Got a new car delivered today, very shiny, got me wondering where the delivery mileage comes from. This one is brand new and has 14 miles on the clock, which seems like a lot if it’s just moving on and off transporters or around a yard. Do the dealers take new cars on a test drive before delivery, or to the shops to pick up their dry-cleaning?

14 miles is neither here nor there, just idle curiosity as to what those 14 miles were.

They probably check it actually works.

(obviously, this doesn’t apply to Alfa Romeos…)

Rachel

My Alfa had an overide thingy-ma-jig that meant that anytime within the first 60 miles the dealer could reset it to zero, which they did. But 60 miles?! Thats a fair bit.

It made me assume that all the vehicles I’ve had in the past (and any i get in the future) will have been abused for 60 miles by the staff before i get to even sit in my new car.

Assuming it was built abroad.

Driving from factory to transporter.

Driving from transporter to holding area in port.

Driving from holding area to ship.

Driving from ship to holding area.

Driving from holding area to transporter.

Driving from transport to dealers storage area.

This distances in the port can be fairly long so this could quickly add up.

Do they not stick them on rolling road for a bit just to make sure everything’s tightened up? That’s what I assumed it was.

They showed the mini’s being driven round a test track on the building cars live, so that must all be adding to it as well.

14 miles is good

Have had a few new motors IIRC the Focus had done 30 something.

Bikes as well have had a few < 20 but none < 10. My R1 had done 11 when I first saw it in the shop and 18 upon delivery

edit three Harleys all under 10 miles. Says it all really 🙂

Where I’m suspicious is that mine had about 10 miles on delivery, which is fine, but the service due in x miles message was about 80 miles less than the service interval minus current mileage, eg the car was saying service due in 100 miles when it was still 180 miles away from reaching the service interval.

Mine had 17 miles on the clock when I picked it up from the dealership a couple of months ago. I think gobuchul has it above. I assume it will probably have been red-lined from cold a fair few times as well.. When I picked mine up I had similar queries and ended up on quite a big pistonheads thread on the subject.

Where I’m suspicious is that mine had about 10 miles on delivery, which is fine, but the service due in x miles message was about 80 miles less than the service interval minus current mileage, eg the car was saying service due in 100 miles when it was still 180 miles away from reaching the service interval.

Does the service indicator widget not also take into account the number of cycles / hours / types of miles?

I assume it does.

The Mondeo is like that. 12,500 mile service intervals but the reminder comes on before or after depending on how it’s been driven

Mechanics P.D.I ing it?

unknown

Do the dealers take new cars on a test drive before delivery, or to the shops to pick up their dry-cleaning?

A few of the mechanics for the local luxury dealerships (Merc/Aston/Porsche/Ferrari) used to bring cars over to the bikeshop I worked in to PDI them (allegedly). Gratuitous discounts were offered in exchange for burnouts, revving and associated hooliganry.

I often see the new McLarens being driven up the road to the test track at Longcross from the Woking factory; all covered in protective stickers for the fresh paint. Guessing it’s a “did we bolt it all together properly” test. Must be 10 miles at least plus whatever they do at the track. Saw a P1 proto parked outside the coffee shop once too…

It would be a bit unfair on one buyer if the garage always used the same car to pop down the road for the fish and chips.

Cool, so my new Volvo has had 14 (or 74) miles of being ragged around a track/port/to the bike/fish & chip shop then.

slowoldman – Member

It would be a bit unfair on one buyer if the garage always used the same car to pop down the road for the fish and chips coke and hookers.

A mate of mine had to help two young ladies at a garage once. They were trying to open the bonnet of a new Merc.

When he asked why they needed to get under the bonnet of such a brand new car they said the oil light had been on the whole way up the motorway (!) and they figured they needed to put oil in.

They were delivering the new car to the owner 🙁

geoffj – Member
Where I’m suspicious is that mine had about 10 miles on delivery, which is fine, but the service due in x miles message was about 80 miles less than the service interval minus current mileage, eg the car was saying service due in 100 miles when it was still 180 miles away from reaching the service interval.
Does the service indicator widget not also take into account the number of cycles / hours / types of miles?

I assume it does.

POSTED 29 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST
rocketman – Member
The Mondeo is like that. 12,500 mile service intervals but the reminder comes on before or after depending on how it’s been driven

POSTED 29 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Maybe, I didn’t think of that.

which seems like a lot if it’s just moving on and off transporters or around a yard

you are making the mistake of thinking 14 linear miles.

It’s done about 1/3rd of that, but the wheels have been spinning the whole time ;).

didn’t a small scale car builder find that the port staff were driving the cars so hard it was causing engine failure – after setting a ECU limiter for removal after shipping engine failures went down by a huge %ge!

A few of the mechanics for the local luxury dealerships (Merc/Aston/Porsche/Ferrari) used to bring cars over to the bikeshop I worked in to PDI them (allegedly).

