I looked at a really nice demo 380 at my local Mitsiubishi dealer yesterday and they are willing to do me a great deal. The car is an ES with 6,000 kms and has manual transmission, sunroof, nice alloys, cat-back exhaust, reverse sensors, fog lights and a strut brace. It has an electric drivers seat and cruise control but I think these are standard items. It has the full new car warranty and the 10 year warranty on all driveline components too. I took it for a drive and I love it but I have heard people say to stay away from demo's. What do you all think?

You'll find it's just nicely run in. The drive train and engine feel bulletproof in these things which you would've felt when driving it. There's no drive train snatch in these things. I wouldn't have any qualms particularly with the warranty.
Mine is just coming up to 5K and it's only just freed up and I haven't spared it.


It's got a cat-back exhaust?

Check the paint for starters.

Then you also need to check for the normal second hand car issues as well - has it been in a bang etc.

You'll find it's just nicely run in. The drive train and engine feel bulletproof in these things which you would've felt when driving it. There's no drive train snatch in these things. I wouldn't have any qualms particularly with the warranty.
Mine is just coming up to 5K and it's only just freed up and I haven't spared it.


It's got a cat-back exhaust?

Yeah it has an exhaust and when I asked for details the guy said it was a cat-back system. Mind you he was only a young tucker and he had been selling cars for a whole two weeks. I will check all the paint and panel issues with a mate who does it for a living, hopefully there are no drama's with it.

If everything checks out OK I'd go for it depending on just how good the price is...

As for staying away from demos, bah, it's rubbish. If we were to follow this myth we may as well stay away from ALL registered cars - private, used, demo etc - and only ever buy a spanking brand new car that is yet to be registered.

A demo 380 would be a great deal as they're practically new cars with minimal kms and a low, low price. Sounds good!:cool:

I agree with VeradaBoy. Check the paint and anything else of your concern, if everything ok then look into it further, possibly purchasing the vehicle.

Good luck mate :D

What do you all think?

If its a good deal, then get it.

The difference between new car and demo is nothing.. DOooo EEET

As for staying away from demos, bah, it's rubbish. If we were to follow this myth we may as well stay away from ALL registered cars - private, used, demo etc - and only ever buy a spanking brand new car that is yet to be registered.
Not always - some new cars are absolute lemons or have been damaged in transit, and the original purchaser refuses to take delivery, or due to the repairs required, the dealer allocates another vehicle but is unable to move the now resprayed/repaired/whatever vehicle.

Go out to the large car factory holding areas - you'd be suprised what you see. A complete side respray due to a scrape on a car carrier for a $320,000 luxury barge was one I have quite vivid in my mind. Probably what makes the memory worse is that there were probably over a dozen high value cars being resprayed, and considering it was a warehouse and not a spray shop, I can't see how the paint would not have some form of fall out or dust impact.

Other's were just as expensive cars sitting on this delivery lot with their windows partially down - and the carpet and leather seats suffering water damage.

Another one is the car carrier that blew a turbo and sprayed it's 8 cars on the back with 36 litres of engine oil. Ruined the paint on three of them, they went for complete respray, damaged the other five.

I'd be slightly pissed to have my company fork out that sort of money and to find out it's been resprayed or cut and polished.

Moral of the story is beware of any car, new or used, but also be careful of demos just in case, in the minority of instances, the vehicle was rejected by the original intended owner for some reason.

From reading jzts earlier posts on his paint damaged 380, he was given what was one of the dealerships cars with 500km on the clock as he wanted the storm grey colour and no others were available for the series one run out. Apparently the dealership accountant was using this vehicle. My hunch is that the dealer knew the vehicle had a paint defect, or the original owner refused to take delivery, hence it became a demo/dealer car until jzt unfortunately bought it.

there is defenetly truth in the thinking that if a car is delivered to a dealership that isn't 100% right, they will make it into their demo car rather then trying to sell it as a brand newey. HOWEVER that doesn't mean all demo's have something wrong with them, sometimes they are perfectly fine. You really just have to have a very close look at it and try and find anything that may be wrong with it. If it smells a bit off then walk away, if it all seems fine then its a massive saving over buying new and generally they are good deals. Just gotta be a bit more carefull thats all

As the others have said, paint and evidence of respray is a valid concern, however the car has already got the zorst and sunroof, etc, so you are ahead on those already.
Standard alloy wheels (SX or VRX)? You didn't mention..

The alloys are aftermarket and they look great, 17's I think. The rears are quite fat so they fill the guards well. They look a bit like the Koya Inox 5 spoke wheels, real nice.

Demo's are a good buy, usually. They do get thrashed a bit and well tested... I worked for a dealership for 2 years and many, many cars got flogged pretty hard, frequent red-lining etc even as they came off the truck with 1km on the odo. New cars these days are usually mildly pre-worn in at factory and prepared for it so running in isn't as required as much anymore.. but depending on how hard its been pushed from day 1, fuel economy may not be as flash as others and longivity of the engine may not be as flash either, but it's not enough to worry about. Sounds like a good deal anyway. So yeah, I reckon if ya comfortable knowing it's been tested and driven hard, then go for it.. it'll have been run in for performance!

yeah, what dave_au said.

when i was working for a holden dealership, we got about eight cars in that were involved in a
rollover when they were on the truck. We repaired 4 of them and they went back to the caryard. These were cars that would have normally been written off aswell.

but if i were you and could afford a 380, i would get it ASAP.