Ex-demo Golf GT?

[Chung]

Hi guys,

Been looking at getting myself a Golf GT Sport, found some ex-demo MY07 GT's which are along the lines of what I'm after, just a couple of questions about the GT's and buying ex-demo.

- Are the only differences between the MY07 GT and the MY08 GT Sport the badges and the front grill?
- Any obvious things to look out for when buying Ex-demo cars?
- I know there can be some concern about test drivers fanging the cars, is it really that damaging to the engine?
- Does anyone have any idea about how much I should be able to haggle down an ex-demo with around 5000 to 10,000 kms?
- Does the factory warranty start when I buy the car or when the dealer registers it (eg. back in 2007)

Thanks in advance for your help, I've learnt heaps already from this forum and can't wait to get a VW of my own and post some pics up!

Cheers,

Chung.

[gerhard]

Hi Chung,

Buying Ex-Demo is a smart way to go.

You will lose some of the factory warranty.

The old chestnut of test vehicles being thrashed to death and therefore subsequently unreliable is, in my opinion, untrue. In most cases the test driver is accompanied by a salesman, and this would be doubly so for younger drivers going out in GTs or GTis.

As for price, you should be able to haggle a bit, especially towards the end of the month. For instance, I was interested in a demo Touareg V6 diesel just before Christmas. The dealer was asking 78,000 plus stamp duty of 4%, or $81,120 drive away. I was offered the vehicle for $75000 drive away on the first phone enquiry.....only problem was it was black and I won't have a black vehicle.

Good luck.

[SoVeReIgN]

The old chestnut of test vehicles being thrashed to death and therefore subsequently unreliable is, in my opinion, untrue. In most cases the test driver is accompanied by a salesman, and this would be doubly so for younger drivers going out in GTs or GTis.

ROFL.

Absolutely untrue - I have mates that are car salesmen, ALL the demos I've ever heard of get the absolute tits thrashed off them. They are marketed as performance cars (GT, GTI and R32) and as such all get thrashed. My mates tell me about them borrowing the demos to go get some lunch and giving them an absolute belting. (Huge clutch dumps, constant DSG launches)
Any new car test drive I've been on (I've only been on a couple) the salesperson has encouraged me to give it.

Although the thrashing isn't really a huge deal, but think about how much consideration is given to these things being warmed up before thrashed - Turbos suffer big time (even more so than NA engines) by not being warmed up before being thrashed.

I wouldn't buy a demo EVER. Well, unless I was going to be rid of it well within the warranty period.


PS. I was outside/around Seb's workshop one day for a couple of hours, next door is a tinting place that must do atleast one dealerships Toyota/Lexus' - Every single car, no exceptions(!) was floored up the ~100metres to the shop when being dropped off and then when picked up, started then floored the 100metres then onto the road for a WOT-chirping launch back to the dealership (All pre delievery, shiny with trade plates and plastic coverings on wheels etc). These are cars that will be sold as NEW.. Remind me never to get a car tinted by a dealership or to buy a Toyota near penrith.

[adrian112]

Yeah demo's do get a thrashing. when i test-drove a GT not awhile back the sales rep encouraged me to give it all i wanted to give on a back road.... made me think about all the people he drives the car with who must have thrashed the car as well!

I have heard that some dealers can sell un-driven demo allocated models at abit of a discount.

[rabbitoh]

Will add my own experience. Test driving an R32, I was told to give to her, tried out launch control etc. She wasn't properly warmed up (or run in with 200 odd clicks on her). They offered to then sell me the car - I politely turned em down

[jb747]

I test drove R32, GTI and GT. Whilst I did go to the trouble to make sure they were nice and warm, all of them got a bit of a poke in the guts. But, taken as a % of the total drive time, I'd think it was quite small.

So, I would certainly consider a demo, but the price would have to be right. And a demo is a SECOND HAND vehicle, no matter how much a dealer might like to talk it up.

[Jaymz]

Hi guys,

Been looking at getting myself a Golf GT Sport, found some ex-demo MY07 GT's which are along the lines of what I'm after, just a couple of questions about the GT's and buying ex-demo.

- Are the only differences between the MY07 GT and the MY08 GT Sport the badges and the front grill?

Volkswagen Passenger Vehicle MY08 Changes

• Blue Graphite Pearl Effect replaces Shadow Blue in the MY08 GT-Sport
• Introduction of new GT-Sport model with both 1.4 TSI and 2.0 TDI 125kW engines.
• The GT-Sport replaces both MY07 Sportline models and the limited release GT model. There were only 500 of these brought into the country.
• The specification of the Golf GT-Sport is based on the Golf GT with the following changes:
o New grille surround in charcoal (formally body colour) and GT-Sport grille badge.
o The cloth seat trim has been modified. The cushion and backrest side bolsters are now covered in plain Anthracite trim and not the Red-Anthracite trim like the centre sections of the seat.

- Any obvious things to look out for when buying Ex-demo cars?
- I know there can be some concern about test drivers fanging the cars, is it really that damaging to the engine?

Not really. Just go over the whole car and have a look for any scratches, wheel scuffs or marks to seats/interior. If your happy with the cars presentation then go for it. Bring these things up when negotiating not when you are picking the car up.

- Does anyone have any idea about how much I should be able to haggle down an ex-demo with around 5000 to 10,000 kms?

