Buying ex-demo or cars owned by the dealer

[Audi Nick]

I would suggest that you can buy with confidence. Until I moved to buying new (forced on me by the long list of extra's) I always used to buy from the lot all ex demo's etc and all with around 15k on the clock.

The Audi warranty was first class and the problems I had were no different to those experienced in buying new. Remember of course that the car you are buying is not new and so depending on the mileage you proposed to do (I do loads) the warranty (which is age and mileage based) will run out quite quickly.

My old car with 98k on the clock had immaculate wheels and with the exception of some stone chips on the bonnet, immaculate body work too. Don't be to mistrusting of a perfect car, there are a lot of owners like me who take a great deal of pride in driving a quality car and genuinely look after them.

Good luck.

[robtt09]

Not so long ago was at York station and there was upwards of six A4 hire cars waiting for punters. Get it in writing the car has not been used for hire from the dealer.On the cars, I was interested to note "Audi UK" on all the number plates, not the hirer name which ,from memory, was Hertz. Hope this helps

[Issac Hunt]

They don't all start with O (oxford). My last car was an ex-manages and started with K. Thats Luton/Northampton. (I know Audi UK is in Milton Keynes)

Not all ex-audi cars will have been mis-treated. I've lots of company cars over the years and have treated them all as if they were my own.

[Gee_Hee]

My goodness, my minds been going back and forth today about this car. One minutes I'm confident its been 'looked' after then next having imagines of it being an ex-rental or ex-management and being ragged left right and center.

So... I rang up the dealer today and they couldnt give me any further details on the car other than it was bought/transferred from another site and I'd was free to call the previous dealer for further information. Thought this was abit straight as I would have expected the dealer to have at least some idea as what it was previously used for or at least found out. So I rang up the previous dealer that owned it but all they could confirm was that it was serviced with them back earlier on in the year (march/April) at 20k miles. So going by my figures, the car did approx 20k miles in its 12 months, got serviced by the previous dealer, was transferred to another site, and was then put on the forecourt and the extra few hundred miles since its service have been from several test drives (just my theory). So I think the car has been on the forecourt for a few months, 2-3 at least I recon which got me thinking as to why it has been sold yet. Maybe previous owners managed to find out the truth about the car and was put off, or the price was way too much for a car that had little history or they found out from another saleman that it was actually a ex-{hire/demo/management} car

I think whats put me off the most is the not knowing. If the sale person said 'yeah, it was registered here and used by so and so' then fair enough, I could at least make an informed decision however I cant do that if I dont know what the car has previously been used for. In my eyes, and without having the required information, the car should be considered as a ex-{hire/demo/management} car and therefore should be discounted further.... however, the current dealer can play blind to this and say 'it was owned by Audi' and cant prove its been ex-{hire/demo/management} and therefore I'm selling it as a 'normal' used car.

This is a big purchase for me and I want to be confident of the car from the off. In this case, I'm already worrying about car before I've even bought it... and for that reason, I'm out

Thanks for everyone's input on this though, learnt alot! .. and for the record, I aint against ex-{hire/demo/management} cars if the owner is fully aware of that fact before hand

[John140]

My current car 'OE' reg was an Audi UK car.

My A4 Avant is also an OE ex Audi corporate car. To be honest it was as-new all around with only 4.5k miles on it and many extras. I have not found as much as an atom out of place in the 4 months I've had the car. It definately dont think it was a demonstrator, and whoever had it used the isofix child seat adapters in the back at some stage. So the logic would dictate little kids in the car - car not driven aggressively ??

[robtt09]

Right decision. Audi management cars are only used for a few months then sold at" closed auction" to the dealers.Will always have low low miles. My best friends son works at BMW head office and gets a new car every twelve weeks or so ! They tend to be less popular models but always have really good spec.

[MarkBS]

Hi, buying an ex-demo car (like I did) does normally give you a good spec at a reasonable price...mine was 4k under the 'list price' with all the options on it. The dealer I purchased it from said they keep their demo cars for max 6 months/5,000 miles and then they are put up for sale. You get a nearly new car much cheaper and not having to pay the 20% VAT is always a good move.
Mark

[Audi Nick]

Gee Hee walk away and forget about that particular car.

A number of years ago I wanted the then A4 quattro 1.9 saloon and not being in the new car market, I was left with looking at a used car having the luxury of course of it being an 'Audi Approved' one.

There were fews cars around then but because of the audi site I was able to keep an eye out and it was amazing that different garages I spoke to kept my details on file and they too kept an eye out. In summary after 3 weeks I found the car I wanted with the right colour and as a result I did a deal over the phone and the first time I saw the actual car was when I picked it up.

As a buyer of both new and used Audi cars, take it from me that there is no real difference between buying used and new. I did not see my latest car until I took delivery of it and neither did I see my (now very old) 1.9 quattro.

Trust the brand and let your fingers do the walking (think I heard that somewhere before) by using the pc to find the right car. Remember that when you go to collect (and pay for) the car you can always say no, if it has not been accurately presented.

In relation to the car you are or were looking at, please walk away now and do not look back.

Good luck in your search, you will find what you are looking for but remember to take your time and keep a cool head.

[Gee_Hee]

Yeah the search continues. Went to have a look at another one today. Car was a 2011 with 6k on the clock so knew it would be an ex-demo.

I spoke to the saleperson who, without me even asking, said 'yeah, it an ex-demo of ours'. It took use a while to find the car, it was actually in the customers car park. Saleperson went off to find out what was going on with it and found out that the car was heading off to be auctioned as they only keep their cars for 60 days before they get hit on tax/legal 'stuff' (not sure how true that was but didnt feel like he was using that as a pressure mechanism).

I must admit, the saleperson was top draw. Didnt feel pressured into buying and took a lot of time with me even though it was clear that the ex-demo they had didnt tick all my boxes (sadly). Even so, the salesperson let us have a good look round the ex-demo anyway and whilst he went over mine for a part-ex valuation. We popped back inside and then spent another 15-20 minutes going through what spec I was after, colour etc, and he said that they get their cars from 'Audi {something, it might have been Audi UK}' and would contact them to see whether they had any A4's that matched my spec and then get back in touch with me.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I think I would be happy buying an ex-demo or ex-audi car if the dealer was honest about it (seems to be a BIG ask with some of the dealers) and could provide some basic information on what it was used for. I felt this particular saleperson was straight with me from the off and willing to put in some leg-work to find a suitable car and work for the sale - then again he could actually be a 'shark in disgust', and if so, then fair play as he has truly got me caught lol.

[dombert03]

Bought an ex dealer A4 Avant TDI with 4k. It was dealer registered not Audi UK. It had some small damage to the front bumper which they fixed before delivery. 3 years and 45k later the only problem has been the clutch which has just been replaced under no quibble warranty. I understand this is a general problem and was not related to early mistreatment.

Volvo used to offer large quantities of 6 month old cars as a method of "discounting" the list price. These were registered by Volvo but went into rental fleets. For this reason I prefer to buy a dealer registered car rather than a manufacturer registered one.