Zero mile new cars???? possibly not!

Exemplar

Hi group,

As someone who works in the motor trade I thought I would share this interesting snippet I learnt the other day (Although I am sure someone probably will tell me it's old hat, it's news to me!!)

If you are buying a new car, on the point of collection, before you sign anything, ask if your car has a 'Valeting mode' and has it been used?

A 'Valeting mode' is a magic sequence of buttons that sets the odometer back to ZERO. (On a Smart/MCC/DC you get up to 250 miles, other manufactures may differ if they have one).

This means that your new motor may have been spanked for some distance before you finally get it!

I only found this out when we took delivery of 14 05 Plate Smarts Passions and when I questioned why 13 had between 1 - 20 miles and one had 100 miles on, the delivery driver said that if I was bothered I could use the valeting mode to reset the 100 miler! I refused by the way!

Hope this helps anyone.

Alex

wazza

i think the practice you mentioned is illegal.

remember an article in the press where an american car manufacturer test drove the new cars around the test track for quality testing. they then zeroed the mileage before passing it on to the public. they were heavily fined

cundall

bentley's are driven for 2000 miles before they are sold to ensure everything is ok. People are paid to drive them though they are controlled by the garage so you cannot rev over 2,500. You cannot sit on the leather (on a seat cover), you have rubber floor covers to stop the carpet being damaged and everything else is protected to ensure it cannot be damaged though i am 90% sure that when you get it the milage is stating the correct milage.
Please note a friend of mine told me this by one of his mates who drives them though the mate who told me talks out of his a#$@ alot of the time.

Paul_Varjak

I thought 'VALET MODE' was to do with a car's security alarm system - and nothing to do with the odometer!