Yes they are.....(in the spirit of banter) .... read on ....

I bought my Focus ST at christmas direct from Ford it had 8500 miles on it.
The car has got a full warranty and was mint so very happy with it.

As its kind of new, I have resisted taking my car on the track or thrashing it.
As it was a Ford owned car (ford were the actual first registered owners)
I knew it was a demo car but slowly and surely the story of my car the 6
months prior to me owning it is coming out
It seems its been well hammered.

First I find out the car was tested in Auto express...

(sorry for picture phone quality shots of magazines)

This is my car, the number plate has been "adjusted" by Auto Express.



Anyway, was in the canteen of where I was working today and I found an
old Performance Ford magazine from JULY 2006.

Anyway, there is an article in it called "TRACK STARS" with a track day
at Donnington and my car is on track.
Couldnt have been run in looking at the date of manufacture








Anyway, why am I not happy, my car has been thrashed round donnington before I got a chance to do it myself.

Cooonts

 

So you paid top dollar for a thrashed, tracked second hand supposedly new car?

 

unlucky Simon....

 

lmfao i'd be gutted! didnt i offer u m old mans mint st3 with 5k on the clock for like 15,500 too on here? or was that someone else

Crowds.

 

hi si

dont worry you would have had the car back with brand new tyres , if thats any consolation


marco

 

Crowder,

No not me


marco polo,

Thanks, I feel so much better

 

should see how we drive the "demo" cars at work

one of the managers was doing 140 in a smax that was brand new with 2 miles on the clock when he had to go to scotland due to a family emergency

our connect van has a strange whine from the gearbox area but aint got a clue what it is,,,, but thats done 107 on gps a few times,,,, and thats just with one person driving


NEVER buy a demo car

oh and i hit the rev limiter in a 350z demo car in 5th gear,,, infact i hit the limiter in most gears but 5th gear makes the car jump forward

 

lol you have to chuckle, some sales men selling you a lovely new "supposed" car for you to then discover the above

I'd take the mag's back to the sales man & ask him to explain,,,,then listen to him stutter

You should be safe though as Dave drives like a girl


xxx

 

PMSL oh dear

trouble is when buying usedmcars you never know the history

 

Don't be a girl, it's no more than you will do to the car anyway

Wasn't there a strong argument for not having a slow ass run-in period anyway? Something about the engine running better if it gets a good bit of use early on...

 

I paid £15800 for it with 2 year FULL warranty plus the first 4 services
free including parts

Not a bad deal.

The car still smells, sounds and drives like new.

The ST is a brill car but GOD I miss my cossie ...

 

Cool

Want mine? I've always fancied one of those...

 

St3V3_C,

Stop it ...... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

if you want to buy a ex demo car I'd of thought to expect it not to have been driven like Miss Daisy by all concerned as ALL demo's are THRASHED to fuck then given the once over and put up for sale

 

It will be fine mate, the cars are strong.

 

You told me it was a company car Simon - which I will admit I was surprised but did believe you! Anyway £15800 is a lot of money especially when you owe some cash

 

Beat you to that one a few weeks back AJ (when Simon first suspected) albeit not top $ as Simon stated he'd got a good deal/warranty.

It could be worse Simon - they could have swapped the seats over de-spec'ing yours to an ST2, wait - they did!!!

(all in jest, I know I nearly had a heart attack when Harvey said he remembered the no. plate of my car as a mate's who regularly tracked it with Harvey - even dug the pic's out, and it was a digits or two out)

Anyway, they are an underated car imo, handle extremely well for a FWD.

 

Dannn,

It is a company car... I just chose it from a budget.

 

Ok, fair enough - just seems strange that you refer to it like you paid the money. Looks more an HP agreement!

To be honest I am surprised you took it as a proper company car as the extra tax your pay for it would be silly. Better to take the extra cash each month and buy under your own name!

Anyway no bother...

 

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


Ooooppsssss




If it's any consolation, it did go pretty well!

It had done around 6k when we got it (7k when we'd finished), so it was plenty run in when it hit the track (Brands by the way, not Donington).

Did you buy it as an ex-press car, or as en ex-demo?
Because I can assure you 100% we wouldn't have been the only journos to drive it hard!

 

Sympathy

 

I will add, that although the cars are used hard (they are test cars after all, supplied by Fords press garage for that purpose), we're not animals and don't abuse them..

..I can't however speak for other mags who may have had the same car, so if anything does break, it was them that did it, not us, 'cause we were nice and gentle!

 

Rumour has it, PF Dave was caught knocking one out over an aeroquip catalogue in that car!

 

Also,

Watch out if you do drive it at Brands, it oversteers quite a lot at Paddock

Would you like a video of it being driven 'gently' ? LOL

 

 

I would've done Rich if you hadn't given said catalogue to me pre-soiled with man staining!

I was in Think Automotive the other day in their parts section where it's wall-to-wall with fittings, even YOU Rich, wouldv've had a stiffy over that before me! LOL

 

Awwww gutted man

Still, 2 years warrantys good! Just keep driving it the way it's been driven and hopefully you'll get the lot replaced within the 2 years!

 

the one that spat a driveshaft out at the pod wasn't !!!! ll

steve

 

My standard zetec mk2 was bounced off the limiter in every gear from only 8 miles. And if it helps you at all at an RR day mine made the most power. I even had more power than someone with bluefin. So it's not all bad for you.

 

your not supposed to say that

 

just make sure you carry on driving the car they way that it is used to

 

IS that the one that only got half the way up the strip?

 

a good thrashing from new will be good for it - run in properly

i'm sure if anything was worn/broken that ford would have fixed it anyway

 

One of the things the chap who found my car did was check it wasn't a demo car as it was registered in Reading which is where BM's HQ is

 

as above, at least if anything would have wanted to fall off with the newness wearing off it would have done it by now, i've only just clocked up over 500 miles from the beginning of the month in mine, 150 of them have been with the dreamscience installed

 

Company car policy, drive it like you stole it

That reminds me, need some more new tyres

 

[quote="Dannn"]Depends how much your allowance is, how old you are, how long you;ve been driving e.g. how much your insurance is. roughly 50% of my allowance would go on insurance alone, leaving me fuck all to fund the car itself, servicing, tax, any repairs, tyres etc.

In a few years (i'm 23 with 2 years driving/company NCB) i'll probably get my own car on allowance. For some people it's just not a viable option due to circumstances. Another thing is, if you jack your job in, your still lumped with a car you have to fork out for

Brand new car every 4 yrs for £60/month in tax suits me down to the ground at the moment

 

How come you edited/deleted your reply ?

 

Never buy a demo as said earlier in this thread...

One of my mates works in a Vauxhall dealer and the Astra VXR demo has seen more hard shoulder runs than possible