I am looking into buying a new or nearly new WRX. I am just after the standard one, which has a list price of £19,995. What Car? magazine gives a target price of £18,787 - this is the maximum they suggest you should pay for the car based on their research.

I have just been looking on the Subaru website at the demonstrators they have for sale and the prices seem very high to me, considering that they've probably been thrashed, they have one extra owner and they have a few thousand miles on the clock. Some examples:

Jan '04, 1k miles, £19,995
Jun '03, 4k miles, £18,995
Jan '04, 1.5k miles, £18,995
Dec'03, 4k miles, £19,995
Sep '03, 6k miles, £18,995
Oct' 03, 500 miles, £19,995

None of these have PPP, and all appear to be standard, not SL models.

Do you think these should be cheaper, and what do you think people actually pay for them? I thought they'd be more like £17-18k or less.

Any thoughts?

 

if your in that price bracket get a new one

i bought a demonstrator and had to change the clutch at 9k miles

also the disks where looking worn at 14k

i would never do it again i would rather have car with 10k and one owner who has looked after it
mine was an 02 it was 6 months old with 3k miles and it was 2000 below new price

they did give a very good trade in on my old car on the demo
less on a new

i traded the demo in for new 12 months later i was never really happy with the fact it may have been thrashed

 

friend bought a ex demo sti-7 with 5k miles on it supposedly the garage owners car.

disks were dead and the clutch went at 18k he chopped it in for a grand cherokee, shudder. had enough when he got the quote for a clutch.

I would never buy a demonstrator with quite a few miles on it.

but my local garage wouldnt let people drive them until the garage had done 1k miles and done the oil change, so those cars might just be pre-registered ones and not used as demonstrators.

 

Looks like there should be lots of scope for negotiation on those prices.

 

I don't think I'd be happy with a demonstrator at those prices, and I've heard some horror stories about the way the cars have been treated. Might as well get a new one I think.

 

I know how I drove on my demonstration (and the dealer encouraged me).

 

A mate of mine has bought several (6) ex-demo cars, only 2 subaru's though, and has only ever had 1 problem, and that was a faulty window motor. So he's saved quite a lot of money and swears he would never buy a new car because of the big savings he's had on ex-demos.

 

Wouldn't personally buy an ex-demonstrator. As said before, I know how I was encouraged to drive on my test-drive. sniff sniff...is that the clutch I smell oops!

When I test drove a MY03 WRXSTi TypeUK, we started the drive and the refuel light was on, so we went to fill her up.....with Tesco 95RON!!!!! "Thought these needed at least Super-unleaded" says me......"Nah, we don't bovver with all that cr@p 'ere mate, it runs fine on the normal stuff!" says he.

Nuff said!

 

Seeing as you could probably a very good discount (up to £1,800) - buy new!!! I did :

 

Dont ever buy an ex-demo scooby!!!!
Most of us here are obsessed with runnning in and warming up our scoobs before thrashing them (and we only treat them to optimax!! )

Do you really thing the dealer is going to have done that!!!!????

Who hasnt taken a brand new scoob demo out from a dealer - cold - with less than 1k miles on it - and not thrashed the **** off it!!! then rolled it straigh back onto the forecourt and turned the engine off straight away!!

it would make most of us on here shudder to think how these car's turbo's have been abused!!

and after all that they have the cheek to charge you nearly new prices....

.....walk away.

 

Totally agree. DOn't buy an ex-dem Scooby. While it might (just) be OK to buy a thrashed-from-cold F**d or similar, Scoobs need careful warming up & cooling down, not to mention running in.

When I test drove some bugeyes 2 1/2 to 3 years ago, the dealers thrashed them themselves from cold with only about 500 miles on the clock. Ruinous!!!

 

Yep,
as above. All demos thrashed from cold, not cooled down. New WRX price nearer 18.3k which is what i paid - but seem to remember seeing mention of others for less on her.

 

The demo I took out from a dealer had 18 miles on the clock

The salesman ragged the **** off it before letting me have a go on newly re-surfaced / loose surface / road chipped bit so I didn't get chance to open it up (if it would have anyway being so new & tight)

from what's been said, do you still want a demo car?