Why do some new cars on the lot have 100+ miles/200+km on them?

Today I received an email from a gentleman in Vancouver who was curious as to why the new vehicle he was looking at had 280kms on it, shouldn’t it have like 30km instead? Well normally new cars do have mileage around 30-90km on the odometer, but every once in a while you’ll see a brand new car sitting on the lot with 100+ miles or 200+ km on it. There are two main reasons for this:

It’s been there a while: Sometimes a particular color or package just is not selling and as a result the car sits for 3-6 months and gets test-driven in the time racking up the mileage.

It was brought in from a dealership far away: Sometimes a customer will ask for a vehicle that isn’t on the lot but the dealer will find it at another dealership and have it brought in. Unfortunately most of the time this means that a driver is sent out to drive the vehicle back adding whatever the distance is to the odometer.

Should you be alarmed? No. A new vehicle is a new vehicle still, regardless if it has 30km or 300km. Your warranty does not start until you take delivery so if the vehicle has 202km on the odometer when you pick it up and the manufacturer warranty says it 3 years or 60,000km that means your warranty is good for 3 years or 60,202km.

Like anything, just make sure the document properly reflects the correct mileage.

About Meds

Ben is widely known as the car sales guy to his friends and family. He does not work at a dealership, although he has done so in the past. He currently works in fleet in the automotive industry and is a numbers guy. He currently drives a rather boring 2017 Ford F-150 as his daily, but his passion is his 2018 Ford Mustang GT. Disclaimer: he does not work for Ford, although he is a big fan.