What is program car

At times, municipalities will hold public auctions to sell off used vehicles, but more often than not, they will trade in their used police and public utility vehicles for new ones.

Some people consider retired police cars to be great used-car bargains. The fact is, most police departments retire their vehicles when they are no longer worth the money to repair them. These cars spend hundreds of hours idling along side the freeway, and are driven hard on a daily basis with less than an optimal maintenance schedule. Dealers and manufacturers often use auctions to sell off their leased vehicles that have been turned in, as well as their unsold inventories, rental cars, and high-mileage and over-worked fleet vehicles.

Retail customers used to be welcomed at wholesale auctions, but that practice has stopped. Today, dealer auctions are closed to the public. Although auction cars can still be bought from used car wholesalers and brokers by communicating with them via cell-phone during the auction process and you can find good deals, bidding against seasoned dealers is a long shot. Another important consideration is that there is no Warranty or promise of condition unless an original manufacturers warranty remains in effect.

Some content provided by and under copyright by Autodata, Inc. What is a Program Car? Program Cars Used in Advertising New car dealers often use program vehicles as an advertising tool to bring customers into their dealerships.

Rental Vehicles Former rental vehicles can be the least desirable types of program car. Dealer Demonstrator Cars Demonstrators are another type of program car. Municipal Program and Fleet Vehicles At times, municipalities will hold public auctions to sell off used vehicles, but more often than not, they will trade in their used police and public utility vehicles for new ones.

Dealer Auctions Dealers and manufacturers often use auctions to sell off their leased vehicles that have been turned in, as well as their unsold inventories, rental cars, and high-mileage and over-worked fleet vehicles. Related Articles Toyota Auris Preview. Most commonly a program car was a car used as a dealer demonstration to advertise the vehicle make and model, a rental car or fleet car, or a car owned for a short period of time by a company executive.

Program cars can be both great deals and bad deals at car lots. A program car is usually only defined as such when it has low mileage, typically less than Rental cars are very often sold after one or two uses in order to be sold as program cars and also in order to replace the rentals with newer model cars to attract more customers. This is also true with fleet vehicles and vehicles owned by company executives who are able to write off the vehicles as an expense of the business and trade them in often for newer models, allowing them to constantly have vehicles in great condition.

Program cars can be a great deal to purchase because they are not driven for an extended amount of time and therefore are less likely to have accumulated problems caused by wear and tear. Rental cars previously owned by a reputable company make wonderful program cars because the reputable companies will spend money on proper maintenance for their vehicles, ensuring that when the vehicles are returned to the market as program cars they are in wonderful condition, considering their uses.

A major disadvantage to purchasing a program car is that often care is not given to the vehicle because the person using the car is aware that they will be selling the vehicle later as a program car ad not keeping the car. This tends to lead to mistreatment and improper maintenance of a vehicle.

Fleet vehicles used for utility companies may be a prime example of this because the vehicles are treated roughly, as work vehicles and if problems show before 10, miles, the vehicles can be sold to a program car lot as is.