Dealer put miles on BRZ
 

Hello everyone!

I do not actually own my brz yet. Will be picking it up in 2 weeks from Saturday (so excited :happyanim:). BUT what I am upset about is that there are already 60 miles on it. The dealer pretty much had to find the car for me and did so in Cherry Hill at another dealership. Now I was assuming that he would be trucking it over to his dealership but instead he had it driven over. Thats 1 hr and 60 miles with some other person then me driving my 30K purchase. Should i be upset about this or is this a normal thing? Im assuming they are a professional transport service but still, how do i know that those werent 60 miles of hard driving. Let me know what you guys think because its stressing me out.

Dont stress, i had 110 miles on mine :barf:

Its actually better that they drove it because from what ive heard, the trucks give your car a bad experience.

Since I retired years ago I've held several part time jobs with a couple dealerships and that seems to be a normal practice.

Yep pretty normal.

They do that all the time. Back in 2007 I bought a new 2008 Lancer and they had to drive it from CT to NH, had 157 miles on it.

Thanks guys. Deff making me feel a little better about it.

60 miles closer to being broken in when you get it.

You're stressing over nothing.

It's very normal, you're stressing over nothing, 10 times out of 10 the people the employee to swap car around are guys 60-80 years old who get paid by the mile + hourly with no time constraints. They go the long way and are in no hurry and have driven far faster cars than ours.

There was 97 miles when I got mine. 101 miles after going to the gas station to fill up with the salesman.

He said the dealership's owner's son took it to a car show, which made me nervous, but the price was a steal.

3,500 miles later and it still runs great.

Honestly its going to be someone from said dealer driving the car from one to the other. It may be beaten on while driving around...depends on who they let drive it from one dealer to the other.

All you guys whose 86 came with more than 10 miles on it and believe that the dealership helped you broke in is gotta be kidding yourselves. It's hard to NOT drive it hard when you're driving someone else's brand new sports car ;)

Mine came from Annapolis to Pa and had 120 miles on it. When they dealer trade, it is far more cost effective to drive them then flat bed them.

Relax, it'll be fine.

The drivers are usually bonded and insured, not exactly looking to loose their livelihood.

Do a quick google seach on the name of the dealership in quotes "dealer name here" and see if anything comes up, if it's a problem you'll probably find out real quick.

This is very normal. My guess is the majority of the miles are highway miles. Obviously checkout the car thoroughly before you take possession, but this is nothing to stress over.

I wouldn't worry about it, especially since those were highway miles (60 miles / 1 hr = 60 mph average speed).

My GTI came with 55 miles on the odometer, and you can bet those were from test-drives where more than a few people gunned the engine cold. I'm now at 19k miles on it, and it's great. Doesn't burn oil, hasn't had any major issues. You'll be fine.

It would cost them around $500 extra dollars to ship it by truck vs $7 dollars in gas and probably $12-20/hr for the guy to drive it.

This is where being OCD will just make you sweat more than it's worth.

If the car cannot survive the transport distance (very common with dealers trading inventory and within a couple hours of each other), then why buy a car that you fear will far apart from a short drive?

IF the car was taken for a joydrive the dealer is on the hook and BAM warranty.

It is not a GTR or Corvette Z06 or Lamborghini, so just have more confidence in the car and focus on enjoying it as you will put way more miles on it than the paltry transport distance. Oh my car was transported about 90 miles from another dealer back in September. I even met the old guy who drove my car as he picked me up from the airport when I flew in to pick mine up from out of state. I have put more scratches and dents on my car than he ever could while wrenching on it and swapping parts out. So I enjoy my car, you should too.

Mine had 99miles on it and 104 after I test drove and bought it. Couldn't make the 1.5hr drive to pick it up so one of their drivers delivered it to my house and my car had 173 when it arrived.

I wouldn't worry too much about 60 miles, because at the end of the day you still have to test drive the car before you sign on the dotted line. Use the test drive as an opportunity to make sure you are comfortable before you buy.

The dealer in town doesn't like me because I drove to the dealer that had my car and picked it up myself. I don't know why everyone doesn't do this. You know you're paying for delivery (and those 60 miles), right?

Mine was located at a different dealership 2 states away, so it had 97 miles on it when I finally got to sit in it. There was nothing wrong with it after the salesman drove it to my dealership. I understand the concern, but there's nothing to worry about. They won't be abusing it or anything because if they wreck it, the dealership is out $25k.

The quarter tank of gas I used was about $10. If they deliver you're paying at least a couple hundred bucks.

I've seen how cars with dealer plates are driven up and down the PA turnpike, I would have wanted mine on a truck. Never assume with a dealer, specially in this situation, they are going to do it the cheapest/easiest way unless you specifically ask for it.

It's really not that big a deal. You would be very hard pressed to find *any* new car for sale with literally 0 miles on it, especially when it's a model that most dealers only got a few of. They're going to get driven. My FRS had 51 miles on it when I picked it up.

