« Reply #19 on: 05 November 2009, 04:54 »
In response to the original question, it wouldn't surprise me if the dealers took people out in cars already allocated to a new owner, but I'd guess that rather than upset a cash paying customer it would be more likely they used one of their fleet department lease cars as the company car driver that would be taking delivery would, I'm sure, be generally less fussy than a private owner. Mind you nothing would surprise me.
Also a lot of demo cars don't get that much of a thrashing necessarily. When I've been out in very low mileage cars the salesman has been at pains to make sure the car isn't thrashed. Not that I'd believe they gave a monkeys about the car, more likely they get fed up sitting next to nutters having to wonder whether the 5 star NCAP rating will save their bacon if the prospective customer launches the thing into a tree trunk.
As for hire cars, well yeah they get bought by the hire companies for peanuts, thrashed from the word go and are generally sold on after only about 1000 miles. The hire companies, in this country at least, make very little money from the actual hiring. Their profit comes when they sell the cars on again for more than they paid for them brand new.
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