I've never seen demos advertised for sale by Honda dealers. These cars sell too well to need a demo sitting around for test drives, then discount the demos and take a loss on them. Instead, say they have 10 fits in stock, they cycle them for test drives. I bet you a dollar to doughnut that if you go in because you saw a specific color fit advertised, chances are they bring another one around and say "they can't find your fit right now," or it's backed in somewhere and they have to move a bunch of cars they don't have the keys handy for." They don't want one car with 3 miles and another with 300. They spread the miles and try to keep it at less than 100 if they can.

So anyway, you take the fit brought out for a spin as long as its the model and tranny you are shopping for, and when you're ready to buy (if you're good and serious and insist on it) they'll get your fit out and you look at it and test drive if necessary.

When I was ready to buy, I test drove an Orange fit for one last test and then I just waited until they could locate and drive my TW fit to the front so I could look it over before signing. I never even test drove it. Lemons? These are hondas. There are no lemons and if there are, you probably are not going to detect it on the test drive anyway. But if you think it's important, test drive it anyway but me, I'm more concerned with the dealer pulling a fast one on me than the car being a lemon. So I'm watching his paperwork and such--not whether the Honda factory messed up.

So, that's a lot of typing but my point is, your new cars are going to have somewhere between 2 and 100 miles and I would not worry over how much. If it's a few hundred, it might bother me but maybe not. If you can get one with under 10, so much the better but I would not pass up the car I want because it has 40 or even 100 miles on the odo. No big deal and the break in is not the issue it used to be in the past.

 

I bought one of the first 08 Accord 6MT Coupes in the country, several days after their release. I found a dealer that had the color I wanted and it was sitting on their display front and center at their dealer. When I test drove it the accompanying sales person said she and other sales people have driven it, though the odometer read something like 12 miles or so, so I didn't sweat it. She commented that they were impressed with how much power it had and it handled well, etc., which means they weren't exactly babying it. Why would they? They need to know what it's got.

But this is proof that YES, Honda WILL sell a car that has been used for demos.

 

Demo cars get sold? People test drive vehicles from the lots without my approval? You mean to tell me that they don't stock dozens of cars in anticipation of me alone?

Scandalous!

 

You know I was wondering what the laws say about this. Are they really permitted to let someone else test drive a car that is sold as new without informing the buyer?

 

Every state has different rules about what is a new vs. used car.

In Nebraska, a car is considered new as long as:

• Build date is less than 2 years ago AND,
• Car has less than 7,500 miles AND,
• Title for the car has never been issued to an individual or business OTHER than a registered car dealer(ship)

So here is is very possible that a demo car is sold as new. And our Honda dealers around here are very good about selling their demo's at a BIG discount and they include a 10 year/100,000 mile extended warranty. Not a bad deal at all.

Every dealership does things different. When I test drove the Fit, I drove the one that I ended up buying. And that seems to be the norm for dealerships around here, you pick any car on the lot and drive it.

Personally, I think its stupid to keep the "test-drive" cars on the lot just for test drives. With all of the options on cars nowadays, if I am interested in buying a car with certain features, I want to test drive the car with those features. Some things wouldn't matter like a sunroof or cloth vs. leather. But when it comes to things like A/T vs. M/T or CVT vs. DSG vs. DCT, I want to experience it before I buy it to ensure I get what I want and what feels more comfortable for me.

But that's just my opinion!

 

Well I should of known I was in trouble when I asked about the mileage and the salesman casually waved his hand infront of my face and said:

"These aren't The Droids you are looking for"...

 

When my wife and I bought her Fit there was one on the show room floor that attracted my wife. There were two on the lot, a standard and a sport. We test drove the sport and then bought it. I don't think I even looked at the mileage.

 

Ours had 350 miles on it when we got it. The dealer wrote 250 miles on the contract. Well, we put 50 of those miles on it during the test drive, and supposedly another person test-drove it after us. Ours was advertised as a used car and priced like one since it had been previously titled.

Although for a car advertised as new, I'd likely raise a stink over a couple hundred extra miles.

 

Warranty is up? You know what time it is...

 

Thanks Man, now that will be stuck in my lingo forever!

 

Two things:

If the dealer actually did do this on purpose (highly doubt it) then it's fraud, and a very serious offense. Not like I would do anything about it in your case anyways, but to be technical.

SUZUKI RANT (PLEASE READ): I bought a demo once from SUZUKI in 2008, their SX4, and worked out a deal with them, and they informed me (and I had them check with corporate) that my warranty started on the day of the purchase. My contract has a check mark next to "new car." Turns out everyone lied. The dealership was even closed down due to lawsuits. I didn't trust 'em, but like I said, I felt protected and had Suzuki on my side.

Ended up Suzuki wouldn't do sh!t for me when I found out my warranty expired almost two years earlier than expected. They said they didn't care what was on the contract, and have no obligation, yet their financing department approved of the car purchase and reviewed the contract.

