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'Courtesy' or 'Demonstrator' car: what's the difference?

Just to add more to the topic - I've picked up another courtesy car this afternoon - A3 2.0 TDI Sport - It's an '06 plate with 103 miles (yes, 103 miles) and the N/S/R wheel has been heavily curbed and there is a dent/scratch in the passenger wing - it was a new car on Monday! (It's Tuesday today) :crazy:

Will
 
Dieselman said:
Is this a main dealer or car supermarket like Motorpoint. Motorpoint, et al, don't do test drives because you buy the car you see not a similar one, also they work on the stack 'em high principle.

The dealer in question is a very well known 'personality' in the Scottish motor trade with a large chain of garages (possibly the largest 'empire' in Scotland ?) , many branches having different franchises .
 
Pontoneer said:
The dealer in question is a very well known 'personality' in the Scottish motor trade with a large chain of garages (possibly the largest 'empire' in Scotland ?) , many branches having different franchises .


thats weird .. that same chain let me have a 4x4 recently for 24 hours and said feel free to come and take it out again if i wanted to.
 
Swiss Toni said:


nah , not really. Im taking the hit on the depereciation , ill treat it how i like. There is no finaicial reward for looking after a new car now :(
 
I bought my car from Mercedes Direct. They sell thousands of demonstrators, courtesy cars, and short term lease cars. Think about it, they have 000s of cars to sell, how many demonstrators does one manufacturer need. Surely the whole idea of these vehicles is a means of the manufacturer discounting its cars without reducing the sticker price.

I saved about £9,000 by buying my car from MB direct rather than the main dealers. Although it is true MB direct piles em high and sells them cheap. My whole family went out on test drives in Classic, Elegance and Advantgarde spec cars tosee what we preferred.

My car comes with a fantastic warranty, a 30 day exchange plan, MBs own warranty, the car comes serviced,/repaired and is indistinguishable from the showroom car. I'll not be going to a main dealer again as my car is great!
 
I know that many OEMs give their managers "demonstrators" - Ford give them 2! - and the deal with the Revenue in the UK is that they have them for no more than 6 months/6k miles, and that they are insured so that Jo Public can drive. Theoretically (at Ford) they can be requested to turn the car over to a dealer for a customer drive but I never saw that happen in 18 months. Under these conditions, the managers pays no tax (or in the case of some OEMs, the revenue deal is for a nominal tax) and the OEM gets to report the registrations against it's numbers for the year as well as having a steady supply of demonstrators for dealers.
 
Dieselman said:
Is this a main dealer or car supermarket like Motorpoint. Motorpoint, et al, don't do test drives because you buy the car you see not a similar one, also they work on the stack 'em high principle.

Also with supermarkets, it's pretty impossible to get the car out without reversing about 20-30 cars :D
 
I bought mine through MB direct off the manager as a demo car. I've also had a courtesy car.. The difference is that the Demo car is fully loaded
 

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