New, Demo or Second-hand ?

[Rodge]

When is a car new, effectivly new, a demonstrator or second hand ?

Nothing beats a factory fresh new car right ?
Its brand new, it smells new, you get to run it in carefully in exactly the manner you choose, you get the choice of colour and options. Nothing would beat that right ?

But perhaps there is something better, one that's officially a demo that enjoys the circa 6% additional demonstrator discount but has been undriven. Provided its in a colour you like and has the options you want, its better than new, it might have 30-50 km's on the clock where its had its pre-delivery checks and registration and may have been shifted around the sales yard once or twice but for all intents and purposes its brand new and you can save the demo discount and potentially several months waiting compared to one that is officially new.

Then we get ionto the grey area's where I didn't always get it so right. My last car an F6 was a demo and had been driven for 3,000 km's which I came to realise were probably hard km's. I kidded myself it was as good as new when I bought it but it was beset with quality control problems and the story didn't end well with me shifting it on quickly at a significant loss.

I got to thinking recently, do they try it on a bit...I got the story it was the Dealer Principals personal drive car, and that was the basis upon which I initially kidded myself that particular car was as good as new.
When you buy a demo with XYZ 1000 km's on it, do you try and kid yourself its effectivly a new car ?, is it, what do you think ?

Here's my theory:-
0-100 km's new or pre-registered demo = new
100-1000 km's almost as good as new, a reasonable discount on new price should be expected
1,000-5,000 km's effectivly really is a demonstrator and a good discount to new price should be expected
5,000 km's plus is effectivly a second hand car and should be priced as such, big call but that's how I see it.

What do you think and how do you classify cars that are close to new ?
Do dealers try and imply that demo cars with thousands of km's are as good as new, what's your experience ?