Walked out on dealer - did not purchase the R :-(

[only1harry]

You're absolutely right to stick to your guns on this. You're buying a brand new car. It shouldn't have test drive mileage.

I've never understood why dealers just don't have one manual and one DSG on the lot that are exclusively used for test drives so the remainder stay single to low double digits.

The GTI I just bought in February had 11 at delivery. I almost talked myself out of it until they showed me the paperwork where they had recorded it had 9 when it was delivered to them at the beginning of January during PDI.

It's your money. You've worked hard for it. Remain patient. Most people are apathetic. They crater and settle because of the "have to have it now" mentality. You'll find one with single digits soon enough.

I am glad to see there are several people that think alike or can see my point of view. Like I 've said everyone is different. No need for all this criticism. There is always going to be people with different opinions. If we were all the same, it'd be a very boring world.

Harry

 

[only1harry]

I believe my car had 17 miles brand new.

I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

To be honest, I would have bought it with 17. To be clear I walked out on 37 miles, and mainly because the salesman lied about the mileage.

Another thing I forgot to mention because I was so PO'd when I posted this, is that 6 salesmen were all around "my R" when I pulled up. When I parked my 335 close to the R, they all moved a little and stood 5 feet away BS'ing and smoking cigarettes. I went inside and "my salesman" gave me the keys to check it out while he finished with another customer and pointed to the car where all the other sales peopel were. I walked to the car and noticed they all had a grin on their face. That grin was from most of them driving the car. They all started talking to me saying what a nice car it is and how much I will love it. When I started it up it was warm and right up to operating temp, which was proof someone had been driving it. I also felt some heat coming from the engine when I walked around the front inspecting it before I sat in it. I started putting 2 & 2 together on my drive home.... I still have their grins in my head - the grin that said I just drove the he*l out of your car.

I believe the car did have 5 miles when I first talked to guy 4 days ago and we were emailing back & forth while he was talking to his manager and finally agreed on $41K. It was all those others sales guys that wanted a chance to drive it before it was sold and racked up the miles.

Harry

PS. edited for typos/grammar

 

[only1harry]

Jesus, I don't get the criticism of the OP wanting a truly brand new pristine car with limited miles on the clock. I'm really surprised how many people just settle, i.e if a dealer tells you they only have a certain color, or the vehicle sat in a port for 6 months, or the center consul is bolted shut....the OP is correct in holding out. How many of you are going to walk into an Apple store or Best Buy and pay sticker price for a brand new Apple iPhone that's been taken out of the box already and used a couple of times, or a new TV that's already been taken out of the box, switched on once, and then re-packaged? .... exactly.... Nothing wrong with a car enthusiast wanting a car that's truly only been driven the absolute bare minimum to get it ready to be driven out the door. I betcha these same folks going ape sh$t over the OP are the same ones who go ape sh#t over drilling 4 small holes in the front bumper and rather have their front plates hanging off the side in a slanted position.

Thank you Stig. My feelings exactly. Nothing more I can add to that. You said better than me.

Harry

 

[Junebugz_GTI10]

To be honest, I would have bought it with 17. To be clear I walked out on 37 miles, and mainly because the salesman lied about the mileage.

Another thing I forgot to mention because I was so PO'd when I posted this, is that 6 salesmen were all around my car when I pulled up. When my 335 close to the R, they all moved a little and stood 5 feet away BS'ing and smoking cigarettes. I went inside and "my salesman" gave me the keys to check it out while he finished with another customer and pointed to the car where all the other sales peopel were. I walked to the car and noticed they all had a grin on their face. That grin was from most of them driving the car. They all started talking to me saying what a nice car it is and how much I will love it. When I started it up it was warm and right up to operating temp, which was proof someone had been driving it. I also felt some heat coming from the engine when I walked around the front inspecting it before I sat in it. I started putting 2 & 2 together on my drive home.... I still have their grins in my head - the grin that said I just drove the he*l out of your car.

