how much mileage can be on a brand new vehicle?

[monkeemayhem]

I went to collect a brand new transit connect from my local ford garage on sunday, when i was handed the keys over I noticed there was 12 miles on the clock, which upset me greatly as I had ordered this straight from the factory and had waited over a month for it to be delivered, when I pointed this out to the salesman, he said there could be 400 MILES on the clock and the vehicle would still be classed as new. I already lost it when I saw 12 miles on it, if 400 had been on it I'd have gone loopy. I think the garage has been using it for test drives, they had it for 2 weeks before i collected it. If they have it should be classed as ex- demo and the price dropped accordingly.
I bought a new van in 2003 and that had 0.07 miles on the clock so i was very suprised to see 12 on this one. Has this happened to anyone else before?

[monkeemayhem]

p.s i know all new vehicles have to have a test run before they are handed over, but is 12 miles taking the p*ss??

[Ethel]

I think you've done very well at only 12 miles:
http://www.whatcar.com/news-special-report.asp x?NA=220061&EL=3159785

[monkeemayhem]

Thanks Ethel, it still proves the salesman was talking out of his backside if its 200 and not 400 miles. This was just one of many things I'm not happy about though!

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

12 miles on a new Transit is fairly standard. I used to deliver vehicles for a living and collected many brand new Transits (usually destined for BT or Transco) from the companies who fitted out these vehicles. (One in Papworth Everard and one in Eastleigh). These vehicles had been delivered to these companies, from Ford, by transporter. The mileage on them was usually between 5 and 12 miles. Even the brand new Escort vans I collected direct from Ford's Dagenham factory (destined for BT) would have similar mileages on them.

The odomoter starts clocking up mileage a soon as a vehicle comes off a production line. It's then driven to a storage point on the factory site (which, because of the size of Ford's plants) can be a journey of over a mile by the time that the driver has found the allocated bay. Although the vehicle is 'complete' as far as being a standard model, it may lack certain specific elements which require further work in the main plant, so it's returned there for additional work before being parked up again. (This can happen several times). Finally, it's driven another mile or two, across the storage area and out to where it can be loaded on to a transporter, before being delivered to a Ford garage.

[Buenchico]

The previous sentence assumes that the new vehicle was moved from Ford's to the garage by transporter. This is usually the most economical way of moving the vehicle but, occasionally, it can be cheaper to employ the services of a delivery agency (like the one I worked for). In which case, a driver will arrive at Ford's, to collect the vehicle, which is then driven to the receiving garage. (It's this type of move which the garage was referring to when they said that there could be up to 400 miles on the clock of a new vehicle).

I'm surprised that you managed to buy a van with 0.07 miles on the clock. Apart from the fact that I've never seen any vehicle with an odometer which records hundredths of a mile - did you mean 0.7? - that vehicle must have been driven straight off the production line and onto a transporter, without the usual few weeks (or months) of storage prior to delivery.

Chris

[zebedee1691]

My husband is general manager of a Mercedes garage. They have a policy of anything up to 150 miles is acceptable on a new car. This is to allow for delivery and pre-delivery testing and inspection.

[monkeemayhem]

Thank you buenchico for the v. helpful answer. I feel a bit crosser now- why couldn't the idiot of a salesman explain it like that to me? Yes you are correct- typing error it was 0.7 on my 2003 transit.
You seem to have a good knowledge of how a factory works, could you or anyone advise me on this?- I ordered the LX version of my van with all the electrics etc, but when i took delivery of it I found there where loads of missing bits ie valve caps on the tyres(!), rubber flooring in the back loading area, roof lining. The salesman said that because the factory had delivered it this way, it was how it was to be handed over- do vehicles come out of the factory ready according to the spec or do the garage usually fit all the extras?

[oldhamfan]

Just a quick note to say that my brand new S�at Altea had 8 miles on it when I collected it, I considered this perfectly acceptable.

[tommytwotank]

hi,
12 miles sounds good to me, a story in my local paper 10 - 15 or more years ago about chap delivering a new vehicle for a well known company with yellow transporters, one of the drivers was delivering a vehicle and got stopped for speeding by the police, when asked what speed he thought he was doing, the driver said ive got no idea because the speedo has been disconected by my company so that the new owner doesn't know its been delivered by road, i cant remember who was taken to court, the driver or the company, but i think they were both find

regards

[Buenchico]

Thanks for your response, MM.

On one occasion, I've refused to accept a vehicle from Ford's Dagenham plant until they supplied the missing valve caps. Things like that should definitely be present when the vehicle leaves the factory. The problem is that not everyone along the line checks the vehicles as well as they should. Additionally, some items might be present at one stage of checking but mysteriously 'disappear' prior to delivery. (e.g. your vehicle may have had the rubber flooring at one point. A vehicle inspector will have correctly signed that everything was present. Then someone who works for Ford has a mate who needs the rubber flooring replaced in his van and your property 'takes a walk'. The transporter driver thoroughly checks the vehicle for things such as scratches to the bodywork but probably never thinks to check the interior of the vehicles).

When I refused to accept that van without the valve caps, Ford staff simply removed them from another vehicle. If the guy who collected that vehicle wasn't as thorough as me, the second vehicle will have been delivered with the caps missing.

Incidentally, if you think that Ford factories are super-efficient places, you're sadly mistaken. I once went to collect an Escort van, only to find that the battery was flat. No problem, of course. Ford have thousands of batteries and a replacement was found almost instantaneously. The only problem was that, desptite having the whole of the resources of their Dagenham plant available, it took 40 minutes before anyone could find a spanner! :-)

Chris