Has Your New Car Been Used As A Demonstrator?

Tuesday, 8. September 2009

I was sitting outside a dealership a few days ago and saw something happening that I felt I should bring to your attention. I’ve raised this before and told the full story in my book, An Insider Guide To Car Finance. In my book I explain that a friend of mine was working in the reception of a very large main dealer and told me about a practice that she had part witnessed and been told about by staff that absolutely amazed me. In her dealership they were cutting back costs and since they now had to buy their demonstrator stock they decided that, to avoid this, they would put trade plates on a new car, use that as a demonstrator, then when the car was sold clock the mileage and sell it as a new car. This is of course totally illegal but they were getting away with it as no-one could tell that the car had covered hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. I thought this might be a one off and since several members of staff were aware of the practice the dealership had stopped doing it. I may have been wrong, believing this to be a one off, as I watched the couple in the dealership looking around its showroom cars then getting into a new car with trade plates on for a test drive, it made me wonder if this actually goes on more than I thought. No-one seems to realise what is happening as it’s not uncommon for a dealer to demonstrate a used car on trade plates but a new car shouldn’t be demonstrated on trade plates, so if this happens to you I would be very wary about buying a new car from this dealer. It’s probably been around the block a few times. By Graham Hill