They drove cars to a bike shop for a pre delivery inspection? Why?

With Mercedes cars you used to be able to reset the mileage to zero when it was below 60 miles iirc. You could do it two or three times.
The idea was that customers would pick up their brand new car with 0 miles on the clock. It was also handy for staff with cars on the company lease scheme where the mileage was limited as you could reset it to zero a couple of times and get yourself an extra 120 or 180 miles on your allowance!

Gary_M

They drove cars to a bike shop for a pre delivery inspection? Why?

Because they would get discounts if they did silly things in the cars.

But surely if they did burn outs in them there would be flat spots on the tyres. I would notice that.

Must be all sorts of insurance implications there and a risk of the mechanic losing their job just for a discount on a bike part.

Doesn’t add up.

after setting a ECU limiter for removal after shipping engine failures went down by a huge %ge!

Many many cars these days have a delivery calibration in engine and gearbox. Restricts all sorts of behaviours.

Some customers could do with the delivery calibration being left in place……..

But surely if they did burn outs in them there would be flat spots on the tyres. I would notice that.

Doesn’t add up.

Yup.

A mate of mine had to help two young ladies at a garage once. They were trying to open the bonnet of a new Merc.
When he asked why they needed to get under the bonnet of such a brand new car they said the oil light had been on the whole way up the motorway (!) and they figured they needed to put oil in.
They were delivering the new car to the owner

Your mate is talking rubbish

Seen cars on the road being driven with all the films on, prbably when you have a chain it’s easier to just drive it sometimes than stick it on a transporter

But surely if they did burn outs in them there would be flat spots on the tyres. I would notice that.

Really? Is that in the same way as when you get a puncture its only flat at the bottom.

“But surely if they did burn outs in them there would be flat spots on the tyres. I would notice that. “

Why does the earth spin round under the car’s wheels?

Gary_M
But surely if they did burn outs in them there would be flat spots on the tyres. I would notice that.

Must be all sorts of insurance implications there and a risk of the mechanic losing their job just for a discount on a bike part.

Okay so, just to contextualise this for you. When I asked the Merc mechanic to do this in a white SL65 AMG his response was iirc, “no problem, I have to check everything’s working anyway. If I even twitch my foot here (wet car park) it’ll go sideways”.

Aston and Jag mechanics used let us drive their demonstrators if we dropping off bikes for their showroom, and the Porsche guys were mates so they got discount by default, they always seemed to be bringing shiny stuff over to show off.

When I asked the Merc mechanic to do this

Ah I see so it was the mechanic revving it etc, not someone from the bike shop. Must have been exciting 🙂

Gary_M

Ah I see so it was the mechanic revving it etc, not someone from the bike shop. Must have been exciting

Yeah, when I said “they”, I meant they, not I. And yes, if you like cars seeing/hearing V8s and V12s being revved is exciting.

Gratuitous discounts were offered in exchange for burnouts, revving and associated hooliganry

You didn’t say ‘watching’ 🙂

When I worked @ Avonmouth docks we used to watch cars being unloaded off the big transporter ships over the water in Royal Portbury and you could hear them redlining off the boats then 1/4 mile flat out in a big arc to be parked up for months on end.

I’ve taken delivery of new cars from dealers pretty much all my life and most of them have come with <20miles on the clock. One came with 75 on it but then it was driven down from another (same) dealer form up North down to me, can’t argue with that. Dealers include BMW, MERC and Volvo.. all much of a muchness TBH.
Never had issues with pre del mileage as they’ve all been covered by the dealer selling me the vehicle.

Not 100% sure if that satisfies your curiosity at all.

An old colleague of mine had 14miles on the clock of their new company car when delivered. Amusingly had 14miles and 3 meters on the clock when written off. Oh how we laughed.

No matter what the mileage says still check the car thoroughly. I bought a pre-reg Fiesta that had a low mileage on it. Found out a few weeks later that it had fallen off the transporter and had needed a whole new front end!!

Replaced it early last year with a pre-reg Fabia and I checked that out with a fine tooth comb, even told the dealer why and he showed me the full service history for it on the VAG database (factory inspection and the PDI report). Showed it had already been treated to a new A-pillar plastic cover as it had been scratched in transit to the dealer. Even a new car has a history!

I used to spend an incredible amount of time at Dealerships sorting out paint defects and scratches on cars that had never been “driven”

Buying a brand new car is no guarantee that the car hasn’t already been damaged and fixed before you even see it.

Burnouts in car parks probably cause a lot of that.

Or at least, the pillocks doing burnouts.

All this reminds me how brutal the very first start of a new car sounds… Used to visit certaing factory and there the procedure was to start the car, drive it on the rolling road and after few seconds of idling hit the maximum revs. Then they drove the car outside for a quick spin before driving it to load area.