Our Citigo is in having some more work done so we have a courtesy car from our dealer for the week.

 

Now, I understand that courtesy cars are, in principle, just a functioning set of wheels while your own are off the road, but from a branding point of view, they are a great opportunity.

 

Unfortunately our courtesy car was not great. It was baby poo yellow for a start. Although it was new (14 plate) and a Fabia II, it was absolutely horrific inside. The interior was really cheap and tacky. The engine was so noisy I thought it was a 3-cyl diesel. I was gobsmacked when I went to fill it up and discovered it was petrol. It is also utterly gutless even compared to the Citigo.

 

I know dealers will think "what's the point on over-speccing a courtesy car which is only going to get thrashed every day of it's life?" and I see the point. However the other end of the scale is a cheap tacky POS which has even put me off the Fabia.

 

If the courtesy car is to be an advert for the brand (which is presumably why they are stickered up like they are) then why can't they at least be decent examples of the brand?

 

 

 

 

I don't think the dealers get much say on the vehicles, there pushed on them by the manufacture.

well, that would account for a lot...

An example would be: when we lived in Bedfordshire and our Octavia was having a service, my wife was given an Octavia VRS for the day and she absolutely raved about it. She hate this courtesy car and not only can she not wait to get rid of it, she's also telling everyone what a load of carp it is.

Certainly different schools of thinking around courtesy cars....

 

A good model and decent spec - could indeed sell you on a new car with that brand/manufacturer

But experience says they roll out the base model and you are completely underwhelmed... 

 

We have had some very basic and underpowered Seat's recently when SWMBO's car was in for warranty work.

I had a really horrid FIAT as a courtesy car from Chapmans in Pickering a couple of times. Understandable as they sold FIATs as well, but the same principle applies. I wouldn't buy a FIAT if they're all like that POS.

You could also argue it shows how much the dealer values their customers.

It is nice to look at the Staff Parking and the Dealer Principals car, Sales Executive etc.

 

When there are nice Demonstrators, or cars that were registered as Demonstrators and going to have 3,000 miles put on

or kept for 3 months, there does seem little point in Lending these as a Like for Like Loan car.

 

Give the Customer that spends Real Money a Budget car, and let the Employees have the more Expensive car. (perk.)

We got Fabia for a while in lieu of Roomster when it had fuel leak into oil, the courtesy car was OK apart from being plastered all over (bodywork included) with dealership logos, same engine (minus 15bhp), OK interior.  Because of protracted diagnosis/repairs, my wife had to attend a funeral in this billboard of a car, which did not make her particularly happy. 

 

Another time we got a Rapid and several years earlier a Roomster (that was way before we bought it).  On balance, I do not mind even a fairly basic spec car as a short term replacement, so long as it works, has enough interior space compared to what it replaces, and looks like a "normal" car, ie no excessive dealer branding.

Edited 12 September, 201411 yr by dieselV6

It is also utterly gutless even compared to the Citigo.

 

But its a Courtesy/hire Car, so how can that be possible?

 

Courtesy cars are the fastest cars made! 

But its a Courtesy/hire Car, so how can that be possible?

 

Courtesy cars are the fastest cars made! 

All depends how you drive them - max acceleration redlining every gear makes any car into a fast car. Always remember the company cars from a previous employer - they were seriously ragged by the staff as they didn't care ( I just could never bring myself to treat any motor the way some of the others did).

 

This tends to be why dealers  don't spec their courtesy cars too highly as it is lost money.

Edited 12 September, 201411 yr by kilted

Audi seem to use it as an upselling tool. They always give my Father-in-law a much more expensive car than his A3 when it goes in.

 

I always thought the courtesy car was just whatever demo they had. At Skoda I had a roomster a few times and an Octy. All 1.9 105s. Not liveried though. Didn't bother me as long as it got me to work.

 

Body shops have give me some odd ones though. The usual 1.0 Corsa but also had a 2.0 Chrysler Neon and a 3.0 V6 Jag S-Type.

My brother has a 2010 Mini Clubman diesel. The first time it went in he got a Mini paceman cooper S and recently he got a decentish spec BMW 1 series. My S-Max went into ford and I got a KA twice and the a decent spec focus estate. I guess it depends on the dealer/brand.

I'm just happy with a set of wheels to get about in. Sometimes the cars aren't great, but that just reminds me how good mine is when I get it back

Anything nice is just a bonus.

A friend got a, 1,000 mile 318d Msport estate as a courtesy car. Spec'd the gills with active bi-xenons, iDrive, electric rear boot, 4 pot brakes etc. (the things I remember). I think he said it was £38ks worth of car. On a 2litre 4pot! Crazy amount of money.

 

Considering he was getting a new subframe on a 10 year 320cd, it's a pretty good deal. Had it for several weeks too.

I had a Fabia Estate today, gutless diesel engine in and a big shiny Skoda logo on the driver's door! Paintwork was iffy in places and interior was fairly basic. Did the job though, all I wanted really.

They should do what VASStech Northallerton does, they have a re-mapped 200 BHP Ibiza as one of their courtesy cars. My dad got it once when he took his car in.

Courtesy cars are not free.

 

I want the lowest spec and cheapest model in the range.

 

Anything to keep my bill down.

 

We all pay for the courtesy cars, the more expensive they are the higher our bills are.

Depends on what the dealer is, as some of you know I work for an Audi dealership and our Demo and CSV's ( customer service vehicles ) all add up to about £1.5m.

Yes we do have a few A1's and some A8's as CSV's but most are A4 A5 and A6's, we get told by Audi uk what cars we need to run as demos and CSV's.

Also when you consider that something like an A8 can have £6k a month write down the cost of running free cars is very expensive, so you little family own Skoda Garage proberbly just can't afford lost of Octavias to run for customers.

My Citigo was in the other day and I was given a 62 plate Octavia 1.6 diesel. I was impressed for the day as I'd never driven a 1.6 tdi. It went very well is all I can say [emoji6]

My Citigo was in the other day and I was given a 62 plate Octavia 1.6 diesel. I was impressed for the day as I'd never driven a 1.6 tdi. It went very well is all I can say [emoji6]

Did you find you had to rev the 1.6 more than the 1.9 pd youve had previously?

I work for a SEAT dealer and we chose our own demos, but alot of customers lose out because a few have treated them so poorly. Some smoke in them all come back empty of fuel and abused. Clutches burnt out etc. So for people who specify for better cars we arrange demos for example new Leon fr or some even our cupra demo if they're a trusted customer. 

 

As someone previously said the write down is ridiculous and all goes on the service customers Bill one way or another. All depends on the dealer and budget. We are the flag ship SEAT dealer in the UK and run fairly nice demos so smaller places cannot afford the cost tbh. 

 

Olly 

I have to say most of the cars I've been give were very good, MK3 Octavia VRs combi, Fabia Scout, Roomster 2, most have been middle to top of the range cars (may have been a bit cheeky when asking for one though) even the CityGo's I've been given weren't the base model. so I guess the bigger dealer can give better cars, as they have them in stock or demo's

Took the wifes TT in last week for a service and MOT and got given a Q3 S-Line Quattro...Lovely motor..

Did you find you had to rev the 1.6 more than the 1.9 pd youve had previously?

I did have to a bit. It just hasn't got that punch like a PD :(