Purchase of inventory car, your experience/thoughts? Worth it?

[NoMoGas]

I have been waiting for my P85+ for some time now and after a few false starts I am finally ready to actually pull the trigger. Problem is, I don't want to wait till nearly October and lose all summer. I have located a P85+ inventory car and rushed to put a deposit on it as it is really slim pickings out there inventory wise. The car isn't exactly the configuration I want but that doesn't concern me. I'm curious to hear others experience with inventory purchases. How long did it take to take delivery? Any regrets? anything to look out for?

Thanks

 

[paco3791]

I have been waiting for my P85+ for some time now and after a few false starts I am finally ready to actually pull the trigger. Problem is, I don't want to wait till nearly October and lose all summer. I have located a P85+ inventory car and rushed to put a deposit on it as it is really slim pickings out there inventory wise. The car isn't exactly the configuration I want but that doesn't concern me. I'm curious to hear others experience with inventory purchases. How long did it take to take delivery? Any regrets? anything to look out for?

Thanks

Welcome! I would recommend doing a search as there quite a few different threads on this same topic. I've posted on a few of them as I own an inventory S60 that has been a great experience for me and saved me a pretty penny when I got it back in October of last year. Enjoy!

 

[AMPUP]

I purchased an inventory car and it was almost $25K less than a new build, had most of the options I wanted and the SC installed a couple of others I was missing. mine at 7K miles hence the discount but to me it was a no brainer and took a week to be delivered to my house. I had some wear on the seat posts which were replaced with new ones, all in all I made out and wouldn't change my experience not one bit, obviously YMMV.

 

[Ugliest1]

I lucked into an inventory car that, because the sales centre had been so busy the two previous months, had not actually been conditioned yet to be used as a loaner or test driver. So it had 28km on it. When I say 'lucked', I mean it - it was the colour combo we wanted and had every option we wanted, plus 3 more. We didn't get much off the price, a couple of thousand maybe, but we gained in reducing the price (and tax) by using our current car as trade-in, and immediately gained the then-in-force provincial $5,000 "EV credit". Made the deal on a Sunday, picked it up on the Wednesday. I can't imagine how the 2 and 3 month people get through their waiting times, 3 days was hard enough.

No regrets whatsoever (but we'd kind of be idiots if we had any since we got everything we wanted and got it now). It was a big stretch for us, but it's been 6 months and we're still eating.

Final thing - if you want one, and one comes up that's acceptable, don't wait a minute. If you do, someone else will snap it up. I managed to do our deal on a Sunday early afternoon and by Sunday night two other people had offered to buy it.

 

[Ssssly]

I started looking for an inventory car 3 weeks ago and received 5 quotes (2-p85's, 3S-85's) that did not meet my needs; None had more than 5k discount.

My sales rep from the Santa Monica store indicated they only search regionally for inventory and there was not much inventory available nor coming available.

YMMV

 

[Alysashley79]

I started looking for an inventory car 3 weeks ago and received 5 quotes (2-p85's, 3S-85's) that did not meet my needs; None had more than 5k discount.

My sales rep from the Santa Monica store indicated they only search regionally for inventory and there was not much inventory available nor coming available.

YMMV

you might try a different location! They will search the entir US for you. Ther aren't as many loaners available as there once was as they have the new 3 month on the floor policy for loaners (in the US anyhow) we didn't end up buying a loaner because they stopped putting the jump seats in them and the wait was only 30 days for a new one so we went that route, but have a friend that bought a loaner and doesn't regret a thing about it...

 

[bigdomer]

you might try a different location! They will search the entir US for you. Ther aren't as many loaners available as there once was as they have the new 3 month on the floor policy for loaners (in the US anyhow) we didn't end up buying a loaner because they stopped putting the jump seats in them and the wait was only 30 days for a new one so we went that route, but have a friend that bought a loaner and doesn't regret a thing about it...

My local sales manager mentioned this new 3 month on the floor policy when I asked about buying an inventory car. He indicated that this would cause the greatest number of vehicles to be available at each quarter end. However, my thought is that what Ssssly is seeing on current discounts may be the new norm. If they are only using these demos for 3 months, there cannot be many miles put on them. Thus, I am not sure how the $1,000/month + $1/mile formula will ever result in more than a $5k discount going forward. Although I was offered a demo about two weeks ago for $18k off sticker. Paint color = brown. Guess that color is not popular.

 

[stevezzzz]

Enforcing the "three months on the floor" policy will mean the loaners that become inventory cars will have more miles on them than the ones in the past. In the months before the policy went into effect, loaners wouldn't last a week before they were sold out of inventory.

 

[Ssssly]

He indicated that this would cause the greatest number of vehicles to be available at each quarter end.

This was my hope but it doesn't seem to be my experience. Perhaps I was late to the party.

Paint color = brown. Guess that color is not popular.

One of my offers was brown; not my taste.

 

[paco3791]

This was my hope but it doesn't seem to be my experience. Perhaps I was late to the party.



One of my offers was brown; not my taste.

My loaner is brown and while initially it wasn't my first choice it has really grown on me. Looks really sharp and have gotten a bunch of compliments on it. YMMV.

 

[Alysashley79]

Enforcing the "three months on the floor" policy will mean the loaners that become inventory cars will have more miles on them than the ones in the past. In the months before the policy went into effect, loaners wouldn't last a week before they were sold out of inventory.

+1
I drove a loaner here it was a month old and already had 3000 miles on it. It was also a 60. I think people will see much better deals than in months past.

 

[jskenney]

I just picked up my Inventory S60 this morning in Rockville. Amazing! 8k discount with 4800 miles on it. The paint and interior look absolutely perfect (paint looks better than my last car which was delivered with 1 mile on it!), they did an amazing job detailing and preparing it.

 

[karmamule]

Congratulations jskenney, enjoy! :biggrin:

 

[theheff]

Mine wasn't exactly an inventory vehicle, but I bought it after someone owned it for a year and put 10k miles on it, which deducted nearly $30k off what it would have been. I have absolutely no regrets going with something pre-owned.

 

[BP3]

I'm also looking at inventory cars. The price discount seems to be about $1k/month of service plus $1/mile. Is anyone seeing anything different this time of year? At the end of last year, seem the prices were more heavily discounted. Obviously, there are some compromises (i.e. options I want not included or options I don't want included). It's a nice discount, but nowhere near some of the others that people seemed to get at the end of 2013. Are there different experiences out there???

 

[HankLloydRight]

I believe all inventory cars are priced the same way. They have no reason to discount further.

 

[Liz G]

My husband didn't get a ex-loaner but did by used. Car has been great. He wanted a P85 which we couldn't have afforded new but he was able to get nearly the exact car he wanted by buying used. Just a thought.

 

[Librarian]

I paid the deposit and started configuring my car in March. Before I had to lock in my final choices, an inventory car became available in my area that had just about everything I wanted plus a few extras I didn't. I couldn't resist the almost immediate gratification so I was all over it. took delivery of the vehicle the very next day. Absolutely no regrets at all.

 

[AMPUP]

I believe all inventory cars are priced the same way. They have no reason to discount further.

Not always true, I was buying a P85 and after everything was signed it was revealed to be a P85+ and they honored the price. Made my discount in the $20k's

 

[HankLloydRight]

Not always true, I was buying a P85 and after everything was signed it was revealed to be a P85+ and they honored the price. Made my discount in the $20k's

Well that sounds like a documentation error that they honored, not a different policy on how inventory cars are priced.