Anyone know why a showroom car has inspection on it already?
I went to a dealer and saw some of their cars in the showroom have inspection on them.
I was actually with a friend who was a dealer for a few years, he said he never saw new cars with inspection, he suspect the cars might be used, not new.
The one I was looking at had 200 miles on it already, the sales person told me they took the car to auto shows.
We asked the sales and he said it's because they want to make sure the cars are fine after the month and half on the ship, but why they are the only dealer does that?
Would that be a concern for buying the car? What you guys say?

 

Showroom cars are just regular inventory like the stuff on the lot. Miles on any "new" car like that could be a program/demo car they take to shows or (around here at least) they might have on display a mall or something. And sometimes they might get a swap from another dealer.

They aren't necessarily "used" in the sense that there has been an owner and he bought it and got rid of it. They're "program cars." At least that's what most places call them.

I don't know about that last part you're talking about though - the "make sure they're fine after the month and a half on the ship" ... that sounds like the guy has no clue WTF he's talking about.

 

A few of the showroom cars here at the local dealer have had inspections also I assumed it was because they were driven on the street to promote.

I do agree that the salesmen probably was making up the thing about them wanting to know the cars are ok after a month and a half on the ship?

 

I spent several years working for Acura, and every single new vehicle that "landed" at the dealership was required to go through an extensive inspection in the service dept. before being allowed to be placed into inventory for sale to make sure the car was the way it was supposed to be from the factory, and had not been damaged during transit. If it gets scratched or a ding during loading on the boat, train, or truck, they still deliver it to the end dealer and let them work it out with the manufacturer.

Additionally, just because it came from the factory doesn't mean it's perfect. Wheels could be scratched, not all bulbs functioning, horn, wipers, etc. All fluids would be checked and topped off if necessary. These are just a handful of the items that would be checked.

Many manufacturers have these rigorous inspection requirements for new cars being at dealerships, they just don't advertise them on the showroom floor because most buyers would say "well yea I expect my car to be perfect, big woop you told me about it, I would expect it like that anyway."

I would suggest that you should be thankful & happy that they do it.

 

The combination of "high" mileage and inspection sticker on a showroom car make it fishy...
To make it clear, the salesmen said this "Car is from Japan and takes a month and a half to get here, who knows what might have happened on the ship so they have to inspect the cars before selling them" But it really don't make sense to me, what can it happen on the ship? Someone might drive them around on the ship or steal parts from them???
I am now afraid that my dealer swapped the car I want from them and selling it to me...

 

Thx Cionie. So they actually do inspect the cars before selling them, but most dealers just don't put the inspection sticker on the car?

 

Same question I had. I know they inspect them before the get to the lot but they don't all have inspection stickers so is that two processes?

 

The Pre-delivery Inspection at Acura is part of all the books/manuals/warranty info that go to the new owner upon purchase. Each page of this check-list has a white page that stays with the owner's books, followed by a yellow non-carbon copy page that tears out and is maintained at the dealership in the sales file for that particular vehicle. I don't know about other manufacturers, but if this is part of the standard quality control used by Honda/Acura, it doesn't surprise me that other manufacturers would do it also.

Things actually can happen on the ship... bird crap can burn through the clear coat of the paint, rodents can make nests or chew on CV boots, excessive salt can pit rotors, blah, blah, blah. Also things like shift ***** have been known to disappear between the factory and the dealership. Remember, a new car goes the the hands of a variety of different people and drivers to move it from point-A to point-B before a new owner ever takes it home.

 

i was at a ford dealership and noticed that one of the new explorers had a sticker on it next to the window tag explaining that this explorer was selected at random for a sampling of quality blah blah blah, basically saying it was just tested to make sure everything was running properly and as such it has XXX miles on it or something.

but yeah, dealerships do drive cars to events, newark scion world had an RS 1.0 scion xd they drove out to the dealership sponsored autocrosses and carried some stuff in it.

 

The "this came from Japan" excuse is BS as well. All of the Scions came from Japan and you can find those with 1 or 2 miles on the clock without too much of a problem. Even on the East coast.

 

As I understood the OP, that was in relationship to the fact that it takes 6 weeks to get here by ship, and something can happen to a car during 6 weeks of ocean crossing. But yea, in regards to miles, every Japanese made Acura RSX & TSX (MDX made in Canada & TL made in Ohio) that came from across the Pacific Ocean had 2-4 miles on the odo.

 

Just got a confirmation that a dealership got the XB RS6 manual for me, and most importantly it's not the one I saw with 200 miles and inspection sticker on it, yeah!!!
But thanks for everyone's reply, good to know about these things and I really thought a new car is perfect, guess there are things could happen in the ship!

 

That is great News now it will feel Newer. haha

 

just remember your new car will be "as close to perfect as possible"
Be sure to do a thourough walk-around with your sales person before you drive it off the lot though. Check all lights, wipers, fluid levels, etc... people do sometimes make mistakes and overlook things so be sure that you dont get home and find a scratch, or something,, When i got both my rs1 and rs3, i had to go back to the dealer the next day, and have them adjust the alighnments, one pulled to the left and the other to the right.

 

Thanks for the advice, will try to check everything before I drive it out the lot.
They drove the car 90 miles from NJ to NY, I wonder if they will tell me if they found something wrong with car...
Well, let's hope everything will be fine, it's my first new car.