I believe the car did have 5 miles when I first talked to guy 4 days ago and we were emailing back & forth while he was talking to his manager and finally agreed on $41K. It was all those others sales guys that wanted a chance to drive it before it was sold and racked up the miles.

Harry

That sounds very logical, I always worry about how many of the miles my new cars have can be attributed to dealer joy rides...

Your money and your decision.

 

[TheWombat]

I've never understood why dealers just don't have one manual and one DSG on the lot that are exclusively used for test drives so the remainder stay single to low double digits.

Because they pay for every car they have on the lot, every month at least, and keeping two around that aren't going to be sold any time soon means they have to sell enough others to more than cover the cost. With Rs, this simply is not going to happen. With GTIs, it would still probably be, well, problematic. Maybe Alltracks (my dealer usually has 40 or more on hand) or stuff like that would make it worthwhile.

And I suspect, strongly, that most people simply do not give a shit. Maybe half the cars I've purchased since 1979 have been driven over from nearby (relatively) dealerships, and I've picked them up with anywhere from a few dozen to a couple hundred miles on the odo. The car in the worst condition was my '85 Mustang GT, which I actually ordered and took delivery of pretty much right off the truck, after prep. The "prep," though, consisted of some grease monkey smoking in the car and getting ashes all over the shift boot, and some joker forgetting to check or messing up the connection between the shift knob and the linkage, so that it came off in my freakin' hand on the drive home. Among other cosmetic things I had to have them fix. And that car had like ten miles on it.

 

[Golfs everyday]

I have purchased over 30 new cars in my lifetime and only a handful came with less than 5-6miles. I would say up to 50-60 miles is normal on a new car. Not that I agree that is right, but that is typical of what I have seen. My Golf-R has 25-26 miles if I remember. GTI had more.

 

[only1harry]

Just picked up my new GTI with 250 freaking miles on the ODO, I had it special ordered so it’s not really like i could hand it back though.

Wow! Truly sorry to hear that friend. That is a Demo car, not a new car. They obviously had it driven from another dealer far away. I am sorry but I would have ran out of the dealership and never look back.

This is what I 've been alking about. People want the car so bad, it clouds their judgement. No disrespect. Like I said everyone is different. Everyone's brain works differently. Some people just want it to be over already and drive home with that new car. I am the same way. I just have a little more control I guess than most. It bothers me that the R is not in my driveway right now. I was supposed to pick it up today. But deep inside I know I made the right decision and stuck by my guns and morals.

Have fun with your GTI! That's a great car, and that's a lot coming from me who almost bought an Si a few months ago (long time Honda fan). I drove my friend's '17 GTI last year and it was fun to drive, especially for the price he got it for (heavily discounted late '17 model).

I would have considered the GTI but I just need a little more power having been spoiled with the 335i

Not purchasing the R pushed back my plans to mod the 335i. I don't want to heavily modify it and take it to the track until I have another "reliable" daily driver.

Harry

 

[only1harry]

I have purchased over 30 new cars in my lifetime and only a handful came with less than 5-6miles. I would say up to 50-60 miles is normal on a new car. Not that I agree that is right, but that is typical of what I have seen. My Golf-R has 25-26 miles if I remember. GTI had more.

I have purchased 21 new cars in my lifetime and they all had less than 10 miles. 1 had 2.5 miles, and about half had 3-5 miles. It all depends on how hard you look and if you accept what the dealer wants to sell you. Dealers always try to sell the cars with the most miles first.

Harry

 

[Chumley99]

My 2018 had exactly 5 miles on it when I picked it up a few weeks ago. Put a deposit in it before it arrived at the dealer, the dealer put it inside the showroom with a sold sign on it as soon as it came in and I picked it up a couple days later. Very rare but exactly how it should be.

I think this type of car is different than an SUV or sedan. Who hammers a Camry during a test drive? Who doesn't drive sports car hard when testing it if given a chance?

