Hi.... I just went to inspect my new Stang tonight... they just brought it in from another lot about 40 miles away. The car is a 2003 and is being purchased as "brand new". Upon my very first inspection of the car, I noticed that it has 100 miles on the odo. This seems like a lot to me. Other new cars I have seen being purchased brand new have had only 20 or 30 miles on them... this makes more sense. Is there a standard for this? I know my car was driven about 40 miles to get it to the lot where I bought it... ok, fine... but how did the other 60 miles get on it??? I of course questioned the sales crew, and nobody could give me a satisfactory answer. One did admit that the car may have been used a few times for potential customers to try out. All dealers do this, and I think this is a TERRIBLE practice!!! For all I know, some punk kid was ripping down the road at
6,000 rpm in my car when it had only 20 miles on it. Well, this goes for almost any dealership, whether the car has 20 miles or 100 miles on it. Gee, one Ford dealer I went to (different dealer than where I bought my car) showed me a new `04 GT... car had 17 miles on it... he started the engine and started racing the hell out of the engine in neutral to impress me... not something that I'd want someone to do to my own car so early in its life... does anyone at all respect the "break-in" period??? Anyway, finally, I am just curious as to how many miles were on people's cars when bought new... I'd love to hear some feedback. My guess is that everyone's response will be under 100 miles. I'd reject this car, but it was hard to find a 2003 silver GT vert with auto tranny in my area... I wanted to take advantage of the $2500 incentive for the `03... I had already called about 10 dealers just to find this car... not too many `03's left, poor selection... if I reject it now, I my never find another one and will then need to pay top dollar for an `04. So, one way I look at it is I am taking a car with 100 miles on it, but I am also saving $2500 in the process... or I can get a car with 30 miles on it and pay $2500 more.... and the 30 mile car may have been abused by a test driver or salesman anyway... so... I guess I'll just take this car. I suppose you can never really know what was done to a car before you buy it, unless you tear the engine down and do a full internal inspection. Comments? Thanks.- posted
20 years ago