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Re: CPO??? Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Mon, 7 May 2007 13:36:46
In Reply to: CPO???, bever77, Sun, 6 May 2007 12:14:36 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
As the others have noted, the CPO extends the factory warranty to 100K or 6 years from the IN SERVICE DATE, whichever comes first. As warranties go, it's nice. This isn't an extended service contract. This is the factory warranty extended. So no arguing with the warranty contract administrator over what is or isn't covered, or waiting for authorization. The lack of hassle is very valuable.
When looking at the CPO, make sure you note those two factors - 100K miles and In Service Date (ISD). The ISD is when the car was first sold. That has little to do with what year car it is. A 2003 can be sold as early as August of 2002, or as late as August of 2003. Or if it was a left-over, possibly even as late as 2004. The dealer should be able to tell you the ISD. If he/she can't or won't, don't deal with them.
Why the ISD? It makes a difference in the amount of warranty left on a car. Say you're looking at a 2005 under CPO. If it sold early in the model year - September of 2004 - then it has 27 months left on the warranty (6 years from 9/24). If it has 40K miles, then it has 60K miles left. If you drive 25K miles a year, you might run out of mileage about when you run out of time. But if you find a car with an ISD of March 2005, then you've got 36 months of warranty left. What's an extra 9 months of factory warranty worth to you? So figure your typical annual mileage, and look for recent in-service dates.
When it comes to the CPO, there is a rigourous inspection criteria. But in my experience, not all CPO cars are equal. I've seen some dealers that will buy just about anything that runs at auction and CPO it. The cars aren't wrecks, but I've seen dents, stains, and turbos burning oil. The dents and stains aren't covered, and I'm betting the dealer is happy to sell the car with the bad turbo, because they'll get the warranty payment to fix it after the car is sold. Or maybe not. I've also seen dealers with CPO cars that were really, really nice. They obviously were picky about the cars they bought at auction. And not just cosmetically - you can tell when a car has been beat or not.
And there isn't always a correlation between the price and the quality. In my area there are a LOT of dealers. The dealer with the most cars also had the worst CPO cars, buy far. And their prices were among the highest. Of the best quality cars, one dealer was among the highest, but one was one of the lowest. Go figure. So if you have access to multiple dealers, shop around. Not all CPOs are equal, and you can pretty quickly tell the philosophy of the dealer. Interestingly enough, some of the worst CPO cars I saw were at the Saab/Volvo/Porsche dealer.
Bottom line - I don't trust the CPO to inspect a car any better than I would myself. Of course, I inspect any car I'm buying pretty throughly. But the value of a no-hassle factory warranty is not to be scoffed at. If I were in the used market right now for a 9-5 or 9-3, I'd either find a nice CPO in the upper teens, or find a private buyer for a car in the very low teens/high singles. For the lower price, I'm willing to take on the risk and do the work myself. For a car at dealer prices, I'm going to go the extra mile and get the CPO. That's my personal approach. YMMV
posted by 192.249....
, Tue, 8 May 2007 08:32:34, Mon, 7 May 2007 13:36:46 <-- Viewing This Message
, Mon, 7 May 2007 09:45:53
, Sun, 6 May 2007 16:32:44
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