Talking Cars Tuesday: Used cars - certified worth it?

Think it just depends on the car/previous owner. If you're buying a used car from a private seller, get it inspected, but also use your brain. A little old lady who drove it 15 miles a year and still changed the oil every three months is probably not handing you a lemon. Buying a similar car CPO from a dealer instead for a premium would be unnecessary if you feel good about the private seller

Buying from a dealer, may be worth CPO, but would also depend on the price point for me. If we're talking a sub $5000 car, then I'm less concerned. Something in the $10K-$20K range, sure maybe.

Friend who has managed several car dealerships advised me that on the Asian sedans/coupes he would not spend that money ... they’re basically going to run until you put a bullet in them.

I was buying a two year old Genesis from him ... he could have tried to upsell me on the Certified option and told me not to waste my money.  He has been right so far.

IMO hell yes.  In fact that's all I buy anymore - one year old certified used cars with about 10-15K miles on them.  The scorecard then goes as follows:

Original owner gets

New car smell, warranty

I get

About 50% off list price, warranty

And FWIW I buy everything via the internet and have the car shipped to the house.  Allows me to get dealers across the country bidding against each other to move a car and for a modest shipping fee I get exactly the car i want, an extended warranty and at a greatly reduced price from new.

There can be quite substantial variability in price on used cars.  The last used car I looked at was for my youngest daughter.  I co-signed, but she paid for it.  She did research online, knew the make and model she wanted, and found a local dealer with a car like she wanted with a pretty resonable price.  On our way to that dealership, we were going by another dealership, and I suggested we pop in just to see what they had.  They had a car the same make and model, a year newer, better features, but wanted about $2000 more than the deal she found online. After some back and forth on price, she mentioned this other dealership and showed him the print out.  We were able to get the better car for several hundred less than the deal she found on line (and about $2300 less than the sticker price on the one she bought).

We didn't start out with it as a plan, but if I were shopping for a used car, I would search all the dealers online, find the one with the lowest price, then use that as a starting point and see how much anyone can beat that price by.

Depends on the car. A gently used Lexus, yes. Something like my wife's Ford explorer (we'll be trading it in), no.  

My wife's 2012 Escape is CPO. She's had it about five years and it's been awesome. Based on some paperwork we found in the glove box, I think it belonged to a Ford executive or his wife (female name on the paperwork). I don't see any reason to purchase something new in the future. My wife wants an Explorer next (her choice). That'll probably be CPO, too.

Ultimately, it's up to the buyer to decide but I think CPO offers things you can't get on an older vehicle or from a private seller.

The 100-200 inspections is a crock of s**t. Take any used car to an independent mechanic for inspection, CPO or not.

The question really comes down to the warranty. How much do you value a warranty and if you really want one, what's the premium of the CPO vs. non-CPO and how much will a 3rd party warranty cost you.

I'd also add, that if you get a car that has been in an accident, it cannot be CPO and you will probably get a great deal. I sold my old Lex for $9K, and if it were not in an accident (all cosmetic and repaired perfectly), I could have gotten $2-$3K more.

Yes. As someone who is in Automotive Retail. Yes. 

Our last purchase in 2016 had us choosing between a 2014 Honda Odyssey EX-L RES with the basic warranty and a 2015 Toyota Sienna. The biggest differences were having blu-ray instead of just DVD in the Toyota, fewer miles, and the Toyota was certified. Miles were comperable despite the year difference. The certified warranty and better entertainment put the Sienna over the top, but the warranty alone would have if the entertainment systems were equal. Certified warranties are always worth it in my opinion. Having also been a mechanic at a Honda dealer years ago, the things I saw covered without question are absolutely worth any increase in price over standard warranties.

Tom McParland over at Jalopnik answers questions like this all the time:

https://jalopnik.com/c/car-buying

https://jalopnik.com/beware-of-these-outdated-used-car-buying-tips-1837…

The best course of action is to have the car independently inspected by someone other than the dealership. Even if a car is a “certified pre-owned” model that supposedly meets a certain reconditioning standard, these inspections can be crucial. Technicians can miss things and some dealers play a little fast and loose with the certification process.

I was working with California client who wanted a BMW wagon, and I located a CPO example with low miles in Pennsylvania. Despite the fact that the car seemed pretty legit on paper, we used a local shop to inspect the car. The owner of the shop found that the car had a brake issue when slowing down from higher speeds. After some back and forth with the dealer, they agreed to replace the brake components prior to the sale.

Of course some dealers are going to put up some resistance on having their car sent out for an inspection, but usually, this is an indication that the dealer doesn’t want to be bothered with the effort and it doesn’t automatically mean the car is problematic. If that happens, there are a number of remote services than can send people to the dealership to provide an inspection and a report.

Some certified used cars are leased cars from other states. I will say I've dogged the heck out of my wife's leased Mercedes and would hate to buy that thing from the dealer later on. 

Here is when it is worth it:

As an alternative to a new car.

I just bought an Acura-certified used 2018 RDX with 9,000 miles on it.  The certification also extends the warranty to be equivalent to the new car warranty.

It is in every way, shape, and form a new car.  Except for the part where I got it for $15,000 less than new.  The tax difference alone is thousands of dollars.

I'm old enough to remember when the saying was "when you buy a used car, you are buying somebody else's problems".  A low-mileage car that was only a year old was a sure sign of a lemon.

What has changed is the popularity and prevalence of leasing.  A low-mileage car that is only a year or two old is usually coming of a lease (you can check this), not being turned in as a lemon.

The other thing that has changed is that car models now can have up to a decade run with very few changes.  You can get a two year old car that is mechanically identical to the new version.

When you buy a used car like that with a credible certification from somebody like Acura or Car Max you are getting a de-facto new car . . . for many thousands less than new.

When we go to replace our other car, we will do it the same way. 

I had a CPO Ford. They made it a CPO to close the sale. It made me feel better. :-).