Demo cars have the same margin in them as new cars, but the dealer is always happy to let you have this when doing the deal. $5000 is always a big throw at the stumps so if you got $3 to $3.5k out of them you would have a good deal. See how you go with a good tint also. All the extras have some sort of mark up in them so a window tint is always a good one to get thrown in.

- Does the factory warranty start when I buy the car or when the dealer registers it (eg. back in 2007)

The factory warranty starts from the day it was first registered. If it is approaching a birthday get them to throw in another year.

I have mates that are car salesmen, ALL the demos I've ever heard of get the absolute tits thrashed off them. They are marketed as performance cars (GT, GTI and R32) and as such all get thrashed. My mates tell me about them borrowing the demos to go get some lunch and giving them an absolute belting. (Huge clutch dumps, constant DSG launches)

Nice friends, not very professional, no wonder sales consultants have a bad name. What dealership do they work for?

Will add my own experience. Test driving an R32, I was told to give to her, tried out launch control etc. She wasn't properly warmed up (or run in with 200 odd clicks on her). They offered to then sell me the car - I politely turned em down

So let me get this straight, they told you to thrash a brand new car that was cold, and you did it?
Would you do that to your own car?

[SoVeReIgN]

So let me get this straight, they told you to thrash a brand new car that was cold, and you did it?
Would you do that to your own car?

While some ethusiasts (I would like to say most/all but that would be untrue) will wait until their car is warm i'd think you'd be looking at a single digit % of people that do the same in the real world, and even less when it isn't theirs or their friends cars.

Moral of the story - Demos get thrashed with no mechanical sympathy.. No two ways about it.

[rabbitoh]

Um - where did I say I thrashed her? They told me to, I didn't say I did it. Given she had 200 odd clicks, I could only assume I wasn't the first person offered that opp and I would assume others might not have been so sympathetic. I did try launch control about 15 minutes in and I do agree, that wouldn't be a good thing given the kms on the car. Still, I wanted to try it out, with a view to deciding whether to purchase, so what can you do?

The car was apparently firebombed a week or two after and was destroyed. Bizarre.

[Chung]

Thanks for the replies so far, I think I'll definitely consider some of the ex-demos at the right price.

I took a GT Sport for a test drive last year and the salesman told me to drive it hard too (I didn't). Seeing as the performance of the car is a big part of their sales pitch I guess it's to be expected that they'd want you to see how hard it can go compared to the other cars in the range.

[Chung]

only problem was it was black and I won't have a black vehicle.

Mind if I ask why you won't have a black car?

[Maverick]

- Any obvious things to look out for when buying Ex-demo cars?
- I know there can be some concern about test drivers fanging the cars, is it really that damaging to the engine?

Don't do it. Other cars they have maybe like stock standard 1.9 diesels but don't buy a GT or GTI this way.

The salesman each time wasn't scared to thrash the car when I went out for a test drive and encouraged me to do it as well. You buy this car for a reason and it's not to drive sedately.

When I took one out by myself I gave it a bit as well, I'm spending 50K on this car and wanted to test it out well in the limited time that I had.

Imagine that every second test drive is like this and it's 5,000 kms are probably the equivalent of regular driving (with some thrashing) over 50,000 kms and I don't think you would be far off the mark. (taking into account that the car was driven like from this from 0 kms and not broken in or warmed up well).

One of the GTI's that I was looking at one dealer had rubber up both sides of the car from the front wheels.

As I said a normal car I maybe would purchase a demo, but anything like this I would steer clear of unless you want problems down the track.

[BarneyBoy]

Of course there's a whole chapter of folks who subscribe to the "run it in like it's stolen" brotherhood.

These guys surely must think demos are not only OK, but maybe the best car ever

[Mischa]

Hi Chung,

Buying Ex-Demo is a smart way to go.

You will lose some of the factory warranty.

The old chestnut of test vehicles being thrashed to death and therefore subsequently unreliable is, in my opinion, untrue. In most cases the test driver is accompanied by a salesman, and this would be doubly so for younger drivers going out in GTs or GTis.

As for price, you should be able to haggle a bit, especially towards the end of the month. For instance, I was interested in a demo Touareg V6 diesel just before Christmas. The dealer was asking 78,000 plus stamp duty of 4%, or $81,120 drive away. I was offered the vehicle for $75000 drive away on the first phone enquiry.....only problem was it was black and I won't have a black vehicle.

Good luck.

LOL LOL

lol lol lol

i have personally thrashed the crap out of a demo gt. burnout and all. with the salesman.

[ozgriff]

Of course there's a whole chapter of folks who subscribe to the "run it in like it's stolen" brotherhood.

These guys surely must think demos are not only OK, but maybe the best car ever

True that, but they do state to warm up the engine first and make sure it's running at operating temperature. I also think they say running it up hard but don't dump clutch or chirp it for 100m. It would be a good poke at the theory to see demo cars vs sedate run in periods.

My salesman drove the car harder than I ever would/could have - so I drove it hard too. It was warm after coming back from another test drive, but this demo would have been flogged all day at every chance.

My main concern would be the warranty that comes with it and how long you plan to keep it.

The initial state of the car: kms driven, scratches, interior wear, tyre wear, wheel scuffs and brake wear. Those are consumables that will hit you up first.