I should be taking delivery of my new 2006 Black/silver STi this week. I've read tips on what to look for before taking deliver (tire pressures, alignment, etc.), but, as this is my first new car, I'm not sure how many miles should be on the car when I take delivery. I was told by the internet sales manager that there will be "between 10 and 20 miles" on the car when I get it. He claimed this was because they had to drive the car onto and off from the truck when it came into the country adn when it arrived at the dealer. They also had to drive it to the gas station. Not sure if he mentioned a road test.
When I explained that I wanted as few miles as possible because I didn't want the service people racing the car or revving the new engine past 4k rpm, he assured me that these were "Subaru technicians" and that no such thing would happen. That doesn't really comfort me -- the way I figure it, these guys have to drive every other Subaru model for the same pre-delivery services...why not take the 300 HP cars out for a little spin?
So anyways, is 10-20 miles too many? How many miles were on your cars when you took delivery?

 

In my experience and opinion, 10-20 miles is nothing. You see some cars on the lot with even 100 miles on them.

 

10-20 is normal.

 

There were 4 miles on my 02 WRX when I took the keys, and 10 or so on my 2004 STi.

 

Okay, so it seems like 10-20 is "normal". I guess I'm being paranoid about the techs taking the STi for a spin.

 

I would think that anything over 6 and it's been test driving..I've bought 10 new cars 2 subbies and all of them had 5 miles or less when I started the test drive.

 

there are some *******s that take the car out for joyrides at dealerships. New or old sales ppl. buh 10-20 seems legit. You can have as lil as 4 mi but if it goes past 30. I wouldn't take it unless it's a dealertrade or it's at the end of the year and your trying to get a deal on it.

 

Mine had 6, but it had come of the truck that same day.

 

a salesman said some would have more (being 10-20) cause they randomly pick some new cars and test them, making sure that there are no defective ones and so forth.

 

mine had 15

 

10-20 is spankin new. those ***az better not go out for a spin cuz its yo car and if they do take a spin with their mom in bed hahaha

 

I wouldn't be too worried about the Subaru folks taking them for "Fun Laps"

If it's a reputable dealership they would have rules against that.

Also, the techs are probably so used to those cars already that it isn't so fun anymore...also, they "should" be too busy to do anything like that.

 

An undriven new car can arrive at the dealership with as low as 3-4 miles on it. However, 10-20 is not uncommon. If you've ever seen the lots that these cars land on (I live about 1/2 mile from Quonset Point Shipyard, where all VW's sold in the USA are imported thru), it is EASY to have to drive the car 1 mile each way to unload it from the boat and load it to the truck. You are generally required to do a test drive with a PDI (pre-delivery inspection) which is done on all cars, but it's usually very short, and they do have to get gas, plus, some cars do come in with more miles from random inspections.

That having been said, when Mitsu first released the EVO, our SERVICE MANAGER shattered the throw out bearing in our second EVO to come thru, requiring a whole new transmission (not just a clutch). ODO on that car was 8.

Honestly though, you really shouln't worry, since by this point, we've all driven so many STI's that it's not worth the trouble you might get in if you F'ed something up. It's not like it's a brand new model anymore.

 

i work at a chrysler jeep dealer and we actually had a new jeep wrangler come in last week with 0 miles on the odometer. it had only logged .6 miles that was pretty amazing but i would say the average is 7 to 8 miles after the pdi if no one test drives it.