It's unlikely that those are a hard-driven 60 miles, and even if they are who cares? That's what your warranty is for. I'm all for taking good care of your vehicles but people act like these things are Ferraris or something. They are cheap, they are replaceable, they are easy to work on, and I'm guessing that in a few years there will be zillions of them all over the place. There's no point in treating one like a garage queen.

They seem pretty resilient. I daily mine and honestly beat the hell out of it, plus about a dozen autocross weekends since last summer and haven't broken anything yet. I sidestep the clutch at autocross, too, because fuckit/racecar. :)

I saw a brand new lexus SUV on the 10East 2 weeks ago w/ dealer plates, still had the stickers on it, driven by what was obviously a dealership worker (uniform) in his lower-mid 20's...the guy was gunning it and driving on the side of the road to beat people to the exit. I was disgusted.

:thumbdown:
My ex wife got a new Camry the same day her friend at work bought a 325i. She was really picky about where she parked it and never dove it on gravel. Her friend told her "it's not a Mercedes." 5 years later they sold their cars, and guess whose was worth more?

I'm not saying you shouldn't care about it. Keep up with maintenance, don't bang it up in parking lots, fix what you break, and take good care of the paint. But at the end of the day it's still a cheap sports car made to be enjoyed and it's a bit silly to sweat the little things like a 60 mile delivery.

I see both sides of it.....

It is a car, it is made of metal and is tough. It will be fine.

If I bought a 'new' car there is something nice about buying it with 5 miles compared to 100, meaning I owned the car 'more'. I get what you mean OP, I would want a car with less than 10 miles if I were buying new.

The only concern I could see, is if the person delivering the vehicle, did not follow the break-in procedure. I remember being at the Scion dealership and the salesmen, who were in the back of the dealership, along with an FR-S, and in their 20s, were flooring the FR-S like crazy. I have to be honest, I did not know about the break-in procedure, and got on the car a bit as well. Had I known about the break-in procedure, I would not have done so. Nonetheless, I think the car probably had 15 miles on it by the time I left. And the salesmen were revving the car up a good bit as well. Glad I did not buy that one.

you shouldn't be upset, and it's normal.

but it sure as heck ain't a professional transport service driving it over! :lol:

:lol:


ahem. i was a lot boy at a dealership in college. i.e. i would wash the cars, move them around, fetch them from another dealership, etc. when i was hired, the dealership knew i couldn't drive stick, but given that i rode a motorcycle, said i'd pick it up easy enough. and of course i did- on dealer cars, including driving them from one dealership to another. :lol:

There are many people that would tell you that the break-in procedure is not important and to drive the car like you normally would. That said, you should not be redlining the car and abusing a cold engine before it is warmed up. I just don't know if you could every proove someone did and well, worse case you have a 5 yr 60K mile warranty on the drivetrain.

what color did you get? i had my eye on the WRB limited one on the cherry hill lot a month ago :)

I work at a dealership, and from what I've seen, you shouldn't be worrying. Most of my experience has been mentioned in this thread, but I'll reiterate it.

The good news:

The vast majority of people who are in charge of driving cars from A to B are older, chill people. I have only once seen a dude who even looked like he was in his 20's; most seem to be at least in their 40's. I've ridden with a few and they all drive REALLY SLOWLY. These guys are in no rush...they just recline the seat back and cruise on the highway. Hopefully there's a highway between your two dealerships, and not a bunch of sweet twisties haha.

In a nutshell, most people who work with new cars work with A LOT of them. And you know what? Very few people are actually in 'hoon mode' 100% of the time. Most people are just putting in their 9-5 mindlessly moving cars around in a normal way. We all drive on public roads...you see those slow zombies out there? Yeah, those same "average" people are also employed to drive cars from A to B.

The bad news:

Young, immature, ignorant, stupid, or just plain disrespectful people can pop up anywhere, at any time. One time I was dropping off a car at another dealership and I came up behind a brand new (still had the foam on the door jambs) Hyundai Genesis coupe at a stoplight. When the light turned green, the kid behind the wheel did a hard launch with tires squealing!! That car couldn't possibly have had even triple digit mileage on it.

60 miles is unacceptable. Go back and throw a fit until they reduce the odometer for you.

My car got trucked in from CO with I think 4 miles on the ODO... She barely got hooned from the port to train to truck to my driveway..

are you going to OCD about technician test drives when you bring in your car for service?

Ive been a lot boy. Yeah we have our fun, mainly with the demo cars though. Customer cars....most of the time no one wants to **** them up because its on them and the dealership if something happens and that is the last thing a service rep wants to happen.

And when it comes to dealer trades/exchanges, people just want to be away from the dealership for as long as possible. they don't drive it like they stole it, they try to take as long as possible to waste time and eat into the working hours, its pretty much like a long coffee/lunch break.

Hell...a lot of people would consider that being broken in correctly...spending more than 3 seconds worrying about a new cars break-in is kooky...