New Jetta - Odometer reading 300kms

[aoki]

hi guys,
I have picked up a new Jetta from a VW Dealer today HOWEVER after driving for 5 minutes and then looking at the Odometer there was already 300kms already on the trip computer.

I then contacted the sales consultant and he has advised cars were received like that originally and its normal.


I have purchased two VW's from this dealership before and never have had this issue ( that's probably why i didn't run my eyes over this) but can anyone advise whether this sounds suss?.

Thanks

[VW Convert]

Sounds suss to me, I would not have accepted the car as such, I would bet they had put trade plates on it and used it as a demo.

Cheers

George

[aoki]

surely thats illegal isnt it?

claiming a product is new when it isn't.

[Golf Loon]

Provided the odometer hasn`t gone uver 100ks, it can be reset several times. If they had also reset the MFA, you would be unaware.

Dunno about the legalities, but all the cars that are "new" have to be transportted to the dealership. The only way to get a never driven one would be to pick it up at wolfsberg.

[Greg Roles]

Thats rubbish. I worked in car sales for a brief time, and was involved in transporting a few cars, they all arrived to the customer well under 100kms.
300kms is a car that has indeed been used a bit. Not a demo level, usually few thousand kms, but it's not "new and totally unused". My Ford came at 27kms, and the Golf was about the same.

Then again once you sign the contract..... all you have now is purchase history, and does the DP want to keep you happy.

[aoki]

thanks everyone for your feedback

any idea how i should tackle this?

definitely not impressed by the kms..even tho its fairly low

[The_Hawk]

300km sounds a little much for "normal" things, like driving on and off transports. But did you get any "special" dealer fitted options??

Consider that they don't do many (if anything) in house these days, so a set of different rims means a trip to the local wheel place. Window tint may mean a trip across town to the tint dude... So it's possible to run up a few km's. I still wouldn't have thought it would get up to 300km unless your in some rural town where the tint guy is 150km away...

As has been said, they can reset it under 100km's so had they been on the ball it could have read 0km when you picked it up and you never would have known. At the end of the day if the car has no marks or other concerns to make you not want it, I wouldn't loose sleep over it, in two months 300km will be meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

[aoki]

nah no additional fittings.

i do agree 300kms is not a large amount of mileage..in the scheme of things.

however ..i guess i would've wanted them to throw in some additional goodies if someone else has been taking it for a nice spin prior to me.

[Maverick]

It's also possible that the odo has been reset as well as it may have even more km's on it. Mine was 10km from memory when I picked it up and there's no excuse for it being more then 100km as it should have been transported on the back of a truck/ship so should only have mileage from some drive on and drive off of these modes of transportation.

I'd be taking it up with the DP and asking how many km's the car had when it was delivered to them and ask for an explanation and make it clear that you're really unhappy about this and that you should have been advised of the excess km's prior to signing for delivery. Hit him up for something to compensate if there is no explanation for the km's as they could have been with dealerplates and customers test driving.

[aoki]

my pet hate is the dishonestly..

sales rep was saying the jetta was manufactured in eu so thats one reason it may have additional kms?..but i thought it was south africa.

have checked the vin..and it the car had arrived in mel late last year.

from Bremen..( is this one of the ports in Sth Africa?.

[evorobin]

Makes you wonder if they had reset it several times before but slipped over 100km and thought stuff it...

[aoki]

well im sure it happens across the industry.



have brought several cars from this dealership in the past. so assumed this would not happen..

will be sending them an email shortly ...please explain!

[Maverick]

my pet hate is the dishonestly..

sales rep was saying the jetta was manufactured in eu so thats one reason it may have additional kms?..but i thought it was south africa.

have checked the vin..and it the car had arrived in mel late last year.

from Bremen..( is this one of the ports in Sth Africa?.

Bremen is in Germany.

Makes no difference where the car is manufactured as they don't drive them from the factory to the dealer, they roll out of the factory and onto a truck, then on and off that transport onto a boat, then off that boat and onto another truck to the dealer. If the car is transfered a few times there might be a few loads and unloads and of course maybe a trip to the tinter etc. Maybe if one dealer transfers to another one close by they might drive it if it's urgent but 300km is a lot and it may have been reset already.

I would prefer under 50km but under 100km would be acceptable with a reason. My concern would be who and how has it been driven to cover 300km?

[Russ59]

When I picked up the GT it only had 30 kms on the clock, that would have been clocked up with trips around town for window tinting etc... 300kms is more like a road trip I know it's not a real big deal but as Maverick just said who has been driving it and did they drive it like a Sunday Granny or like they stole it I would personally be asking the dealer for an explanation as to why the pre delivery kms are so high

[aoki]

its just such a pain.

not sure what else could be done..or how there going to explain how they cloaked 300kms.