Renault Dealer Sold me a Damaged Car

laird

I think it’s been a concern of mine in buying anything but a new car for a while, I have thought several times about buying a nearly new or ex-demonstrator car. I've always ended up questioning why the car would end up being sold off apparently cheaply and so quickly.
As if to confirm my fears that demonstrators do get damaged I called a dealer last year and asked to book a test drive, I ended up speaking to a rather embarrassed salesman who explained he had been driving the car and crashed it. Later I arranged to test drive the showroom example which was arranged and so I took that one out for a drive after they had got the battery working. :-)
Of course having seen the accident damaged demonstrator in the car park (before it went off to be repaired) it became part of the conversation on the test drive at which point she let slip that the car I was driving had also been bumped by her when it first came to the garage as she hadn't realised the boot lid would protrude so much when the opening switch was used. I'd only realised the problem myself having lost another dealer's number plate after I opened the roof not realising he'd attached the temporary number plate into the boot hatch thus when the boot opened to absorb the roof the number plate fell to the ground and got left behind.
I wonder then whether it is all too common for the cars to have minor scrapes, probably equivalent to a few years of normal owner driver usage?
My expectation is that the damaged cars I saw would be sold to someone, possibly not through the main dealer network I guess but I'm sure they wouldn't scrap them having had them repaired.
Now I'd ask lots of questions but unless you get the car checked out for signs of accident damage how could we ever know what happened to the car, and I guess it’s unlikely that anyone would buy such an inspection on a nearly new or demonstrator car from a main dealer? Maybe in future I'd be tempted having read the story to ask for a written confirmation of any accident, incident or repairs undertaken at least that way it could be material to the sale.
That or the dealer I went to was just very unlucky?

Flyboy152

The reason why demonstrators are sold at six to twelve moths old (sometimes older), is that the dealer has a commitment to the manufacturer to purchase and use a minimum amount of current demonstration models for customers to drive. When they have reached the end of their cycle (either by age or mileage), they are sold.