15 miles on the odometer of a brand new car?
 

Would you be ok purchasing a brand new car if it has 15 miles on it already? I haven’t purchased a new car in almost 20 years so I don’t know if that is a red flag or not. What do you think? Am I being petty? The car isn’t cheap (at least to me it’s not).

The last new car I purchased was an '87 Supra Turbo when I was a kid .... waited for it ... "fresh off the ship" ... with 7 miles on the odometer... I still haven't gotten over it :D

Enjoy yer new car :)!

I don't think it's unusual for new cars to have some mileage. Moving them around, cleaning, fuel, test drives, etc....

But then I've never bought a new car.

They always have a few miles in them. Turns out they need to test them and move them around.

Yep... or mebbe the big dawg wanted to have lunch 5 miles away and borrowed "his" temporary ride ... his meaning ... "his" or hers :D

No harm ... no foul ....

Just go drive ... and :)

It’s normal. Some mfrs have more than others - anything from 6-40 I’ve seen on cars still in plastic wrap.

15 miles is actually low for a new car.

I remember when I bought my 98 Prelude it had 150 miles on it brand new.
I knew that a good share of those were upper rpms/v-tec miles....but what can you do? I should have been there to buy it before it was test driven by a dozen teenage guys.


It didn't turn out to affect the car...hasn't had one problem yet.

Our new 4Runner had 9 miles on it when we took delivery. No big deal to us. Sometimes they move the vehicles from one dealer to another. We got it recently to still have a pick of a gas powered vehicle before the mandates really kick in.

Normal. Not a concern.

IMHO miles normal. My last 2 new cars were swaps from another dealership, with around 50 miles.

If it's a performance car (porsche?) I think an obd scan can show over-revs, etc. If so, ask for a scan?

When I bought our '02 Accord, I test drove it with only 0.5 miles on it. I told them I wouldn't accept it with more than 3 miles showing on the odo as I knew they'd take it down the block to fill it with gas and to go thru the new car prep. It had all of 2.5 miles showing.
Our CR-V was bought off the truck as it was delivered the morning we bought it. My wife actually saw it up on top of the delivery truck and was struck by the color in the sun. It had less than 5 miles on it as they moved it around that day and the gas station was further away.
To me, a new car means I get to break in the engine the way I want, not some lot jockey seeing how fast it'll go for fun. The '02 was one of the best cars I've ever owned. Had it for 9 years and 153k miles before the trans leaked so much from the case gaskets my wife was worried it'd leave us stranded some day so she consented to me getting a new commuter.

When we were shopping for a new car for my wife twelve years ago, One dealership quoted a price on a "new" car that had 362 miles on it. Didn't buy that one. My van had eighteen miles on the odometer when I bought it.

Back in the day, wasn't every Rolls Royce tested before being approved for sale?

Or am I just misremembering?

I worked at several dealers back in the '80s/early '90s and I never paid attention to how many miles the new cars had but with Porsches, they were always expected to have factory testing miles on them as well as being moved at the various ports plus when we gave a test drive, it was from new stock. We never had separate "demos" for test drives. Also, I remember being able to grab the keys for any car that I just wanted to "familiarize" myself with. It was not very controlled, they put a lot of trust in the sales people they hired.

If we needed to do a dealer trade for a different color 911, we always drove the cars between the dealerships within a 100 mile radius or so. Any further and it was flat bedded but with the number of Porsche dealers in SoCal, it was almost always local.

Just curious, what is the way that way that you would want to break in your new engine?

I think I leased an Audi with 15 miles, and a Toyota with 8 miles. They had to drive it on and off containers, I presume, and then around the lot, and maybe a gas station trip...

Here is a small article to ease your mind. In Colorado, I always thought it was 50 miles, but maybe it is more.

How Many Miles Should a New Car Have?
https://www.caranddriver.com/auto-loans/a31543493/how-many-miles-should-a-new-car-have/

Just took delivery of a brand new 900 hp Dodge with 25 miles on it .... Needs new rear tires tho' ....

Is that a problem ;)?

Wasn’t much of a test drive.
What did you do, sit in the lot making vroom vroom noises?