We're expecting to get a new xB, supposedly on Friday. This car has to be driven from somewhere else (100 miles) to our dealer. I've read through this topic somewhere in these forums ( I can't find the place now) and some advised not taking a car with miles on it.
The dealer says that these engines are broken in at the factory; run on a machine that varies the speed appropriately, then the oil is changed and they are ready to drive. He says Toyota has been doing it this way for years, and doesn't know why they don't make that clear to buyers.

I thought they hauled new cars to dealerships on trucks.

Any comments would be appreiciated.

 

Not always are they...if they only need yours their not gonna haul it. I think if it had 75 or over in miles its considered used...I think thats what I read. Ive never heard of the breaking in before hand...because some have like 0 or 1 mile. I thought it takes at least 1000-2000 to break in...

 

it might be a dealer trade. my new car purchase contract said i had the right to refuse anything with over 75miles on it unless i approved it. so you could say you dont want it, but then youd have to wait longer to get one

mine came with 12miles i think on it

 

so they are getting it from a different dealer. its not really a big deal. the person who will be driving it back is probably an older person (usually retired) i highly doubt that they are going to beat on it or anything. 100 miles is fine, the car will be fine when it gets there. just look it over well when you go in to get it, make sure there are no scratches or dings in it. you will be very happy with it. atleast you don't have to wait any longer.

 

Mine had 6 miles on it. I figure the reps took it too lunch a couple of days
or used it for test drives. J/k

Seriously, I would not take a car with 100 miles unless they gave me a demo discount.

 

I bought mine with 37 miles I think... 9 or 10 were from me test driving it... if you don't want the miles on it, go to the other dealer and pick it up youself.

 

Hmmm.Well when I picked up my xB,had to order it,dealer in Birmingham Alabama didn't have a bop in stock.I was told it came from a port somewhere in Florida,and was transported by truck up to B'Ham.It had 3 miles on it when I recieved it :D The salesman did tell me if they do a dealer trade that is close by,maybe like 50 miles,they will drive it other then the transporting method.

 

When I took delivery of mine, it had a whopping 0.7 mi. on the odo. I thought that was way cool.

My dealer also said that there was nearly no break in, so I just took it easy for about 500 miles.

 

A car is not considered "used" unless it has been previously titled!

ALOT of cars in my area are "new" with 300 miles + (alot of dealer trades)

Stop worrying! Like said above- most transporters are older retired persons who like to drive....My box had 180 miles on it when i got it- It was either wait 4-6 weeks, or deal with 180 miles...

Of couse 6K later and no regrets!

 

Why not offer to go to that other dealership and pick up the car yourself. Don't ever let other people drive your stick shifted car.

Also- the stuff the dealer told you about Toyota pre-breaking in their cars.... You should know by now that car dealers know NEXT TO NOTHING about the cars they are selling everyday. The things they say are generally made up on the spot just to tell you what you want to hear.

 

Got mine w/ 2 miles on it. I took pics before I took delivery of the xB. No bodykit and hubcaps. The car looked jacked.

 

When you sign papers anyway, you should look for the one that lists the proper mileage it has when you take it off the lot. BTW... make sure that is not under your warrenty. If you go basic warrenty, make sure it states 36,100 miles, not 36K.

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about 100 miles or so on an automatic. So few people know how to drive a stick that I worry every time my '92 Saab goes in for service.

In my neck of the woods, car porters are generally 20-50 year old Hispanic males that may or may not give dos cacas about your car. Some drive calmly, some drive like maniacs...

 

All new cars are going to ave some miles on it. When I was in the Navy and stationed in Hawaii I would work part-time for a company that had us do nothing but drive cars off of ships from Japan and then park them in this huge lot. Then a couple of days later another ship would show up and we would drive them from the lot back to the ship, and then off they would go to the mainland.
The reason for me telling this is that we would drive these new cars as if they were rentals, hard on the gas, brakes, and sometimes when the boss was not around we would do doughnuts in the lot. So no matter how menial the miles are on a new car there is a good chance that if it's an import they have, or could have been driven hard but only have a couple of miles on them.

 

actually what the dealer told him is not a lie. Toyota just doesn't do it to every car. they take random cars that come off the assembly line and put them through tests like idle to redline numerous times over a period of hours. they do this to see if the engines will stand up to the abuse customers may put the car through. and from what i know all the engines are run before assembly in the car and the oil has been changed too.

 

I got mine in Birmingham and they had to ship it from Florida. Only had five miles on it from where the dealer went and filled it up for me and I guess some driving around parking lots and on and off trucks.

 

The regulations vary from state to state, but here in Illinois, as long as a car has never been titled or registered for service industry plates (dealer loaner cars, dealership trac cars, shuttle cars, rental cars, etc.) it is considered new. Even the cars that salesmen drive (demos) are still considered new when they are sold, even if they have several thousand miles on it. Different dealers have different rules when it comes to their demos, at mine for instance, salesmen turn in their demos when they reach 6,000 miles, these cars are then sold, at a discount, as new cars. The miles have little to nothing to do with whether the car is sold as new or used.

Scion's pricing might create a problem with this practice since we can't (er, are strongly encouraged not to) discount the price of the cars. The way around that would be to post on our in-store and online menus that any car over 6,000 miles would be discounted 'x' amount. As long as we did that with every car over 6,000 miles, we'd be fine. But as far as this thread's topic would be concerned, the Scion would still be sold as a "new" car.

As for the discussion on dealer trades, they are very common and are, like previously mentioned, usually done by an older, retired driver who must have a flawless driving record and pretty much drive like those people I usually hate, who drive exactly the speed limit, slow down almost to a stop at every turn, and take about a mile to get up to speed from a stop light; basically the most careful (almost too careful) drivers on the road. So don't worry about them mistreating your car.

As for this:

Wow, racism rears its ugly head . First off, the fact that you think porters are all hispanic is bad enough but that you think they don't care about the cars they drive because of their race is even worse. At my dealership, we only have 2 hispanic porters, one is the head porter, who is the best porter we have, and one of the nicest guys here, the other one is probably the most cautious driver in the dealership. The only time I see dealership cars driven even a little bit inappropriately, its the young (white) high school-age porters. I'm not going after young white people now (hell, I am one) i'm just saying that a person can be irresponsible no matter what his race is, so keep the racism to yourself

 

OK, but you'd have to admit that random tests and "running before assembly" is considerably different than implying that each car is put on a machine and run at various speeds to break it in.
-JM

 

In case anyone is interested........ I wrote to the Scion website regarding above; specifically the assertion that a machine is used to simulate a "break-in" of engine.
This was their reply:

Thank you for contacting Scion.

Sorry I have not heard of the process. The break in period is outlined in your owner's manual. The oil change is recommended at 5,000 miles.

Thanks for all the responses. Opinion seems to vary; I'm more concerned about being pitched stories, actually, than the 100 miles on the car..
I too regret, racist comments in one post.
-JM

 

In my experience, dealers usually do not try to sell anything with more than 100 miles as "new"

I personally have never accepted a new car with more than 20 miles on it. I don't want a test driven car, but I'm just picky that way. My xB had 8 miles on it when I got it.