad

Actually, I think we agree. I'd love for dealership to use one car for test-drives and keep the inventory as unmolested as possible.

However, my impression from my first-hand experience is that the demo-car program is a fraud. At the dance school my daugher's attend one lady is always driving a different 'brand new' car with a sticker in the window. Her husband owns a dealership.

In another thread a teenager posted about how he drove the demo-car one of his parents brought home from the dealership when he was 15. I hope that was just bragging, but I doubt it.

The demo car I drove in Binghamton had mocha-coffee residue in the cup holder from the owner's son.

Every first-hand experience or account I have had with 'demo-cars' shows me they are not 'test-drive mules' for customer; they are really some sort of much-abused perk taken by the employees and owners for themselves and their families.

The closest I ever heard to an acceptable excuse was a saleslady claiming, 'our dealership makes us drive the product we sell so we better understand it for the customer.' I say, "b.s." That very lady had driven the same Saturn SL2 for a year, not the SL1 sedan, not the wagon, just that one car. I say that's a company car and when she's done abusing it for a year it should be sold as a used car or lease return, not offered up as a nearly-new demo-car.

If the dealership really wants employees to understand the cars they should train them or make them buy their own. I expect to buy a new, unmolested car which hasn't been through 50 burn-outs courtesy of the owner's son.

I agree with you - I'd rather buy from dealerships that don't spoil what might turn out to be my purchase, but in my experience the dealerships with demo-cars are generally less ethical about how they treat their inventory and customers so I avoid them (even for service).

Cool-Blue-Dad

glassetcher, I took a big chance too - I bought a 2004 in Sep 2005. The RX-8 that would become mine had been sitting on lots for roughly a year and had 109 miles on it. However, in my case, I'd worry as much or more about the cold shut-offs every time they shuffled it 50 feet across the lot to play musical cars as I would worry about the spirited test-drives.

But that wasn't the point.

I'm aesthetically offended by dealerships that let the employees and employees' spouses and kids use cars which they then try to sell as new. I don't go looking for shining examples of ethical excellence at car dealerships, but I consider such 'demo car' practices just beyond the pale, even for car sales (and demo is the wrong word for it - it's not being demo'd to customers, it's just being used for free by the employees and their families).

In most cases it's likely the car really is undamaged and in some cases they do sell the car at a fair price (such a you apparently found - I received over $8,000 in discounts off MSRP *without* the MAC incentive). However, in most of the cases I have found they offer no real discount at all and are completely unapologetic for the fact that the owners son munched fast-food and slopped coffee in this brand-new-car before they sold it to you.

It's not like there's no other way. If the dealership wants to see their employees driving their cars they should buy a certain number of them, give them to the staff as company cars and write it of on their taxes. If they want to always see them in 'this years model' they can sell the old company cars honestly as used (having already been titled once as a fleet vehicle).

See, that is where the real dishonestly lies - it may even be illegal - the demo cars I am talking about are being used as company cars, but retain their legal 'new' status because the dealership does not title them. I call that fraud.

*grrr* *snort* *spit* Y'all should know how easy-going I usually am (I'm known for it in real-life), but this pet peeve makes me see red (I'm known for rare outbursts of violent, righteous indignation in real-life too).

Cool-Blue-Dad

I wish all dealerships treated their inventory properly and make proper use of a demo program. Personally, I can't believe the practice of 'dealer take-home cars' is allowed. That much use/abuse should require the car to be sold to the dealer and titled so it is truly sold as 'used' after the dealer and *ahem* their family are done trashing them.

Hey Ryan13b, didn't you feel the slightest bit bad about trashing the inventory of your wife's employer knowing the dealership would later sell those cars as new (possibly with a slight discount as a demo-car, but not deeply discounted as 'previously titled')? Not trying to rip on you personally; I appreciate your candor here. I just can't believe you'd be proud of such a thing.