What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I've been looking at SRT's for the past 2 weeks. I've noticed almost ALL of the cars at dealerships either have 10-100 miles, or they have 9,000-20,000 miles.

I know the low mileage cars are basically 'new', bought back and auctioned by Chyrsler (unless you are lucky enough to find an actual new, 'never titled' car on a lot).

But, what's with the 10K-20K cars? Are these lease trade ins? Ex-Rental cars?

They can't all be trade vehicles because they are all so similar in mileage...or it seems this way.

Just curious if there was any insight.

I can get one with <20K miles for $22,000, or a 'new' one with 40 miles for $25,000. I wouldn't mind a <20K car if I knew it wasn't dogged on...

SQ

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

2 year old rentals from hertz.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Most are probably turned in lease vehicles.

I was fortunate enough to live in Detroit and got an executive lease turn in. Mine was leased by an executive vice president at DCX who had the car for 2 years and put 900 miles on it!

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I doubt the rental companies got SRT6's. Whenever I saw them at the Dollar Rental lots in Florida they were LTD Roadsters and Coupes. Hey, chances are if and when I turn mine in at the end of the lease it'll have under 6,500 miles. I've already taken one persons name and number who wants the car at my buyback + a few bucks for me. There are some great deals out there.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I'd stick with the new ones for the extra cost... Use carfax/autocheck to see if the car was leased. There is more risk with a leased car since some folks like leased cars to beat on and then turn in. But others just drive them and want a change. Make sure the new ones have had the recalls done (E-19 fan module) and have been fluid swapped since they've been sitting around a while. Dealers make more $ on used cars and lease trade-ins than they do on new ones. You could squeeze the new down to $24,000 if they want to get it off the books and off the lot since it costs them $ per month to have the new car on the lot.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

my dad did the retiree/executive lease and put 24k on the SRT, then i bought it. i figured i would be okay 'cause i knew who put all the miles on it.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

hehe...how well do you know your dad? I thought I knew my dad's driving...until I caught peeling away from a light in MY car!

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

he did trash the tires, but put new ones on it before i purchased it. :D

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I haven't seen any SRT6's at Hertz. Almost all have been Limited roadsters with a few Limited coupes.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Now that is funny!

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I bought mine with 14,000 miles on it. I was told by the dealer that a regional dealer sales rep was driving it previous to me. The Carfax did say that original owner was Diamler Chrysler North America, registered in Michigan. The dealer bought it at the Chrysler auction. Now I was very careful researching this car before I actually signed on the dotted line. Given, that these high powered cars are typically dogged. Well, I had a friend at a Chrysler dealer pull up the VIP report on the car and it listed all the maintenance that was done. Everything was done on time and recorded in the Chrysler system. I even have the printout as proof. I inquired a little deeper into it's previous use. I know they used them for the SRT Track Experience, and wanted to make sure it wasn't one of the ones that I have personally tried to break.
Basically I didn't take the dealers word that it was a sales reps car. I was able to find out through undisclosed personal favors that it was in fact used by a sales rep. I was even able to get hold of him via E-mail. So, given all that leg work, I decided to go with it over a brand new one for $25,000. I got mine for $21,000 Chrysler Certified with the 8 Year/80,000 Miles warranty. So, given I actually know the basic history of it, and with the certified warranty, it has a better warranty than a brand new one. Say I made out well. The car seems 100% and has NO evidence of any abuse. The exterior is ding and scratch free and the Interior is PERFECT. People think its brand new, cause it looks it...

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Now I do drive mine everyday, but I don't dog it. Hell I don't even hit the trans kickdown on a daily basis. I even average about 21.5-22 MPG if that goes to show it gets driven easily. Now, at the track is a different story. There it gets it's fare share of "exercise". ;)

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Can I take you with me when I buy mine?

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Well, I'm not at the liberty to take a road trip to Jersey anytime soon, but I can help you if you like. The Chrysler Certification itself doesn't cost but about $400, so they should easily be able to include that in the price(the cost isn't supposed to be transferred to the customer anyway). The real cost to the dealership is the repairs and maintenance that they have to do to have it certified. The thing that most people don't realize is that Chrysler Dealers aren't allowed warranty claims. If they own the car as inventory to sell, then THE DEALER has to pay for all the repairs. Only individual customers get any warranty coverage at all. Sucks for them, but DCX looks at it as the cost of doing business. The reason for this, is the Chrysler has a policy that only a customer can make a warranty claim. If a dealer is doing a warranty repair, and notices something else wrong, they are NOT ALLOWED to do anything about the second problem. They can only fix it if the customer requests it, and are not allowed to tell the customer about it. The ONLY exception to that rule is if the failure is of direct concern to the vehicle's safe operation. Of course many tell the customer anyway, and then just open a second repair order and fix it anyway.

Overall, there are THREE things that I WOULD HAVE TO SEE before buying an SRT-6 with miles:

1. Carfax Full History Report (not just the title check one).

2. Chrysler VIP Summary Report (A Chrysler Sales Manager will know what that is).
- Vehicle Warranty Repairs & Maintenance done at DCX Dealers
- Warranty Coverage Information
- Recall Information
- Vehicle Installed Options Codes
- Previous Owner's Information (they can share it with you, but they can at least tell you if it was an individual or Lease)
- In-Service Date
- Factory Build Date and Time (mine was 5/26/04 @ 7:00 PM)

3. Chrysler Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle Checklist(Make sure everything is there and check behind any noted repairs or maintenance done at the dealer).


