Thoughts on a dealer demo

[buckeye44]

Hi all, we have the opportunity to purchase a demo Mach E. Wanted to ask you all thoughts about it. It will have 4000 miles on it at the time of purchase. Only $1200 discount for it being a service vehicle. Would you guys and gals be wary of purchasing it? My couple concerns are 4000 miles seems like a bit too much for me to want it, how do I know how the thing was treated on test drives, I’m guessing it was drove pretty hard, how high was the dealership charging it? Was it to 100% charge a lot? Was it constantly run down to a very low charge? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you

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[KAustin]

Hi all, we have the opportunity to purchase a demo Mach E. Wanted to ask you all thoughts about it. It will have 4000 miles on it at the time of purchase. Only $1200 discount for it being a service vehicle. Would you guys and gals be wary of purchasing it? My couple concerns are 4000 miles seems like a bit too much for me to want it, how do I know how the thing was treated on test drives, I’m guessing it was drove pretty hard, how high was the dealership charging it? Was it to 100% charge a lot? Was it constantly run down to a very low charge? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you

Personally, I would not do it. Mostly everyone driving it is going to try to put it to the test, especially as the salesperson won't be with them.

Too much unknown.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I thought about it for a minute. Maybe less. If you put 4000 miles on a car, how much discount would you expect to sell it for? It isn’t even fair how little they offer to take off what has been treated as a rental vehicle. For the extra $1200 and some effort, a true new one can be found.

 

[SnBGC]

Hi all, we have the opportunity to purchase a demo Mach E. Wanted to ask you all thoughts about it. It will have 4000 miles on it at the time of purchase. Only $1200 discount for it being a service vehicle. Would you guys and gals be wary of purchasing it? My couple concerns are 4000 miles seems like a bit too much for me to want it, how do I know how the thing was treated on test drives, I’m guessing it was drove pretty hard, how high was the dealership charging it? Was it to 100% charge a lot? Was it constantly run down to a very low charge? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you

I would have no concerns with buying a demo assuming there wasn't any visible wear and tear.
They would have to discount the car at least $2240 though. That is what the IRS says wear and tear is for 4000 miles on an average vehicle. You could even make the case the MME is above average so $3000 discount might be more appropriate.

 

[NoMoShocks]

I agree the discount should be closer to $2500 and that is to break even. Needs to be a deeper discount to count as a great deal.

 

[Luke]

Make sure it will still qualifies for the $7.5K federal incentive. Otherwise the discount needs to be much, much more than $1200.

 

[deadduck]

I drove a demo the other day. I didn't bounce it off curbs, or spin donuts in the back, not sure it can't actually do that in the sense of a mustang, but I guarantee you someone has, or will.

Also, these things are gonna depreciate, probably pretty hard. I'd buy new or get a bigger discount.

 

[buckeye44]

I drove a demo the other day. I didn't bounce it off curbs, or spin donuts in the back, not sure it can't actually do that in the sense of a mustang, but I guarantee you someone has, or will.

Also, these things are gonna depreciate, probably pretty hard. I'd buy new or get a bigger discount.

First off, thanks to all for the responses. Yeah, the depreciation scares me a lot. I did read today that the “infrastructure “ bill proposed there could be a $1250 tax credit to those who buy a used EV. I hope that if that becomes policy it will help a little bit with the depreciation.

 

[buckeye44]

Haha yeah, I agree

 

[gnaark]

When I test drove the car we always had the dealer with us in it (I tested two).
I doubt it was abused, I know we always tend to see the bad in people but it’s also not in the dealers interest to stiff you on a bad car especially since it’s so new and Ford is paying attention.

If it’s in perfect shape, why not, you can always negotiate the price.

 

[ChuckA]

Verify that you will be able to take the $7500 tax credit and that it can be titled as new.

Assume that the battery was charged to 100% since unless it was programed to be less at the dealer's location, that's how high it will charge.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

You can look at the energy consumption in the Trip Computer app on the center display and check out the history. There's a decent chance it hasn't been reset, so it can tell you something about how hard the car's been driven. Oh, and I totally agree with others who say that you should make sure it will be titled as new, qualifies for *all* tax/energy incentive that would be available to a new EV purchase, and the discount should be more substantial than $1200.

By the way, what model and color is it? In theory it should impact the discount that you get (at least the trim level - e.g., a GTPE should have a much larger discount than a Select).

Good luck! If you decide to buy it, please post photos!

 

[RickMachE]

Thread is a year old...

 

[Mark IV]

Possibly not a "demo" but a "FCTP" car. That is the "Ford Courtesy Transportation Program" vehicle. The FCTP cars are registered by the dealer, they are not on a dealer plate. Ford provides a rebate to the dealer for placing the vehicle in the program. Our dealership had one, they must be in service for 90 days to collect the rebate.

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