Who owns the demonstrators

bobthebilda · 13-12-2011, 12:17 AM

Who owns the demonstrators that sit on showroom floors. I was always under the impression that car yards buy the cars from the manufacturers, and they ensure they have sufficient cars on hand for potential customers to look at and try (demonstrators). Not only is it weird that Holden dealers have quite a few 2010 cars on carsales.com with under 100 k's, but now Holden have on their own website (and ads on TV), SV6 demonstrators that are selling for approx $1500 less than a new SV6.

How do Holden know that they have many SV6's "demonstrators" out there, that have the same wear and tear that allows them to advertise them for the same price. And suprisingly even tho the ad states for cars manufactured from june 2011 to oct 2011, they still all come with 12 months reg (where as most ads for demonstrators normally say "balance of 12 months reg"). Have Holden just dropped the price of an SV6 by $1500, but in order to protect future pricing, are selling new cars off as demonstrators.

Smoke Pursuit · 13-12-2011, 12:18 AM

Yes dealers have to register the cars to get the bonus.

Brazen · 13-12-2011, 12:24 AM

Yep factory rebates on vehicles that are registered. The manufacturers are aware of what are demonstrators sitting out there.

Smoke Pursuit · 13-12-2011, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

Yep factory rebates on vehicles that are registered. The manufacturers are aware of what are demonstrators sitting out there.

Yes as the dealers have to report to the manufacturer to get the bonus back when the sale takes place. That's why dealers can't sell cars unless they have done their 30 - 45 days on the yard registered (unless you want to pay more of course).

GTP owner · 13-12-2011, 07:04 AM

I bought an xr6t demonstrator. (BA series 1) Didn't keep it long as it had too many niggles like most first generation vehicles do, so traded it on the bf xr6t, which has been a much better car

Poetic Justice · 13-12-2011, 07:28 AM

Technically speaking, in most cases, a finance company will own the demonstrators ;)

Bossxr8 · 13-12-2011, 05:12 PM

I'm guessing Holden will be adding another 1000 or so registered demos this month, to try to keep there No 1.

prydey · 13-12-2011, 09:47 PM

if the cars have to be registered, does this then start eating into factory warranty? warranty starts from date of 1st registration normally, so if dealers are registering cars to help commodores sales figures, then surely customers who buy these aren't getting the full 3 years. not sure how exactly it all works.

jpd80 · 13-12-2011, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

if the cars have to be registered, does this then start eating into factory warranty? warranty starts from date of 1st registration normally, so if dealers are registering cars to help commodores sales figures, then surely customers who buy these aren't getting the full 3 years. not sure how exactly it all works.

No but they get a big discount and inducements on extended warranty.
If indeed holden dealers register a lot of cars this month then they will
surely get the sales crown but also suffer a massive pull forward in sales.

The headache comes when those demos get sold in January, a low sales month.....

bobthebilda · 13-12-2011, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prydey

if the cars have to be registered, does this then start eating into factory warranty? warranty starts from date of 1st registration normally, so if dealers are registering cars to help commodores sales figures, then surely customers who buy these aren't getting the full 3 years. not sure how exactly it all works.

From what I have read, they are coming with the 3 years warranty. Which leads me to believe they arent demonstrators, but new vehicles (obviously built too many over the last 5 months), they are trying to clear for $1500 less than normal without admitting the new base price for an SV6 is now $35490.

LethalLeigh · 14-12-2011, 11:01 AM

It may be that Holden are offering incentives for the dealers to add further demonstrators with this deal. Manufacturers and dealers move in mysterious ways sometimes. The name of the game is to shift excess stock. Sometimes you lose a little with rego, sometimes with warranty but we buy demonstrators on price, don't we?

When I was working for a Mitsubishi a few years back they progressively dropped the price of Colt Ralliarts from around $33K to $25K after they had trouble shifting them. The subsidies in this case were from Mitsubishi themselves. I was nearly tempted to look at one at that price when I bought my XR4 but I knew some of these cars had been sitting in yards for over a year. Eventually in the case of Mitsubishi they re-released the Ralliart and took a lot of equipment out.