This question is mostly for people who work at dealerships, although others on here might know the answer too. When a dealership takes part of it's inventory to a car show, do those cars get sold at a discount afterwards?
Here's why I ask: On Saturday I went to the Pennsylvania Auto and Boat Show in Harrisburg. I had a good time. There were all of the "regular" brands on display such as Toyota, Chevy, Ford, VW, Saab, Acura...etc. Plus they had a few exotics on display like Ferrari, Maybach, Rolls-Royce...etc. Anyhow, the exotics were ropped off so you couldn't even touch them, but all of the "regular" cars were open so you could sit in them. This show lasted from Wednesday thru Sunday. When I was there on Saturday, the place was PACKED. There was a constant flow of people climbing in and out of those cars. Kids were climbing all through them, people were moving all the ***** and controlls...and I would hate to think how many times the driver's door gets opened and closed during those four days! I even noticed on a Subaru that the door felt like it was loose on it's hinges. My point is, those cars go through more abuse in 4 days than my car will go through in 2 years. I would not want to buy one of those cars as "new" and not know that it had been beaten at a car show for a week. Do you tell your customers or discount the cars?

 

Cavet emptor. Inspect, inspect, and then inspect it again. Once you drive it off the lot it's yours. If it breaks in 2, you own both halves. That being said:

Most cars are already sold at a discount. I'd imagine that the ones dealers take to a show are as well, and I'd imagine that there is zero disclosure liability as well. Furthermore, I'd imagine that once the car made its way back to the lot that it would quickly be lost in the shuffle. Dealerships aren't exactly well oiled machines that hum along without issues. In fact, order is the exception to the rule. Most dealers are large scale multimillion dolloar enterprises that empoly dozens (at a minimum) to hundreds (more typical) folks. However, most of them are run like a lemonade stand.

But then again, this is what seperates Toyota from Suzuki and the rest. 4 days abuse or not, loose hinges is baaaaad.

 

Yeah, I know they aren't required to tell you if the car was crawled through by 8,000 people over 4 days. I just think they should. Obviously any cosmetic damage could be fixed or cleaned after the show, but wear-n-tear might not be visible. Then you wonder why the door or hatchback on your "new" car rattles in the first week of ownership.