Miles on a New Car - What's OK?

[Phil3]

I am close to closing a deal on a new Fusion hybrid. The car has to be brought in from another location (dealer I presume). I have concerns over miles on the car and how it was driven. Will some kid hot-rod the thing, redlining it, on a cold engine, or...? The salesman says the drivers are professional and have delivered cars safely for years. How do I know? I asked about road damage (paint chips) from the drive and he said if there is any paint damage, they will take care of it. Like what, an ugly paint blob on the paint? The Fusion has a 1000 mile engine break-in and have concerns over that being violated. The salesman said most new cars have less than 70 miles on them. Is that normal and are you guys generally OK with a new car driven to your dealer?

 

Phil

[hermans]

This is normal. In one such dealer trade my car had 117 miles on it as the car was brought from Los Angeles to San Diego.There is always some mileage on the car when it arrives to the dealer from the manufacture. From my experience the dealers hire older retired people to drive the cars between dealers.

Edited February 23, 2015 by hermans

[murphy]

Ask them to transport it on a flat bed truck instead of driving it. They will probably say no but it's worth asking.

 

New cars usually have less than 10 miles on them unless they were selected for extended quality testing. In that case there would be less than 50 miles.

[Griswald]

You worry too much...

 

And there is no "break-in" mileage number. When they turn it over at the factory, its broken-in.

[Cobra348]

I agree with what's been said so far. Having had 4 new Fiestas since 2010 I can tell you the mileages are definitely under 10 except as noted already. One of my cars had 22 because it was brought in from another dealer 13 miles away. Don't sweat it so much and look forward to getting the car! At least you'll have yours before I get mine!

[Waldo]

I had my car brought over from a dealer over 300 miles away. No big deal. If you saw how the cars were driven at the factory, you'd never worry about this.

[acdii]

True to all above. The only way you will ever get a car with extremely low miles is if you order one, or grab it as it comes off the truck. Then you are looking at 3 miles. Dealers know that if they send a driver out who trashes a car, they are on the hook for repairs to it, so they send trustworthy drivers out. You can always negotiate down a bit more on the miles, but dont worry too much about the miles unless they are over 500.

[murphy]

My 2013 had 6 miles on it. They don't have their own gas pump so they had to drive it to the nearest service station to fill the tank.

[jeff_h]

True to all above. The only way you will ever get a car with extremely low miles is if you order one, or grab it as it comes off the truck.

 

And maybe not even then -- I ordered my SE Hybrid and took a test drive of it when it came off the truck and before it went through PDI, had 36 miles on it (but no CD of Mexican music in the player, as observed by another who placed a Job 1 retail order).

[acdii]

I would still consider 36 very low miles, especially if some of those you put on yourself in a test drive.

[machoman1337]

My parents once bought a brand new Acura MDX with over 60 km on it. Our local dealer in the south part of the city didn't have the exact color combination we wanted, but another dealer in North Vancouver had just what we were looking for, so an Acura employee just drove it down for us - a trip of more than 40 km. Our local dealer compensated with another $700 off the already-negotiated price, and we got a free cargo net and cargo cover too so it was worth it.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the mileage unless it's in the high 3 figures - as long as they do the necessary "new car touch ups" before presenting it to you.

[Easy Rider]

You worry too much...

 

And there is no "break-in" mileage number. When they turn it over at the factory, its broken-in.

What he said.

 

If you keep this up, you won't be able to properly enjoy your new car.

[hermans]

True to all above. The only way you will ever get a car with extremely low miles is if you order one, or grab it as it comes off the truck. Then you are looking at 3 miles. Dealers know that if they send a driver out who trashes a car, they are on the hook for repairs to it, so they send trustworthy drivers out. You can always negotiate down a bit more on the miles, but dont worry too much about the miles unless they are over 500.

My FFH had 36 miles on it when it came of the truck. Remember the famous trips to "off site" storage down in Mexico. I tracked my off site trips and there were three.

Edited February 24, 2015 by hermans

[TonyHzNV]

When I bought my new FFH, it had 223 miles on it. I couldn't tell you if it was test driven that much, whether it went through extended testing at the factory, or whether it was driven to Vegas from another dealer in Tucson, AZ (it said "Sold To: Jim Click Ford Lincoln" on the original window sticker). I CAN tell you that it was no worse for the wear, drove and acted perfectly and I immediately fell in love with it. If I had it to do over I might have bought a Titanium, but I certainly don't regret buying the car that I bought. Like eveyone else said, don't worry about the miles. Just enjoy the car!

[md13ffhguy]

The paperwork I signed said that mine had something like 9 or 19 miles on it. The battery was dead when I chose it, so I never saw the actual odometer. Driving home in it, I notice the odometer is 70 something. I thought for a second to go back and say WT... Fudge. Three days later, it had 500+, so really, it didn't matter. A mere drop in the bucket. If all goes well, I'm putting 200K+ on this baby anyhow.

[02ultrarider]

My wife and I drive for a dealer, and all the drivers we have met from other dealerships are all retired from another job, we are part time and on call. Some times cars get put on trailers but not often. sometimes we even fly to other cities to pick up a car. Most people don't want to wait months for a car to be ordered and delivered. I would not worry about how its driven.