Let it be known, that Suzuki is a horrible company to deal with in the United States. They are pickier than VW about warranty repairs and are basically just...broke. I dropped the car and lost a ton of money because of all this. Couldn't sue the dealership because the entity was dissolved, and I'm not going to file a personal suit against the previous owner, or the scumbags that sold me the car.

Don't buy a Suzuki period, and I know what I'm talking about on this one. The stories I could tell from others' experiences really do put them in the lowest category for a country-run part of an operation. In Japan, this couldn't me more different from what I've heard.

They wouldn't even return my phone calls, mostly because they know who I am on the net. Small company. I even released the Kizashi a day early to the media by accident (look it up on Autoblog.) They hate me basically. I departed from the relationship and said they wouldn't find too many kinds things said about them on the internet. They said they didn't care, but they basically shut down the old sx4club.com (archive only now) to put a stop to the hate that lots of people were spreading. Everything about the car was on that site from google searches. The media hardly covers Suzuki, so the forum won.

Sorry for the rant, but it may help others in a similar, questionable car purchase.

 

Oh yes.. I am a little behind schedule already because of budget and time constraints with school and my dad being in the hospital.

I have had a couple parts donated to my cause, and I am selling and parting out other projects to try and get back up to speed.

Neukin has been less than helpful in re-visiting their old TD05H flanged manifolds, and they jacked the prices up, so that doesnt help either.

But things are still moving forward, just slowly.

 

I wouldn't be too upset, 100 miles is nothing. I'm sure it was simply a mistake, get your warranty updated and see what they can do to make you happy. Or if you really want them to take it back, they probably would have to.

When you buy a car, even new, double check everything, vins, mileage, paint condition, etc.

Also, your car isn't a demo. Most of the demo cars I've seen have thousands of miles on them, and are actually fleet vehicles bought at auction by the dealer. The whole notion of a "demo" is a scam anyway, demo = fancy name for used car.

 

Same thing happned to me with my Fit. I knew it was coming from another dealer though, so I should have expected the miles. But at that time, the huge thing of the day here was the AC condensor getting dinged with a rock because of the less than good lower grill. So all I could think about was inspecting that area. They thought I was actually bit nuts! LOL! I also went over the exterior very carefully. When it came to the interior, I got a bit overwhelmed with the demo of all the features, which was done by my salesman, I think. I saw it had 90 miles on it and I wasn't thrlled, but I was expecting it. The next day when I realized it was trip miles, I saw the OD was actually 190. I was none too pleased, but again- it made sense because I knew the car was coming in from one state over. I wanted a SS color, and only a SS color, so I was willing. But it was written up at 90 and I was pissed. I believe it was an oversight though and didn't make a stink about it. That was my choice at the time, and I let it go. No regrets.

Dan

 

Remember the good ole days when we were all worried about the AC condensers? Now we've moved in to the hard stuff: lost motion springs.

 

I can understand you being upset over this because you bought a brand new car and you expected few miles on the odometer instead of over a hundred. If I was you I would go back to dealership and see what you can do. I bought my FIT with 2 miles on the odometer and in fact I saw the STEALership take my car off the delivery truck.

 

Anytime you buy a new car off the lot there's a high probability someone has test driven it. I usually do 10-20 miles in a test drive when I'm shopping. Sometimes the dealer even lets customers take a vehicle home overnite, which usually adds ~40 miles or so to it.

In most states the deciding factor as to whether a vehicle is "new" or not is whether it has been titled. Usually when a dealer has a "demo" car (at small dealers, this is usually the owners or owners wife's car). I've seen them sold as "new" (warranty starts when YOU purchase the car, eligible for supplier/employee discount) but with a hefty discount. Others sell as "used". Not sure the difference, it may have to do with whether that manufacture gave a dealer a "demo or advertising purposes" discount on the car when the dealer got it. I know at Ford dealers my supplier discount won't work on "demo" vehicles. A "demo" usually has 2,000 to 10,000 miles in my experience.

I think my Fit had ~60 miles on it when I bought it, but don't recall exactly. If you want a car that has been driven as little as possible, have one ordered. I picked up my latest Dodge pickup with 3 miles on it. But even them the manufacturer may select the car for a random quality audit and put 15 miles or so on it at a test track. Some manufacturers add a note on the window to indicate this, some don't.

If you really want to get worked up about something... look into the fact that dealers can damage and repair a car and still sell it as "new" without disclosing the damage.

 

^^agree^^ but ordering a new car often means it's driven in from a neighboring dealer. I know guys doing that, like everything else the good ones are good but the bad ones tend to be yahoo's.

The Honda guy's I go to do a real good job of managing their lot. Doesn't seem to be dedicated 'test drive' cars.

 

Has anyone noticed that the OP has only one post...? Period!

Just an observation.

~SB

 

I do go back and look every now and again on many of these long winded threads - happens all to often. Think of the lasting impression all this leaves on the innocent.