Previous Owner = Car Manufacturer?!

[Potatoes]

I've recently picked up my car which is great, loving it. It's an 18 month old top-spec motor from the manufacturer's "approved used" selection. On receiving the V5, the 1 previous owner turned out to be the car manufacturer which was not what I was told on buying the car.

What would this car have been used for during the 1st 18 months of it's life to get to 21,000 miles??

Worried I am the proud owner of an ex-loan car.

On another note, the entire radio/satnav system had to be replaced after 10 days of ownership (18 month old-car)... pretty rubbish. If you can't tell yet, yes I bought a French car.

[Roo]

Was probably a head office employee car.

[kambites]

Are you sure it was owned by the manufacturer rather than the dealer?

If manufacturer, presumably an ex-company car. If the dealer, probably a demonstrator?

[Unlight]

kambites said:

Are you sure it was owned by the manufacturer rather than the dealer?

If manufacturer, presumably an ex-company car. If the dealer, probably a demonstrator?

Yes this is the more likely one..

[Potatoes]

Thanks all,

this was a manufacturer owned car rather than a dealer owned car.

[CoolHands]

my brother-in-law works for audi (urg) and thus gets new company car every 6 months. He works in accounts dept so it's basically just a way for audi (or whoever) to get millions of overpriced new cars into the system as secondhand approved. Doesn't mean it's ex-loan or demo or anything.

[northwest monkey]

Potatoes said:

Thanks all,

this was a manufacturer owned car rather than a dealer owned car.

I've had one before now with "BMW UK" or similar on the V5 & it had been a company car for a BMW employee. Didn't bother me in the slightest really - if anything I figured it had probably been looked after a bit better when it went in for a service!

[ajh38]

Yeah, as said, it will be an ex management car. They pretty much give the tea lady a car so it looks like they have sold more units and have more registrations.

[Potatoes]

Sweet - good news

[JonnyFive]

ajh38 said:

Yeah, as said, it will be an ex management car. They pretty much give the tea lady a car so it looks like they have sold more units and have more registrations.

I was told MazdaUK get a new car every 6 months! Decent.

[Justayellowbadge]

JonnyFive said:

ajh38 said:

Yeah, as said, it will be an ex management car. They pretty much give the tea lady a car so it looks like they have sold more units and have more registrations.

:nod:

MazdaUK get a new car every 6 months!

MB used to be 3 months.

[AndrewD]

I've owned two ex-factory cars. One was a nice red 997 GT3 3.8, the other was the orange Superleggera used by one J Clarkson on Top Gear's "best driving roads" episode. Couldn't fault both cars, they were very well prepped before I got them. So I would probably do something like this again myself

[Roo]

Justayellowbadge said:

JonnyFive said:

ajh38 said:

Yeah, as said, it will be an ex management car. They pretty much give the tea lady a car so it looks like they have sold more units and have more registrations.

:nod:

MazdaUK get a new car every 6 months!

MB used to be 3 months.

Some our area reps from MB were getting V5s in the post for their next car before they'd even collected their current one.

[JonnyFive]

Justayellowbadge said:

MB used to be 3 months.

Mad isn't it.

[northwest monkey]

JonnyFive said:

Justayellowbadge said:

MB used to be 3 months.

Mad isn't it.

Good for the next buyer though. My car with all it's extras would have been about £44k list price & I got it at 6 months old with 8000 miles on for £30k.

Could have got an Easyjet spec 318 brand new for £30k, but a 6 month old 330 convertible with hardly any miles on & plenty of toys was a no-brainer.

I'd actually seek one out if there was a way to do so. The lad at the garage I bought it from reckoned the manufacturer cars were always a better spec.

[infradig]

Have to agree re Merc and VAG 'management' cars, I live in Milton Keynes and every other person is rattling about in brand new high spec cars that they lease for pennies and change every 6 months- one of my neighbours has a nice c220 with everything including a pan- roof and he doesn't even work there, it's through a relative.
On the negative side, I once bought a 6 month old Fiat Ullysee from a supermarket - supposedly ex-management and with Fiat in Slough as the previous owner. That turned out to be an ex Europcar hire car,this came to light when the RAC wouldn't come out to my wife when the crank pulley fell off( well it was nearly 8 months old) as they had been out to it 8 times before for wrong fuelling!

[longblackcoat]

currybum said:

Ford is 2 cars every 3 months......

Wasn't when I worked there - used to be 2 cars if Grade 9 or over, and to be swapped before they got to 10k miles.

[cptsideways]

Yep most manufacturers give away top spec metal to pretty much everybody who works in the head office & the tea lady.

Just watch out for the ones with numbers stuck to the windows, muddy underneath new 4x4's or sand in strange places footwells

[Riley Blue]

Could have been a press car, we used to rag those silly round the 'Ring

[ajb85]

I used to sell 'Approved Used' (horse sh*t) Citroen and Peugeot, all circa 18 months old and ALL with 'Provincial Securities' or 'ERAC uk (Enterprise-rent-a-car) on the logbooks. All clearly loan cars that had been rather busy for their year. Customers would often ask the question and we as salesman would often fib. There's always been a stigma attached with owning an ex-loan car and in many cases we felt it woud lose a sale if the prospective customer new the truth.