See my full report on dealer demonstrators here:
http://autoexpert.com.au/buying-a-car...
A demonstrator’s not some de facto cheap new car. A demonstrator’s generally just an over-priced used car. If you’re thinking about buying a one, here are the top three pitfalls you will need to sidestep.
PITFALL #1 - HAS IT BEEN THRASHED?
Have you ever stopped to wonder about the brief previous life of a demonstrator? In one common scenario, the car was, purportedly, a senior executive’s car.
That whole premise could be a lie. That purported senior executive’s car could in fact be the great lemon to end all lemons: the former car company promotional vehicle. The automotive equivalent of the girl who can’t say no - to anyone, about anything, any time. Fun for a week, locked in the presidential suite; but not a keeper.
Take a look at the car magazines, the review websites - opposite lock, burnouts, hot laps - they really can’t say no. Being a motoring journalist is like: What car will I abuse today? Car companies all maintain a fleet of cars for media abuse. Correction: media evaluation. And if they could talk, the first thing they would request is a restraining order. Those 4WDs being driven along the beach, in the salt water, at 60 kilometres per hour, for the cameras: great fun … as long as you’re not the poor bastard who has to own it later.
PITFALL #2 - HAS IT BEEN CRASHED?
Demonstrators get crashed. Often. It’s that simple. You do that kind of thing with a demonstrator, balance of probabilities, there are going to be crashes. I once crashed a Honda NSX - $250,000 supercar. Twenty years ago. Brilliant. I mean, why crash a cheap car? Anyone can do that. That was an interesting telephone conversation with Honda’s PR. And you know what? That NSX became a former senior executive car too, I guess. After a great deal of reconstructive surgery. And intensive physiotherapy.
The point about this is: in all your fantasising about acquiring a cheap new car - correction: demonstrator - correction: former senior executive - car, did you once countenance the remotest possibility that it might have been crashed and/or thrashed? Might want to recalibrate right there, expectation-wise.
My strong advice is that, if the numbers add up and the deal is in fact unbeatable, un-pass-up-able, then you’ve got to treat it like buying a used car. Do some independent investigation. Get a mechanic - an independent one you trust, not the dealership’s service guy - to investigate the vehicle for both its mechanical health and wellbeing, and for evidence of crash repair. And if it fails either assessment, do not walk away. Run.
PITFALL #3 - NUMEROLOGY
Now that should be enough. Like hearing the phrase: ‘actually, I used to be a man,’ five minutes into a blind date. But there is a third serious impediment to owning a former seniors executive’s … demonstrator. Another speed hump on the road to parking a demonstrator in your garage: The discount is probably not enough. Let’s say you’ve got a car, the brand-spanking new drive-away price of which is $40,000. Same thing as a demonstrator might be on offer for $35,000. Five grand off; a 12.5 per cent saving. Where do I sign, right?
Wrong. Because $40,000 is the recommended drive-away price of the new car. You can probably get $4000 off that without even trying. These things are designed to be discounted. But even if you only manage to talk it down $2500, you’re still halfway to the price of that demonstrator - and no motoring journalist or ad agency stunt driver later contextualised as a ‘senior executive’ has had his way with the new one. Guaranteed. If you want ‘abuse’, you’re going to have to do it yourself. Seems like pretty cheap insurance to me.
Информация по комментариям в разработке