Buying an ex demo Polo. Advice.

sdavi3680

I have the option of buying a new (model) Polo 1.6 TDI 5dr. It is one of the VW dealers ex demo cars with about 500 miles on the clock, and 59 plates. The benefits of buying it would be being able to get it now rather than waiting 14 weeks for a brand new one. However, I don't know much about these things and wondered whether it's a bad idea buying ex demo cars. What would be the drawbacks?
BTW, over the phone they said the price was £13,790, which is crazy and no way I would pay that as you can get the same car with the same metallic paint for £13,050 on drivethedeal.
So being that it's an ex demo but still low mileage and years left on the warranty, what price could you reasonably expect to get that down to?

motorguy

Well, the main drawback is as you've found you can often buy brand new for less.

Also, these cars will be registered 2009, which will have an impact come resale time, compared to a 59 plate car registered 2010.

They may well be described as 'ex demo' which implies short test drives and under the instruction of a salesman, but the reality is they may well have been loan cars for when cars are in for service, and you know how well loan cars are cared for.

I was in a similar boat with a Passat. I ended up paying less than £1000 more for a 2010 passat with the latest engine compared to 6 month old 2009 car with the old less economical engine.

Main dealers often have 'new car' salesmen and 'used car' salesmen, so it may not be in the used car salesmans interests to highlight that you could get a better deal on a new car.

motorguy

Also, try doing a national search on VW's website and see if it brings up a better deal on used. It might be worth a trip to another dealers given you can have the car serviced locally anyway.

Hintza

sdavi3680 wrote: »

The benefits of buying it would be being able to get it now rather than waiting 14 weeks for a brand new one.

Possibly answered your own question here. Some folk will just walk in and say I want a new Polo the salesman will say sorry 14 week wait but we have one with 500 miles on the clock.

The dealer is probably not that desperate to get rid of it just yet as he won't have a demonstrator!

AdrianHi

If your paying for the initial depreciation hit with an essentially brand new priced car I would want the benefit of the full length of the manufacturers warranty otherwise your getting ripped off. An ex-demo is going to be x months old and that much closer to no warranty cover.
Wait the 14 weeks if you cannot get 20-25% off or buy something else IMO.

golddustmedia

There is another obvious draw back to the "demo" car, and that's that it's been tried out by several different driver, all of whom will have their own driving style so applying wear and tear in a different way e.g. to the clutch.

Also, and I know it's childish, but lets face it when the garage loans you a car while yours is serviced.... well you like to see what it can do don't you? So I'd expect it's not been treated with kid gloves in it's short life.

They're good cars, but I'd probably go shopping for a new one or forget the demo and get a 6 month old one where someone's defaulted on the finance etc.

We saved about 30% on a 3 month old golf plus from the VW dealer where the original purchaser couldn't maintain the finance payments so it was returned.

Quinny_2

I wouldn't have thought that there would be much wear and tear on a car with 500 miles on it.

If you want it rather than wait 14 weeks, then some serious negotiation should be taking place.

Kilty_2

They're having a laugh with that price for a demonstrator.

As said - 20-25% off or no deal.