I bought a 1 year old car with 100 miles. The dealer had to title it because it was over a year old and didn't sell. It was a great buy - never was officially owned, just test driven.

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor hated his car after taking it home and driving it around and they wouldn't take it back.
If you are shaped differently than him you wouldn't necessarily hate it though so his loss is your gain.

Or....Husband bought the car while the wife was away and back it goes?

Good friend did this too. She drove it home and it hurt her back to ride in it. Had to trade it in. She could afford to take the loss.

I worked in a dealer, and occasionally people did have buyer's remorse and trade in a car after a very short time. Usually, they said the car was too small/big for their needs. So you would see small convertibles, like Miatas, with also no miles traded back in. I would also see certain sports cars, like a Nissan Z returned in very short time periods because they were too uncomfortable for the buyers. Nothing shady or weird. People just decided they could not live with the car and would eat the cost. In VA, there is no cooling off period so it is yours once you drive off the lot. In one instance, a buyer traded in an almost new car to get certain navigation features in a more upscale model.

Had a neighbor who traded cars in so often we thought he must be laundering money.

Anonymous wrote:Dealer/salesman demo. You can get a great deal if you find one of these with less than 2-3 thousand miles on it...best time is mid-late summer.

Those are still sold as new because they have never been titled.

Anonymous wrote:Dealer/salesman demo. You can get a great deal if you find one of these with less than 2-3 thousand miles on it...best time is mid-late summer.

but they drive them hard and trash them.

i am inclined to think it was a demo or short-term loaner.

Dealer/salesman demo. You can get a great deal if you find one of these with less than 2-3 thousand miles on it...best time is mid-late summer.

Anonymous wrote:I would assume that the dealer would lie to me about whatever happened. It's in their DNA.

Spend a couple bucks to get the Carfax history report to make sure it wasn't wrecked/flooded and repaired. As long as it has a warranty, I would take it.

carfax is a load of crap. it will show if something was in serious damage like flooding, but it really does not show much.

My old care had been stolen- ~8k in damage due to entire dashboard- radio, airbags and so forth- being ripped out, it was also in a 2 collisions that I had a lot of front end damage (I rear ended someone twice second time even cause damage to the AC) so in total my car that i bough new for $16k had $18-20k work of work on it. Car fax report is completely clean. Only says I was the owner, had yearly inspections and that the mileage is accurate.

My guess is that he hated it, got transferred or is having another kid and everything didn't fit.

My neighbor hated his car after taking it home and driving it around and they wouldn't take it back.
If you are shaped differently than him you wouldn't necessarily hate it though so his loss is your gain.

Or....Husband bought the car while the wife was away and back it goes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Full disclosure, I already bought the car (a 2016 Mazda CX5 touring model with 600 miles on it for $22k, not including tags and taxes), so i hope it's not a lemon! But I do find myself wondering about the previous owner. The dealer says the previous owner (an individual, not a company) bought the car March 1st and that he traded it in around April 9th. I am just being nosy!

You won the lottery, OP. Some moron drove the car off the lot and saved you $5k. Enjoy your new car!

I agree. My brother bought a brand new Acura sedan once and then quickly decided he wasn't a sedan kind of guy, and bought a Toyota 4Runner instead. Within a month. He has real impulse issues with money. I am sure there are quite a few people like that around here, with the money to take the loss.

I would assume that the dealer would lie to me about whatever happened. It's in their DNA.

Spend a couple bucks to get the Carfax history report to make sure it wasn't wrecked/flooded and repaired. As long as it has a warranty, I would take it.

lemon or dealer demo

I know a couple of highly paid professionals who have done this (once each). One was single, bought the car, drove it for about 6 weeks, decided there were too many little things she didn't like about it and traded it in for a different car. She was very happy with the second car for years. The other bought a sports car that his wife hated and when she told him she was pregnant, he traded it in for a more practical car (it was a mid-life crisis car anyways). Yes, they did have a baby and she didn't tell him that just to get him to sell the car; he opted to get the more practical car.