Golf GTI. 6,000 miles, first owner VW, used as a demo.

Any reason not to buy?

Is my supposition that it will have been ragged to death – by staff taking it home for the weekend if not by prospective buyers – anything to worry about?

my A3 was ex demo, saved 7K on book price at the time, and got 2.5 years of warranty. It had 5000K on the clock.

EGR went at 3yrs, it developed a coolant leak and nox sensor issue at 6yrs – then i sold it with 80K done.

Why would anyone test drive a Golf and then drive it to the red line in all gears etc.. of course, you’ll give it a bit of boot to see how it goes, but it’s not like you’ll be taking it to Thruxton.

That’s because it was an Audi not because it was ex-demo.

If you must have a Golf (and I wouldn’t buy that poorly made, over priced Granny mobile) then go for it – assuming it’s got a third or so, maybe a bit more, off list.

Personally I’d rag any car that doesn’t belong to me! But I tend to think that doesn’t hurt modern cars, infact there is evidence to suggest that it actually helps them.

Is my supposition that it will have been ragged to death – by staff taking it home for the weekend if not by prospective buyers – anything to worry about?

The engines are designed to be given some stick. If discount and warranty are good then no reason not to.

…but then I drive a Cat D car.

Why would anyone test drive a Golf and then drive it to the red line in all gears etc..

It’s a GTI – why wouldn’t you?

I’ve just bought a demonstrator, £8k off list! 6 months since registration and 4k on the clock.

“The engines are designed to be given some stick.”

Yes but giving an engine some stick from cold doesn’t do them any good, and when its not your own car thats what tends to happen. Personally I wouldnt buy a demonstrator. It will have been driven lots of short journeys where the engine hasn’t warmed up, and then been taking home on a night/weekend by the sales rep and ragged. Just hang around a dealership just as they close and see how the sales guys drive the cars home!

You will still get a better deal buying privately.

Bought an ex demo here too. Big savings and the nearest to new you can get with that much money off.

It’s not physically possible to ‘rag’ cars in traffic at 5.30pm on an evening. I don’t get it…

We have this debate on motorbike forums too about demo bikes, who can really ‘rag’ a 1000cc sports bike ? lol

” who can really ‘rag’ a 1000cc sports bike ? lol”

Anyone from cold. Its also easy to prematurely wear a clutch, brakes etc etc. Ok not to the extent they are going to fail, but rather than them last 30k miles, they may only last 25k miles.

who can really ‘rag’ a 1000cc sports bike ? lol

🙂

I’m no expert on bikes but my friend has a Fireblade and I think I know enough to know what you mean!

Golf GTI. 6,000 miles, first owner VW, used as a demo.

There will have been alot of cold starts with the engine run and shut down before its fully warmed up.

I still would IF it was a really good saving.

I wouldn’t buy an ex-hire though. Those cars ARE ragged mercilessly.

It’s FunkyDunc’s point I have in mind – I’d say it’s quite easy to rag a car, even in traffic – and doing it all from cold on short journeys doesn’t strike me as the best start in life a car could have.

Not sure where you would find a 6k miles, 6 month old Golf GTI privately – or why you would assume it would be any better looked after! Also good luck getting a third off a popular car like that….

It’s FunkyDunc’s point I have in mind – I’d say it’s quite easy to rag a car, even in traffic – and doing it all from cold on short journeys doesn’t strike me as the best start in life a car could have.

Don’t buy it then.

Sorted.

Next problem? 😉

Do you guys all sit and warm your car up for 5 mins before driving to Tescos for a loaf ?

Do you guys all sit and warm your car up for 5 mins before driving to Tescos for a loaf ?

I don’t drive a 1-1.5mile test loop around a dealership multiple times each day every day.

In the morning, if its cold I start and let the car run for a while. If its a hire car, I turn the key and boot it through the revs.

Absolutely. 4000km on the clock….$5000 off the price – Honda CRV – what can you do to that…! Still going strong 150,000km later.

Ex demo would be fine… Ex lease, hire or company car definitely not.

“Do you guys all sit and warm your car up for 5 mins before driving to Tescos for a loaf ?”

No, put I dont put my foot to the floor, or rev the engine at all high until its fully warmed up.

Bought an Ex-VW demo GTI back in 2003 and still have it now.

It came fully loaded with Heated Recaro leather, Climate, Sunroof, Rear Spoiler, Fitted mats, Winter pack, Full tank of fuel, Next service free, VW Warrantied for 2 yrs and was a saving of about £7.5k off list.

No major issues with it at all since having it, usual coil packs, Lamba sensor, Pads & discs, Rear bushes etc…. Only really what you’d expect of an aging car

As a person who runs a Demonstrator as my company car, can speak quite confidently on the fact that Demos are not all ragged within an inch of there lives, quite the opposite infact. I we are taking someone out on a demo, we will drive for the first couple of miles, to warm the car up, the customer will then take over and it is only very, very occaisionally that said customer will push the car hard. The majority of the miles are done by one or two people who use the cars as company cars.
At this point (in most cases) they will be doing a regular commute – of which the staff member will be resonsible for the fuel. I know with our last GTI we sold, it went with around 7,000 miles on the clock – I would guess that it had probably only done somewhere in the region of 200 demo miles in that period.
The main thing to check is the tyres, there should be a minimum of 3mm of tread accross all the tyres, if it has been driven hard – it will have had new front tyres by this time…

In the morning, if its cold I start and let the car run for a while.

that’s a poor and quite ineffective way of warming a car up. just drive it. if you want to show some mechanical sympathy keep the revs in the lower 50% of the range until it’s warm.

