Should a new car dealer do this?

[Londonguy]

Hey guys. I was at the dealer today for service and 2 different salesmen were getting in brand new sold cars and driving them to the Licence place to get titles. I know thats where they were going because when they came back they had the titles. Doesn't seem right to drive someone's brand new car to get this stuff done, they have enough other cars on site. No big deal, but thought it was kind of unnceccesary. Any thoughts?

[Jeff Lange]

Depends. There are certain things that need to be done on cars when they arrive, things like filling the tank with gas. While doing this, stopping off at the registry to get the registration taken care of makes sense.

The dealer is of course also obligated to test drive the vehicle to confirm that there are no issues with the car, this would typically be about 10-15km. This is typically done by the technician during the PDI, however.

I guess what I'm saying is, dealers do this all the time, it is typical. If you are ordering a new car, I would try to pick it up as soon as it arrives so that the salesmen aren't showing them to other customers or moving the cars around, etc. It's a better way to go.

Jeff

[fithamoto]

I have seen this done at other dealerships before also....in fact when I was in HS I was paid from my Brother in law (worked at a Honda dealership back then) to go pick up a small pack of cars with my friends from other dealerships like a couple hours away.....And they would sell those cars as new ! So I guess they all do it to some extent.

What the new owners don't know...won't hurt them !

[Jeff Lange]

There are specific rules that define what constitutes a new car, nothing mentioned is against those rules, as far as I can tell. Like I say, if you want to be sure you are getting an as-new-as-possible car, you're going to need to speak with people and take care of things a certain way. Still if it was a couple hours away, that's a bit more than I'd expect. I'd think anything that far away should have been shipped.

In reality, either way, these things do not really affect the car much at all. Anything under 50-75km on the car when you pick it up is generally considered to be reasonable and acceptable. The car should probably have at least around 10-15km on it when you get it. If you're buying a car that was on the lot for a while, or something from the showroom it may have more. Once the car is "sold," but before it's picked up, there may be other people interested in the same car, but it's the only one they have, so they may show it to others, I would expect that they would probably not let people who aren't staff (or contractors, like transporters) drive the car though. This car would still be considered new, and would be sold as such, in fact it might get traded to another dealer, and even though that dealer never drove the car, customers at the first dealership did.

Jeff

[John Mo]

In some jurisdictions it may be required for the vehicle to be present to obtain a title. But I don't think that's how it works. The document that came with mine was a "Certificate of Origin" rather than a state-issued title.

[MAToyotaSales]

Originally Posted by Londonguy

Hey guys. I was at the dealer today for service and 2 different salesmen were getting in brand new sold cars and driving them to the Licence place to get titles. I know thats where they were going because when they came back they had the titles. Doesn't seem right to drive someone's brand new car to get this stuff done, they have enough other cars on site. No big deal, but thought it was kind of unnceccesary. Any thoughts?

Did you want them to drive different new cars?

Besides, how else are they going to fill up the tank? Bring a giant container of gasoline from the gas station back to the dealer? And in what vehicle should said container be transported in?

[Jeff Lange]

Unless the dealer has a fuel filling station, which would be super cool (new Toyota dealer in town has gas pumps, it's neat).

Jeff

[c_huynh32]

That's normal procedure. They have to fill up the car also before handing the keys over and having them sign the papers.

I was able to come along with a tech. to pick up the registration/plates and fill up the gas after they took it into their garage to take out all the plastics and add ons that was needed. It was great the car only has 1 km while sitting in their lot [they got it a day before I bought it] and by the time i sign and left the lot it was 5km so it was pretty cool.