Here's a Question i always wanted to know the answer to.
Dealerships New cars. How many Miles can a car has on it from test driving to still be considered as new?

 

There's no one definite answer. For the most part, it depends on state law. Some states have specific odometer-mileage limits before it is considered used, others simply go by whether it was ever titled/registered or not, regardless of mileage. Then you have some factory-owned vehicles that may have a fair amount of miles on them, but that have never been titled outside of the factory, are now on the market for sale, and are referred to as "Program" vehicles.

Due to several factors, both at the factory and the dealership, you will rarely see a new vehicle on the lot with zero miles on it...the lowest I've seen is between 2 and 5 miles. Typical is 10-50. One that has been test-driven, of course, by a number of reviewers and potential buyers will have substantially more. A number of sources, including Car and Driver magazine, list around 200 miles as what they (not necessarily the law) would consider a new vehicle, and accept delivery of.

Some dealerships, particularly with vehicles that are in high demand and short supply, restrict the length of test-drives. I personally agree with that policy, even though I review new vehicles myself. And I review new vehicles safely and carefully......I always remember that, even if I don't buy that vehicle, someone else might......and he or she is entitled to a new and unstressed/undamaged product for their money.

 

great question, but as stated there is no definite answer.
there is no "brand new" in the car industry unless the car is bespoke just for you! most are made to appeal to a great variety of buyers for a given location, varying in model trims and accessories. of course even when custom, the factory still puts on miles to ensure the car is sound and passes quality checks as expounded by marshall.

case in point: my friend just took delivery of a new TRD camry and he waited 2 week for it. he was the only one who test drove it and saw the dealership strip all the plastic trimmings off the body panels and wheels. the car had 3 miles on it!

 

If a car hasn't been registered, it's technically new. Dealer demos with 5,000 miles are considered 'new'. Previous loaners and lease returns are not.

 

And it can be sold at a new car price?

 

Really? My, the dealer would technically be the 1st owner. When my sister bought her first Lexus, it was a demo and it was certified pre owned and the warranty had already started

 

That's at the dealers discretion what they want to price it as. But if a 'new' car has 5,000 miles, that's huge bargaining chip for a potential customer, personally I doubt it would be priced the same as the same car sitting next to it with 11 miles, it just wouldn't sell.

My IS350 had 30 miles on it already the day I bought it. I wasn't really tripping on the 2-3 test drives that had probably been done on it before.

 

It's not always the case, but since dealers are franchises, it's up to the organization whether they register a demo or not.

Here's a link to some info from Edmunds
https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/c...you-money.html

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have a question that might be related to what's considered "new" that you, as a reviewer, can answer.
I've always been curious about press vehicles or vehicles that journalists use for their review.
Often times, the reviewer pushes these vehicles to the limit (whether it's slamming on the brakes to test the 60-0 times, "abusing" the vehicle on an off-road course, etc.). What do manufacturers do with these cars after they're returned? Do they repair any damage/wear and tear, and sell the vehicle as used?
Also, I'll occasionally see reviewers mention the vehicle they're driving is a limited production model (something to the extent of, "Only 1,000 of these will be produced. We are in currently driving 306."), but doesn't that mean that one less limited production model is now available?
Sorry for so many questions.

 

Here the key to new is the title of the vehicle. I have purchased, and arranged the purchase for a friend, of vehicles that had been used locally during a professional golf tournament. The car was considered a new car, but the manufacturer had provided incentives to the dealer to be able to price lower to consider the miles on the car during the event. Similar with demos at least with this dealer, he could designate a certain number of vehicles per year to be demos, and received special pricing from manufacturer.

 

^^^^^That is correct. Demos (demonstrators) with several thousand miles on them are typically given extra discounts, because the dealership knows that most customers would expect that for a vehicle with a certain amount of wear on it, even if it is (legally) still considered new.

I might also add that high-performance vehicles test-driven by young and/or immature drivers can also be a risk, for obvious reasons. I'm not sure I would buy one that was extensively test-driven, discount or no discount.

 

I also have a question, I remember test driving an Audi S4 that had 13 miles on it, the dealer said floor it feel the power etc. It wasn't a "Demo" car it was one they sold as new. So if they are doing this what about the so called 1000 miles break in period? If you're allowed to test the power etc on a test drive what's the point of the break in if a car you find on the lot you like might have been test driven and beaten on.

 

I'm not an auto-press-reviewer (never wanted to be), and simply check vehicles out and write them up mostly by request of CL-members, my own interest, or for the benefit of those shopping for them.

Unless they have just changed their policy, for decades, Consumer Reports typically shops for and buys their vehicles like any customer would, walking in off the street. They negotiate their selling price, break them in correctly for the prescribed period, do their testing, evaluate them, and then put them back on the market as used vehicles....in some cases, if the CR staff likes the enough, they will purchase them as their own daily-drivers.

With the enthusiast-magazines, typically, the vehicle will go back to the manufacturer after the agreed-upon time it is given to the magazine's staff for testing. Occasionally, the manufacturer will let a magazine's staff keep a vehicle for three months, six months, or maybe a whole year, for long-term "Four-Seasons" testing. That's a good test of a vehicle's potential reliability (which you won't know when it's new). Vehicles like that sometimes have enough miles put on them (often from a lot of long trips) to actually run out the warranty in the first year.

As to the question if manufacturers have to repair the damage and stress that over-enthusiastic auto-reviewers do to their vehicles, I can't say with 100% certainty (I haven't been in that position), but my strong guess is that they simply consider that a cost of doing business...they want the benefits of the potential exposure of the vehicle to the list of customers that read the magazine or watch the review-videos.


Probably for the time being, yes, one less available, but it will probably go back to the manufacturer (unless the manufacturer agrees to sell it to the magazine or reviewer)

No problem. That's what Car Chat is for. I often have questions myself.

 

I've given that notion a lot of thought over the years. But do not worry much about it because people have been test driving and "flooring" cars for decades. We have all survived with our purchases despite what takes place on test drives. Two, and I can't speak for the S4 you mentioned, most cars today can handle some aggressive driving before the full break-in period. I believe what most require today is to just not keep the rpms at the same level for an extended period of time. Exceptions of course.

 

I personally will not floor the accelerator, or go over about 4500 RPM, when checking out a vehicle with less than 500-1000 miles on it, regardless of whether some ambitious salesman tells me to or not (and, yes, I've encountered a few of those). The only exception was test-driving the Tesla Model 3, because that did not have a gas engine in it to break in (and OMG, does that car have torque). The manufacturer, and the engineers who designed the vehicle, specifically state NOT to go all-out until the components seat correctly. Any salesperson who tells you to do that, IMO, on an extremely low-mileage vehicle is full of it.

This is one reason why many vehicle-owners, today, have problems with oil-consumption, brake pads/rotors, or other transmission difficulties (from premature towing, which should also wait till the end of the break-in). They thumb their noses at the instructions the manufacturers give for new vehicles, and then wonder why they have problems later on.

Of course, not every vehicle problem can be traced to improper or overzealous break-in, and poor engineering and vehicle-defects do occur. But, in general, the chances of having them can be minimized with a proper break-in...and a proper break-in, today, thanks to vast improvements in precision-tolerance manufacturing today compared to decades ago, is shorter and less-demanding. But some is still necessary.....I don't buy the idea that vehicles come from the factory fully-broken in. Not with less than about 500 miles or so on them, anyway