 

[B95zP]

That's a demo car to me, not a new car. I want to break in the engine myself and make sure the rings are sealed properly.
Unfortunately most of the sales staff drive these type of cars and take joy rides in them because they are fast.
Those 37 miles it has now are mostly salesmen taking turns with their joy ride.
I still have their grins in my head - the grin that said I just drove the he*l out of your car.
$25K back then was like $50K today

You sure do make a ton of assumptions, and think the worst of folks. Those were just some which jumped out at me.

I think you forgot...

• They filled it with 87.
• They over inflated the front tires.
• They under inflated the rear tires.
• They Granny shifted, and didn't double-clutch.
• They live their lives 1/4 at a time.
• They left the strut pucks in it for the 37 miles of joyrides.

I'm not worried about miles, shoot my plan is to launch control it off the lot. Life is too damn short to worry about little things like 37 extra miles on a car.

Hell for I know I may get t-boned by someone running a red light on the way home.

We all have our triggers, and issues, but to me you're making a mountain out of a molehill. It's your coin tho, so better luck with the next one. Beers.

 

[Trancebolt]

• They filled it 87.
• They over inflated the front tires.
• They under inflated the rear tires.
• They left the strut pucks in it for the 37 miles of joyrides.

I'm not worried about miles, shoot my plan is to launch control it off the lot. Life is too damn short to worry about little things like 37 extra miles on a car. .

Yes, yes, yes and for alot of people... yes

Mine has 125miles off the lot, and likely was used for test drives and salesman errands. Long as theres a good discount on the hood, whats the problem?

41k for a dsg is no fucking discount tho to the OPs credit.

Also pretty sure in alot of dealers, depending on the ownership, you do in fact need to pre-order from vw through the dealer, to get a car with less than double digit miles. Trucked in, not driven as a dealer transport or anything else.... NO possibility of launch control test drives =D

 

[PLF8593]

holy shit this thread is a dumpster fire

 

[Genegenie]

Nutshell: if like the OP & not 100% happy, walk. There will always be another car, maybe not immediately, but there will be another.....

 

[only1harry]

My 2018 had exactly 5 miles on it when I picked it up a few weeks ago. Put a deposit in it before it arrived at the dealer, the dealer put it inside the showroom with a sold sign on it as soon as it came in and I picked it up a couple days later. Very rare but exactly how it should be.

I think this type of car is different than an SUV or sedan. Who hammers a Camry during a test drive? Who doesn't drive sports car hard when testing it if given a chance?

Exactly - all the sales staff want to drive the fast fun to drive car. Not the Jetta. They want to have fun at work on slow days. I used to watch them at the Ford Dealership where my friend was the General Manager, wait for new V8 Mustangs to arrive outside in the cold so they could take them out and have fun.
This might be why I have a "phobia" about cars with more than a few miles on them. I even drove in a new Mustang with my friend the GM of the dealership who burned rubber and drove it pretty hard. Unfortunately "joy rides" are very real and the cars do get abused. I wish I could say that's not reality but I know first hand.

Chumley, your statement as well as others' again proves that the R's come with less than 10 mi. from the factory and some with 5 or less like yours (1 guy said his had 2 mi.). It's funny that some people called me "naive", and I think we are beginning to see how false that statement is. If you don't have friends that work at a dealership or manage one (like I did), there is a LOT you don't know, especially about the financial side of things.

Harry

 

[BravoMike]

Yes, yes, yes and for alot of people... yes

Mine has 125miles off the lot, and likely was used for test drives and salesman errands. Long as theres a good discount on the hood, whats the problem?

41k for a dsg is no fucking discount tho to the OPs credit.

Also pretty sure in alot of dealers, depending on the ownership, you do in fact need to pre-order from vw through the dealer, to get a car with less than double digit miles. Trucked in, not driven as a dealer transport or anything else.... NO possibility of launch control test drives =D

That does bring up a good point to Harry's credit. If they are going to charge a premium price, they should treat it like a premium product.