A Dubious World Record

Filed in archive Strange News on March 7, 2008

he demo drive is an essential step along the Road to the Sale for automobile salespeople, but as test-drives go, this one was a marathon.

A Honda dealership in Melbourne, Australia, was the victim. A new Honda Accord was driven from the dealership and ended up in the middle of central Australia a week later with nearly 4,000 miles added to the odometer.

Police say they were stunned when they pulled over a driver for failing to pay for gasoline at a service station in the australian outback, only to discover that the car was on an extended demo drive. The driver was taken to a local court and charged with unlawful use of a motor vehicle. He will sit in jail until authorities decide where to prosecute him.

The "customer" allegedly conned salesmen at the Honda dealership, chatting with staff members for 20 minutes, feigning interest in buying a new car and filling out the necessary paperwork for the test drive.

But as soon as he got into the driver's seat, he sped out of the dealership before the salesman could step into the passenger seat.

The dealership is making the most of the situation. "We'll be putting an advertisement in the newspaper selling the car," the dealership owner said. "It will say, 'Buy the car that took the longest ever demonstration drive'."

The dealership would be taking $1 off the car's MSRP for each of the 4,000 miles it traveled. That means it will cost $43,550 Australian dollars.