As to ex lease/hire cars, probably make up the majority of used cars sold through the dealership network now. No issues with them either!

In winter I wait until the car has warmed up and all windows are clear. I don’t get going with some windows clear and the rest are sorted ‘on the move’..

This way I can see cyclists 😉

All this stuff about ‘ragging’ cars from cold is crap IMHO.

Our ambulances and response cars are regularly started from stone cold and thrashed mercilessly. It’s pretty normal to have some of the ambulances with 200,000+ on the clock and still running on the original engine/turbo/auto gearbox. The cars have lower mileage but are mostly 80,000+ and the vast majority on original engines etc.
They don’t get serviced and more or any better than any other car or van and not a single one of them has been ‘ran in’.

As for buying ex-demo stuff, I bought my GSX-R as an ex-demo and it might as well have been a brand new bike. Saved a good amount on the retail price to boot 😆

What gingerbloke says – my brother also uses demos as his company car and likes to keep them immaculate!

you should set off in a car as soon as its started, leaving it to warm up on its own introduces un-neccesary wear.

For the ex-demo question, depends how long I thought I was going to keep it. 3 years, yeah. 10 years, maybe not

I’d defo consider an ex demo. They are often well specced with extras

I’d love a automotive engineers/designer’s view on this. I was always told to start an engine, ensure all windows are clear before setting off but more importantly not to operate/turn on any lights etc etc until the engine has full heat etc in it. Running a heater/fan takes heat away from the engine.

running the heater can pull heat from the engine, but its normally outside of the thermostat, so its only pulling heat that’d otherwise be pulled from the radiator.

obviously ensure all windows are clear, but you should drive off straight away. Reason is, at idle, very little fuel is being burned, so very little heat is generated. lets say it’d take a car 20 mins to warm up completely, at 750prm – that’s 15,000 revs before the engine is warm. If you pull away immediately, the car will take 5 mins to warm up at an average of 2,000 rpm. That’s only 10,000 revs before the engine is fully warm, which in turn means less wear.

Have bought several demos and five new cars I have to say that modern cars just shrug it off 5,000 miles of abuse from new means nothing.

It’s not possible to rag a modern car unless you go out with the express intention of doing it. Apart from maybe a spirited getaway from the lights or a few miles at 100+ on the motorway it’s just too busy to seriously abuse a modern car unless you take it to the track.

Providing it’s not cosmetically farked, it shifts OK and the tyres are good I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a demonstrator

Our ambulances and response cars are regularly started from stone cold and thrashed mercilessly. It’s pretty normal to have some of the ambulances with 200,000+ on the clock and still running on the original engine/turbo/auto gearbox. The cars have lower mileage but are mostly 80,000+ and the vast majority on original engines etc.

That’s interesting – cheers.

This is all making me think it’s worth doing.

Like Hora, though, I’d be interested in the engineers’ view…

My VX220T was ex-demo – only had one issue and that was nothing to do with its history.

And our Focus was ex-demo – no probs whatsoever.

One of my mechanic mates says the riskiest motors are ex-hire cars. Possibly being a bit broad there because no doubt some look after them better than others (regardless of how badly the cars are treated by hirees).

I wouldn’t buy an ex-hire though. Those cars ARE ragged mercilessly.

Which is why mrs-aracer’s ex-hire Focus has been so rubbish in the 10 years she’s owned it 🙄

Not all hire car users abuse the cars in the way you do – I’d imagine the majority of their use is similar to what I saw when they were provided for transport use at the company I used to work for. People who want to get somewhere and have no particular interest in finding out the limits of another boring Astra, lots of steady motorway mileage.

In winter I wait until the car has warmed up and all windows are clear. I don’t get going with some windows clear and the rest are sorted ‘on the move’

I get off my lazy arse and scrape the windows before starting the car. It’s a lot quicker and is better for your car.

When idling the oil pressure is low. So not only is your car not warming up quickly and you are wasting fuel, but you are letting it run without much oil lubricating it.

FWIW I bought my Prius ex-demo but that garage had a reasonably long test route, it’s near a dual carriageway, and if any car’s not going to get thrashed on a test drive it’s a Prius 🙂

Ex demo would be fine… Ex lease, hire or company car definitely not.

I’m with him.
As long as all warranties etc are still valid any problems should make themselves known in plenty of time. Worth the (very slight) risk for the savings over new.

Ex demo would be fine… Ex lease, hire or company car definitely not.

my ex company car has use gone back to lease company, £2k of extra’s, serviced by dealer per schedule with every single inspection sheet done at 10k, valeted every year and mainly driven motorway miles, it’s a minter and would make a great purchase and the fact that it’s still worth £10K with three years 90K on the clock proves there’s a market for them.

Most hire cars are sold before their first service and washed every hire, bodywork checked, wouldn’t put me off for the right price.

The most troublesome car I had was an Audi A6, three engines in 10 months and 42,000 miles, was a heap of shit to say the least. Some cars are pigs regardless of who was the first to drive it or what brand it is.