[JBinSD]

Perusing Cars.com com, found exactly what I'm looking for, waay far from me (MO, I'm in So Cal), Carfax indicates an auctioned "Manufacturer's vehicle" 1 owner. Is this a risky buy? If I try to buy sight-unseen and transport, am I crazy?

[Mojave]

It depends I guess what they used it for. It could have been Display vehicle, Executive vehicle, Promo Car, Advertisement Car or Rep Car ,but it also could have been damaged during transit. I bought a Dodge Ram that was a Manufacturer vehicle and it was a great truck and really seemed very lightly used. The hard part is sight unseen. Would you buy a used car unseen?

Any way to get more information on the car and get a video of it sent to you. Those things would make me feel more comfortable.

[JBinSD]

Tough call, its got 5k miles on it, but hyper blue on ceramic is what i crave, lol.

[mariojmoe]

Without a doubt I would buy it op. Have them send you close up pics and ask the gsm to personally smell it (smokers car) etc. Once they see you are anal but serious typically they will be honest about it and let you know every detail. Ask for hood and front bumper close up pics (for rock chips), and just ask them.to be very straight up and honest with you. Depending on the response from pics yes I would buy it if it was what I was after.

My 2016 tundra 4x4 was a manufacturers car and had 3k miles when I bought it. It was purchased sight unseen and the things looks brand spanking new. Only minor issue was a barely noticeable tiny knick on the very bottom of the driver front door (had to look hard for it). Totally didn't bother me bc I saved a ton on a top of the line platinum tundra in the color I wanted.

[ThatRedFirebird]

Originally Posted by Mojave

It depends I guess what they used it for. It could have been Display vehicle, Executive vehicle, Promo Car, Advertisement Car or Rep Car ,but it also could have been damaged during transit. I bought a Dodge Ram that was a Manufacturer vehicle and it was a great truck and really seemed very lightly used. The hard part is sight unseen. Would you buy a used car unseen?

Any way to get more information on the car and get a video of it sent to you. Those things would make me feel more comfortable.

Those promo cars can be used for "Ride & Drive" events where they get mercilessly flogged. I've seen cars with 150 miles that average 4.5 mpg over their lives because they were driven at around 4000+ rpm pretty much their whole lives.

What a great "break-in" period haha.

[megaphone]

I was looking at that same car a month ago! Decided not to go with it because I've heard bad stories about manufacture cars. Especially seeing when a car magazine (don't remember which one) had a hyper blue car with ceramic interior.

[JBinSD]

hmm, pretty divergent thought processes. Its halfway across the country, which compounds my issues, and yeah, it was sold at an auction? Which seems strange, but maybe thats just the process. . . Its probably safe to say it wasn't a garage queen, and with the difference of $5k for a new one, maybe its not worth the risk.

thanks for the insight guys.

[Glen e]

Have them connect the shop computer and print out the rpm history for you...it will tell you A LOT....

[SSSHYBOY]

Leave it to Glenn; RPM history, wow.

My 2 cents... If it is a luxury car it's probably ok but a 6th gen Camaro could be very chancy for some of the reasons above. Suppose it WAS a car given to every magazine for their comparison tests? I'd lose sleep just thinking about it.

[ThatRedFirebird]

Originally Posted by Glen e

Have them connect the shop computer and print out the rpm history for you...it will tell you A LOT....

Even if they won't pull that, you could probably learn a lot from the "gallons of fuel consumed" page in the DIC versus the mileage of the vehicle. If it's less than 10 mpg over a 100-300 miles ODO, I would say no thank you.