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These vehicles are kept in buildings, so I imagine there are some safety considerations (e.g. no fuel and oil) being followed? Are they brought in straight from manufacturing so that there is no risk of oil/fuel in the vehicle?

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:05
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    Answers could change for special events such as car shows that are inside a convention center or similar. Those buildings are free to have whatever safety rules they want that could prevent gasoline, etc.
    – JPhi1618
    Mar 11, 2019 at 19:27
  • Just as an interesting note, the cars leave the factory ready to roll, oil, fuel - the lot! They are driven during the entire delivery process, onto ships, trains, barges, trucks and off again... Plus moved around compounds etc... Hence delivery miles being more than 0! The cars are given a very thorough clean once at the dealers.
    – RemarkLima
    Mar 12, 2019 at 7:26
  • @JPhi1618 in practice, no. Everybody drives their vehicles in and out. Forcing everyone to drain the fuel after driving in would be a much bigger hazard than just letting it sit in the tank.
    – Hobbes
    Mar 12, 2019 at 9:37
  • @Hobbes, For almost all events I'm sure that's true. I was just pointing out that the final say is going to be up to the building in question. Also I think that the longer a vehicle will be on display, the more likely it is to be drained of fuel (thinking of something like an educational display that will sit for months).
    – JPhi1618
    Mar 12, 2019 at 16:04

3 Answers 3

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Here in the States, cars on showroom floors are driven on and driven off. There are large doors (triple wide as compared to normal doors) which are opened to allow them to be driven into position. The only consideration to these vehicles being put on the floor is usually putting some kind of protection for the floor just under the tires. There is a substance in the tires which leaches out and will stain tile floors/carpets. Sacrificial pieces of carpet are sometimes employed, as they are easily replaceable. As for anything human wise, no, there is no consideration for oil or fuel. If you think about it, though, these are brand new vehicles. The only real fear of either of these fluids is if they happen to leak, which you aren't going to find happening with a new vehicle very often. If there is a leak of some kind, you can be darn sure they wouldn't be putting it on their floor until after it's fixed.

NOTE: If you're wondering how I would know any of this, I used to work in a dealership and have driven MANY vehicles on/off the showroom floors.

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  • Thank you for your answer. There isn't any concern for fuel emissions from the engine turning on?
    – guest0934
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:10
  • "I used to work in a dealership and have driven MANY vehicles on/off the showroom floors." Were they fancy vehicles? ;)
    – Kitsunemimi
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:13
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    @guest0934 - Big doors equal a lot of ventilation. Vehicles usually aren't left running for any appreciable amount of time, so there's no real buildup of fumes. These vehicles are also probably some of the best running vehicles as far as emissions goes, so very little which is going to cause people issues. Some CO2, but really, with the doors open, there's a large exchange of air going on with the outside world. If there's any exhaust odors when you're done moving vehicles, you just leave the doors open a little longer.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:13
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    @Kitsunemimi - I sold a Pontiac Formula Firehawk off the showroom floor once ... does that count? Probably the most exotic thing I ever sold, lol. It was a brand new '99 MY car.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Mar 11, 2019 at 16:16
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    @Kitsunemimi - You're encouraged to try out all the features ... you have to know ALL about the car in order to be able to sell it.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Mar 11, 2019 at 21:25
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Although I haven't worked at a dealership like Paulster2 has, I have actually purchased two new vehicles from a dealership in Finland. The cars I bought were stored indoors in a very visible place with glass walls, having new vehicles ready to be picked by the customers!

There are in my opinion two reasons why this is feasible:

  • There are huge glass doors, so that the cars can be driven in and out. The doors are open when the cars are being driven in and out. This doesn't leave much room for exhaust emissions to be concentrated.
  • The dealers are certainly aware of the dangers. For example, when I received my 2016 RAV4 hybrid, I asked how to turn on the ignition current, turn on the hybrid system, etc. and the dealer demonstrated. After the engine had been running for less than half a minute with the large doors closed, the dealer said "let's turn this off so that the exhaust doesn't kill us". So, they don't just let the cars idle indoors for a long amount of time with the doors closed.

I think this question is similar to "how can a garage possibly be a safe place to store a non-electric car?" -- the reason you can store a car in a garage is that you don't let it idle with the door closed for a long amount of time. When driving in and out, the large door is open.

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The dealership I worked at had an exhaust extraction system - 3" (7.5cm) diameter black flexible pipe that connected to extraction points.

This system was in the workshop as well so we did not get to breathe much fumes when tuning cars...

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