HOPE THAT HELPS EVERYONE!!!

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

I bought mine with 10,700 miles on it. It too was a DCX corporate lease vehicle in Michigan (so I'm told). The carfax report shows that it was owned by Chrysler and titled in Michigan, but it doesn't say if it was a track ho. I was worried about that, but thought that had to be disclosed.

It is in very good condition and also looks brand new. The tires don't look like they were tracked, but those could have been replaced or different ones used at the track. I thought I did well. I got it for $25,900 with the 8/80 certified used warranty. Now, I'm thinking I could have done much better and had less worries about it being beaten on. All the cars in my area were about the same price or much higher and they were all corporate lease vehicles purchased at auction (about 5 all together).

Maybe your insider could check it out for me. ;)

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Again, this were a Chrysler VIP report is Golden. The problem is that specifically states at the top of it:

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL: This information is provided to DEALERS, in accordance with Section 4 of Dealer's Software License, Data Exchange and Electronic Commerce Agreement with DaimlerChrysler Motors Company LLC. All information provided is for dealer use only and is considered confidential to all other entities.

So there you have the legal part. Getting a dealer to give up this information is actually a violation of the Federal Privacy of Information Act, so getting it is pretty difficult. The reasons are mostly having to do with the previous owner information that is tied into everything on the report. They should be able to get you the information that doesn't include the previous owner's, or mark through it so you can't read it. Of course, if the previous owner IS Chrysler, then they shouldn't have anything to hide. If you can manage to get a copy of your car's report, then look under the "Options Report" If it was a chrysler ordered car it will have some or all of these option codes listed...

YAP - Retiree Lease Vehicle
4EAA - Pre-Sold Order
YALA - Executive Lease Program
3AHA - Price Protection - Code H (employee price)
4HA - Special Scheduling Condition I (top priority build and ship ASAP)
4HW - Pre-Spec Vehicle Order Tracking
5N2P - Mandatory Company Car Equipment (don't know what that means...)
4E6S - Retroactive Cost Adjustment II (employee price reduction)
623S - Michigan State Code
923S - Michigan State Code
1*** - U.S. Miscellaneous Special

I believe that the Track Experience Cars are listed as some type of Demo Promo car, but I'm not sure what those build codes are. Also, most Track cars I've seen or driver have had less than 3,500 miles on them before being auctioned off.

Also of note the Luggage "Touring Gear" code is XPRS.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

NeverEnough noted that the SRT-6s with higher mileage may have been Track Experience cars. This is the one thing that you need to be careful of because if any car has been beat on it's an SRT TE one. I would think that the TE cars would be around the 9K mileage mark and the executive cars are the ones with the higher mileage. Don't know if any are lease returns since I don't know if the SRT-6 was available for leasing in the summer of '04. No doubt some of these cars were just traded in because the prior owners needed something different.

Your call if saving thousands offsets the higher mileage and potential abuse, unless you confirm like several others that the car was taken care of. Personally I would go with a lower mileage one - you get almost the full warranty and the price is still a deal even if it is higher.

Finally, no more whining about paying $25K vs $23K. Some of us paid more - a lot more! :mad:

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Actually, NeverEnough noted that the track SRT6s he's seen had less than 4,000 miles.

"I believe that the Track Experience Cars are listed as some type of Demo Promo car, but I'm not sure what those build codes are. Also, most Track cars I've seen or driver have had less than 3,500 miles on them before being auctioned off."

This makes sense to me. Over a year, it would be difficult to load up 9 or 10k miles on a track. I would think a TE car would have way less than 9000 miles on the clock before DCX would auction it off. The corporate daily drivers would probably have around 10-13k miles as that is the average amount of commuting miles put on cars.

Really, I don't care. My car looks brand new and drives brand new. It's not my daily driver and I don't plan on putting more than 5000 miles per year on it. Even if it was a track ho, I'm not too concerned. After all, these were built for sport. There are a couple of members on here who beat their own cars on the track quite often and don't seem to mind. Their cars seem to be in great shape. Oh, if anything does happen to it, I've got the 8/80 warranty to back it up.

If this is going to be a daily driver and you plan on putting 12k a year on it, I'd be concerned. If it is going to be a toy then no big deal. Just get the warranty and drive it like you stole it.

Re: What's with all of the 9K-18K mile cars?
 

Missed the that bit about the TE cars being auctioned off under 4K miles. But then again, its 2007 and TE is still using 05 SRT-6s so I would still be concerned that one could rack up a lot more than 3K miles and then make it out to the general public.

You got a good deal on yours considering the extended warranty and relatively low miles (10,000 miles is nothing these days). And since it is in great condition then it probably wasn't used on a track (I don't think a former TE car would drive like new). But I wonder about that weekend toy plan of yours. That was my plan, too. Lasted about 3 months and now my 6 is my daily driver. Can't imagine getting back into my Dodge anymore. I guess it's just a matter of self control and if you can wait till the weekend to drive your 6 then you're doing far better then me!