Advice needed: mileage on new astra

[johnnyalpha]

Hi all! Bit of advice needed here!

I've just bought a new Astra from the dealership in Canberra, though it hasn't been delivered yet. They didn't have one in the chosen configuration so they've been asking around other dealerships. Today they said they found one, only thing is, it has 80 kilometers on the clock. It did "one" test-drive, apparently.
Now, I could be being really pedantic here but I don't know how on earth someone does that many k's on a single test drive. I'm wondering whether the test-driver flogged it during the crucial breaking-in period, or whether it had extended factory testing because there was something wrong. I've been told I can either take that car in a couple of weeks or wait an unspecified period "likely months, not weeks" while they find another.
What would you do? Either way it looks like I'm not getting my car for Christmas :(

[Nurb608]

Ask for a discount, they may be able to take some money off if you're lucky. Mine had 150km dealer k's on it and got a decent price. They can only say no.

[metry]

Ask for a discount, they may be able to take some money off if you're lucky. Mine had 150km dealer k's on it and got a decent price. They can only say no.

+1 ask for a discount. we bought my mothers car with 600ish on there from memory and we got a good deal. just mention stuff like how its an inconvenience etc

[adam_92]

Most cars will come off the truck with about 20kms before the dealership even gets them. Then a test drive by the dealership when they get them to bed brakes in and do a final check/inspection. There's up to about 50kms depending on where the dealerships holding yard is. Could be 5-10kms each way. Then a customer test drive 10+ kms. It quickly adds up.

[Jen]

Depends on the dealership how far they'll allow someone to go out for. Years ago mum and dad took a car for a test drive and were told to take it for the day and take it wherever they liked. We took it from Sydney to the blue mountains so racked up a fair few k's got back to the dealership and they ended up buying one with only 6k's on it whereas the other one had about 6000 so it's very possible it has been out on 1 test drive

[dutchy]

they will be able to reset it too but I wouldnt worry about those k's. besides what adam_92 said, they also do some k's being put on and off the boat. Indeed just ask for a discount and some free goodies.

[JohnBu]

I wouldn't have any issues buying it.

If yours is a private car and not on a fully maintained lease, I would ask for the first 3 services to be completed free of charge.

That's worth say $1,000 to you and going to cost them $200. Win/win in my books.

FYI- there's nothing wrong with an engine being flogged on a test drive, as long as it was warmed up. Abused clutch/brakes is another matter.

[mickos]

I also would worry about the kms or hows it been driven it will spend alot of its life with you anyway so depends on how you treat it for future kms.

I remember a while back when i was a painter we used to paint all the cars for a mercedes dealer in mosman.
At one point we had over 40 cars come in for lower front bar skirts scratched that needed painting all brand new cars, when they transported them every car scraped the lower front bar when being unloaded.
It added 25kms more per odometer mostly was stopped idling in traffic. So most of the kms could have been slow traffic drives as most of the shitty roads are around oz

Add a test drive here and its adds up

[cbrmale]

I looked at the Astra Sport as a replacement to my AH Sri 2.2 and test drove the first one in Canberra, on trade plates. The car I drove would have been sold to someone else. You do your test drive with the salesman so you're not going to overly abuse the car. I mapped out a 20km route and by the time I got half-way around I realised it wasn't the car I expected. So I said thanks but no thanks and the salesman looked really hurt. He thought he had a sale but the car was too big, too soft and too sluggish. I particularly didn't like the way I had to chase the steering around road camber changes. Seats were too soft too. Soft seats are not comfortable, despite the chiropractic association whatever it is.

I bought a Hyundai Veloster SR Turbo instead. Also 1.6 litre turbocharged but rather different to the Opel. Compact, highly tuned (high pressure turbocharger with intercooler), and steers and handles as well as my Sri (and better than the new Opel Sports). Also gets a lot of attention (what is that?). Cheaper and better equipped too. The Veloster was similar in that I took Moss Vale's unregistered car out for a pre-determined drive but I realised half-way around it was a brilliant car, so I bought the car I drove. Not what I was expecting from Hyundai, but I had read reports which rated it close to a GTI so I shouldn't have been surprised.

I was disappointed by the Astra Sports and I felt the car had been homogenised and American-ised, and it was really a Holden / Chevvy Cruze with a bigger motor and an up-market interior. It wasn't a German car anymore, and instead was just an Opel-badged variant of a world-wide platform. Not worth the money by a long shot.

Delivery kms is a minimum of 10 or 15. Then it might do a test drive (maybe 30 like I did in the Veloster) and if it comes from another dealer it has to be driven on and off trucks and into yards (say another 10).

[kts350]

When we got oh Captiva last year it had 25km on it..