Should You Buy a Loaner Car

We tend to think of a car purchase in terms of “new” or “used”. However, while new is new, used and has some subcategories. Besides the standard used car, Volkswagen of Duluth has Certified Pre-Owned vehicles that have been inspected and are warrantied, usually by a formal manufacturer’s program. There are also dealer loaner cars, which may be the least known and the least in number.

What are Loaner Cars?

Loaner cars have likely been owned only by the dealer. They may have been “demonstrators” in which they served as the designated test drive vehicle for its model line. They are often loaned to customers while their vehicle is being serviced. These cars are often sold before they reach 10,000 miles; it is not unusual to find them with as little as 3,000 miles. In any case, they will have too many miles to be considered new. They are frequently of the current or just past model year and have never had the title transferred outside the dealership. So, they are like-new and low mileage. So the question remains: should you consider a loaner car?

The biggest concern with a loaner car is that it was primarily driven by people who don’t own it, like a rental vehicle. If it was used for test drives, you can expect that full acceleration and brakes have been tested a few times. Service loaner cars likely took people to work and back like any other used car, just by different people at different times. It is likely, though, that these cars have been well-maintained. Test cars must be in good shape since their operation represents the entire model line. Likewise, service loaner cars often present a new model with the manufacturer’s latest features to a prospective future customer. Obviously, it is in the dealer’s interest that these cars are in the best condition during use.

A Branded Title

A loaner car may be classified as a fleet vehicle, in which case it may have a branded title. A branded title indicates anything other than the standard transfer from one private party to another for individual use. It is not a bad thing, but it is intended to inform the buyer that the car’s previous use was for something other than private owner use. 

Should you consider it?

A loaner car will likely be the closest thing to purchasing a new vehicle at a used vehicle price. You have to be comfortable with the idea that multiple people have driven the car in the past and may not have cared for its welfare. However, on the other hand, its welfare was quite important to its owner, the dealer. 

A challenge in seeking a loaner car is that they usually aren’t labeled as such. You will likely find them as part of the CPO inventory as a car of the current model year with reasonably low mileage. Volkswagen of Duluth’s online inventory listing makes it easy to filter to show just CPO models. Clicking on the Experian AutoCheck Report will indicate if it was a vehicle for personal use or something else. Our dealer sales staff can often point you to a loaner car as well. They may even be very familiar with it.

Of course, as a Volkswagen CPO vehicle, the car will have undergone a 100-point dealer inspection, have a 2-year/24,000-mile comprehensive warranty, as well as two years of roadside assistance, plus a Carfax® vehicle history and even a SiriusXM® Platinum plan trial subscription.

We invite you to look at our online inventory and visit Volkswagen of Duluth to see all of our Pre-Owned vehicle choices. If you encounter one of our former loaner cars, hopefully, you will better understand what that means.