The pros and cons of buying an ex-demo car or motorbike
If you want to save some extra money over the cost of buying a brand new car or motorcycle, opting for an ex-demo or pre-reg model could be the way to go.
What is an ex-demo car or motorbike?
Ex-demonstration cars and motorbikes are models that the car dealership have registered to themselves and use to ferry customers around, demonstrate features of the model and for customer test drives.
Most ex-demo models will have been used for around three to six months.
Pros of buying an ex-demo car or motorbike
Ex-demo cars and bikes usually come fully loaded with all the option boxes ticked. You can visit a used car dealership for reference. Think of these models as show houses – they often come with all the bells and whistles to demonstrate and entice the customer into parting with their money.
As demonstration models are used to drive sales, they are very well cared for and looked after.
As the demonstration car or bike has been used on the road, there will be some mileage on the clock, therefore, when it comes to buying you should be able to get a hefty discount. When the dealership decides to sell an ex-demo car there can be as much as €4,000 knocked off the price of a brand new model and up to €2,500 off the price of the brand new bike.
Cons of buying an ex-demo car or motorbike
These cars and motorbikes might have the odd blemish or two but these are usually superficial and you can ask the dealer to touch up marks.
If there are any blemishes you can use these as a bargaining tool.
In most cases, the car or motorbike is already registered to the dealership so it comes with one previous owner.
An ex-demo car or motorbike will have mileage on the clock – usually between 300 to 10,000km. Anything higher is a bit excessive for an ex-demo model so, again, use this to drive the price down.
The manufacturer’s warranty begins as soon as the car or bike is first registered. Therefore, if the ex-demo model is three months old the car or bike is three months into its warranty.
In our opinion
Buying an ex-demo car or motorbike is a great idea. It can save you thousands of euros off an almost new model.
Want more money saving tips? Check out our post on the Allianz Ireland website: How to Save Money When Buying a Car.
