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Questions about purchasing a demo vehicle.
I have been looking for a 2018 Dodge Durango for a while now, I came across a dealer demo vehicle yesterday, it was apparently driven by the manager of the dealership. I took it for a test drive, it felt great, the car was clean, outside looked flawless. The car has 7,200 miles on it and was identically spec'ed out the same as a brand new one I was looking at. After a little negotiation on the price of the vehicle the best price I could get for it was only slightly less than the brand new one I had also priced out. The brand new one had $3500 in rebates applied to get me to that price, when I questioned the rebates on the demo vehicle I was told they do not apply to a demo.
When I bought my wifes car a few years ago it was also a demo with less miles and it was eligible for a rebate. I asked if that policy had changed and he said no, and he said theres a difference between demo cars and loaner cars and maybe my previous deal was a loaner/program car... It sounded like I was getting the runaround. I've looked online and in the articles I've read it seems like demos should be eligible but it doesn't flat out say they are. I'm just wondering if anyone knows for sure. I wasn't really in a position to tell him he was wrong but I'd love to go back to the dealer and based on the price of the Durango he gave me tell him definitively that he can add on the available rebates even if not all $3500 apply, if any part of that does it would get the car into a price that would make it a better option than a brand new one.
I ran a carfax on the VIN and its never been registered, as far as I can tell theres no difference between this and a brand new vehicle except this one has more mileage on it.
THANKS!
When I bought my wifes car a few years ago it was also a demo with less miles and it was eligible for a rebate. I asked if that policy had changed and he said no, and he said theres a difference between demo cars and loaner cars and maybe my previous deal was a loaner/program car... It sounded like I was getting the runaround. I've looked online and in the articles I've read it seems like demos should be eligible but it doesn't flat out say they are. I'm just wondering if anyone knows for sure. I wasn't really in a position to tell him he was wrong but I'd love to go back to the dealer and based on the price of the Durango he gave me tell him definitively that he can add on the available rebates even if not all $3500 apply, if any part of that does it would get the car into a price that would make it a better option than a brand new one.
I ran a carfax on the VIN and its never been registered, as far as I can tell theres no difference between this and a brand new vehicle except this one has more mileage on it.
THANKS!
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Comments
But, rebates come from FCA, not the dealer. If they could give them to you, and sell you the car cheaper, don't you think they would?
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I'll see if I can find out from FCA whether rebates are available.. If they tell me that they aren't applicable on a demo then I know the dealership just isn't giving a big enough discount for it being a demo. If FCA can tell me it is eligible then I will be comfortable going back to the dealership to tell them that and see if we can work something out.
The interesting thing to me is that if since the dealership purchased the vehicle, its now considered used and I would be the 2nd owner, that may provide me some leverage since they were negotiating the price based on the window sticker/MSRP, with depreciation I may have more leverage to get a cheaper price.
There is a lot we don't know. If all the demo miles attributed to general managers were actually driven by them, they'd never have time to be at the dealership. It's just as likely that the dealership bought the car at an FCA corporate auction. But, even if it's a local demo, the dealership likely bought it, because they were given incentives to do so. But, none of that really matters.
7200 miles? At $0.20/mile, that's $1440. From the dealership's viewpoint, the car is worth what it's worth, no matter what they have into it. If the spread between the demo and a brand new one is over $1000, then it's likely they won't come down much more. Someone will buy it for the savings.
I surely wouldn't buy it, thinking that FCA might give me some rebates at a later point.
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And I think you're right about why the dealership would purchase it - if they did get incentives to buy it, I would think those should be passed along to me since I potentially am not getting the FCA incentives. They are basing the price they offer me on the sticker price.. if they got X amount knocked off when they purchased it - that should be the baseline price for me, not the sticker price anymore - then we take the $1440 (or whatever that maybe for usage) off there.
I totally understand the dealership is going to try and make money off of me, and I don't think they are being deceptive, you'd think they'd be willing to sell to try and get rid of it. The longer they hold it the more the value goes down. They are treating this like a new car when its actually a used one - they just didn't know that I would find that out. When I look up the value as a used car its about $2k less than their "best we can do" price (but almost $3k less than new - and to circle back to my initial question - thats essentially the difference in the incentives I'm potentially not going to get,but would make the car worthwhile for me to purchase.
At this point I don't expect to get the vehicle, for all my know my detective work may tick them off to the point they don't want to sell to me.. The last thing a dealership wants is an educated buyer!