Purchasing a demo car, any concerns?

[troublebot]

Has anyone else bought a demo?

I bought a demo car with about 4k miles on it in July 2021, never had an issue with it as a result now that I'm over 20K miles. At the time there was a huge production hang-up and my order slipped several months, people were paying well over MSRP, and I was unhappy with the dealer I'd ordered through and couldn't switch without placing a new order (and losing out on the color I wanted, no longer available).

Found the exact same build at a dealer in rural Oklahoma, they were happy to get rid of it because they couldn't move EVs there at all. I didn't get a deal, really, paid MSRP, but people were paying a lot more than that for dealer stock. Still got the tax rebate and everything.

Just make sure to do a really thorough inspection, see if they can stick it up on a lift so you can make sure nobody took it over a curb and did a number on the underplating for the battery or a tow truck didn't rip up the wrong frame holes.

I'm less concerned about an EV than an ICE car because I think there's a much lower likelihood to do internal damage by abusing it. The EV pretty much won't let you do things like redline the engine while in neutral for 10 minutes straight.

If they were using it as a borrower, I'd be a little more wary maybe, but still be willing if it was a good deal (and still well under warranty).

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[Duck Norris]

So my in-laws have fallen in love with our MachEs and are about to buy one of their own next week. It is a 2023.0 Rapid Red GT that was a dealer demo car and has 2,900 miles on it. They are getting an insane price, $11,000 off sticker total ($3k rebate and the dealer is taking $8k off) and it will still qualify for the $3,750 tax rebate (right??). The price seems almost too good to be true; but they have already sent over all of the paperwork to look over before they go pick it up and the price is as advertised.

Are there any concerns with taking a demo car? My immediate thought was it may not have been taken care of and may have been pushed to its limits and I wonder if the HVBJB code may have been thrown. It is my understanding the dealer could simply clear the code so it looks fine at delivery only for it to pop back up soon after delivery. Is that an insane thought? Is it possible to look up if someone has a FDRS account?

Has anyone else bought a demo?

I always assumed my warranty clock started when I bought the car, time and mileage wise. If I bought it with 500 miles and it had a 30k mile warranty, then I had 30,500 miles before it ran out. I also assumed I had a fixed 5 year (for example) warranty from the date I purchased it. I've learned that dealer demos can have an in "service date" that proceeds your purchase date and that its from that in service date the warranty countdown starts not necessarily from the date and mileage you purchased it at. I guess that's not a big deal if its low mileage but if a demo has been in service for a year I would want to know I lost a year off my warranty and figure that into if its a good deal. Please let me know if this is Bushido.

 

[sean7512]

They’ll probably push back on doing it.
Different argument options:
- If they charge you “Dealer Prep”, I’d argue updates are dealer prep.
- Some of the updates are considered recalls and service bulletins. That said, I’d ask them if they deliver cars with outstanding recalls and service bulletins.
Ford pays them to do recalls and service bulletins. For those updates that are not recalls and service bulletins, they’ll already be plugged in running system updates. It shouldn’t take much more to do the rest.
- Worst case scenario for them, it may take 1 service tech 1-2 hours to do it. If they charge $125/hour for service techs, we’re talking $250 at most.

The dealer went ahead and did all of the updates, he said it took them 9.2 hours but he said the car is showing as no pending software updates. It was really behind!

 

[DadzBoyz]

The dealer went ahead and did all of the updates, he said it took them 9.2 hours but he said the car is showing as no pending software updates. It was really behind!

Glad they did that!
9 1/2 hours? Seems a bit long. Maybe they found a way to bill Ford for that long….? (Whether it too that long or not?)

 

[sean7512]

Glad they did that!
9 1/2 hours? Seems a bit long. Maybe they found a way to bill Ford for that long….? (Whether it too that long or not?)

No clue, but it's not my problem either way. I assume the car was on 3.x and very far behind.

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