What’s the typical range that one should expect in terms of existing miles on a car that’s being sold as “new”?
I’m going in to look at (and hopefully close the deal on) a vehicle tomorrow, and although the vehicle is being sold as “New” (i.e. it’s not a demo or loaner vehicle), it currently has ~100 miles on it.
This seems, based on my (admittedly limited) experience, to be higher than average. I don’t personally have any issue with it, but I’d like to know:
Is my assumption correct that it’s higher than average?
If so, is there any chance that I can leverage that to shave a bit more off the selling price? Or would it look silly to even mention it?
I guess you could say it’s higher than average based on the other 50 new cars on the lot that might have 5 miles on them. That said, it’s not crazy and would be normal. Couple test drives or a salesman taking it home for the night would put that on easy. No big deal.
You’re not going to get anything more off for 100 miles.
I think the reasonable range of miles is around 5-300 to be considered “new”. This includes factory testing miles and as mp11477 said, test drive/salesman taking it home for the night.
My wife’s MDX had a little over 100 miles on it. It just happened to be the car that sat in the front lot that people test drove. The dealership actually still owes us a free detail. They told us to just schedule one for free because I didn’t have time to wait for it when I got it. They didn’t offer any incentives, and I didn’t ask for any.
I usually consider anything up to a 100 or so miles as “normal” particularly if it’s a relatively lower priced car with a specific color combo that the dealer had to search for. Most often they’ll simply have someone drive the car back rather than have it transported.
I purchased a Fiat 500 once from a dealer in NJ that found my color choice in MA and had someone drive the car back so that was at the upper limit of my own, personal, comfort zone. If the car is leased, however, I doubt I’d care nearly as much…
My Pathfinder had 245 miles on because they drove it from Baltimore over to my dealer in Delaware. I was worried when I first saw the mileage too, but the main thing was confirming that those 245 miles didn’t count against my 36,000.
It’s closer to 70 between the 2 dealerships, and when I searched the VIN it looked like it had been at another dealership before the one in Baltimore. Not sure why it moved around so much. But the point is, the car was in perfect condition and 245 miles is nothing.
if it’s got more than 20 miles then I dont want it. Honestly it depends on what type of car you want, if its a common car then expect 40-100 miles on it. If you are spending like 60,70,80,90k then the cars dont really get test driven that much or they have one or two specific vehicles set aside for test drives. I had 4 miles on my car and the two trucks we picked up last week had 5 miles on them before the sales guys gassed them up (7 after). Often times I have noticed that the more miles a car has the more likely it is to receive a larger discount. Now in terms of “brand new” I think up to 500-600 miles is pretty much a brand new car imo.
For some context, it’s a vehicle that I’m already pushing for an aggressive discount on, as it’s been on the lot for over 3 months and it’s one of MANY of the same model & trim (with an MSRP of ~$50k).
Hopefully the 100 miles that are already on it will be a nice little cherry on top in the way of pushing for a slightly sweeter discount?
