Dealer demo vehicle, KMs adjusted?

[iampivot]

So I've been offered a demo Tiguan Allspace which was registered i June as a demo vehicle with a dealership. When discussing price before the weekend the dealer said it was "newish" with less than 200km on the clock. When he sent me the contract the papers said a tad bit over 1500km on it. So naturally I asked and he then came back and said it was just a system error and corrected the paperwork to say less than 200kms. I asked for a photo of the odometer, and he sent one back a few hours later and it shows 17km.

Now, why would a car be registered with an actual rego plate as opposed to just using temporary plates when needed, and then just drive 17km? Together with the contract initially showing over 1500kms, it makes me suspicious.

So I'm wondering, can the odometer be adjusted at the dealership without any way to check it through VSCD later? Should I bail on this deal?

[doc_777]

It is common practice for manufacturers to push dealers into registering quite a few cars as “demo’s” in quiet sales periods, because then it is regarded as a sale (and reflects as such in stats).

The vehicles will often be advertised as having 1500km (or thereabouts).

Doesn’t sound unusual to me at all - is pretty common practice in the Aus motor industry at the moment and making the mainstream media quite a bit.

[Amalgam]

+1 with doc_777

Also dealers themselves may licence/demo a car to make end of month quotas to receive manufacturers incentives/rebates or not incur penalties. Especially near the end of the year, manufacturers want to brag about how many cars they have sold. Common amongst all manufacturers and dealers.

[tigger73]

Nothing suspicious you just bought yourself a new “demo”.

VW won’t allow dealers to advertise demos with less than 1,500km on the clock. This is why you get so many with low 1,500km Odometer readings advertised on carsales.

The dealer is just trying to not get in trouble with VW - nothing to do with selling you a cheap car without any dealer delivery fees.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk