mewhee

Hi All -

There seems to be a lot of discussion in the forum re: Certified Pre Owned (CPO) vehicles with some of you seemingly not willing to settle for anything less. Here's a couple of questions for you:

First - is it worth the extra $ for the peace of mind it brings you - analogous to insurance of sorts I assume - or, like myself, are some of you willing to take the chance of having to deal w/ expensive repairs in an auto who for the six years in production was always in the top tier of reliability ratings?

Second - does anyone know if the dealers have a formula for the additional selling price required to cover the anticipated CPO repairs under warranty?

In my case, I had no choice as even tho my '02 had only 41k on it - 70k being the limit for CPO's - it's more than six years old.

Any thoughts ?

Jabberwock

At a minimum it cost the Lexus dealer about $900-1000 to CPO the car. That is what they pay Lexus for the warranty. They also have to perform any required service packs based on its mileage, and do brakes and tires (if worn beyond a certain point), plus misc items to get car in 100% condition before they can CPO it. And yes they add all these extra costs to what they had to pay for the car plus a reasonable profit to come up with a sales price - so yes you pay for it no matter what. No matter how hard we wish, there is no free lunch in grownup land : )

In my opinion its way worth it - unless and only unless you can buy a mint cond car from a private party that is OCD about taking care of their cars (some crazy person like me or likely some others on his forum). Most used cars are crapped out to some extent and many have hidden problems... yea for a used expensive car I think CPO is worth it.

But if you find the right car at a discount you can always buy a warranty for it after the fact - just shop around so you don't get ripped off.

AlexusAnja

Oh... here we go again... CPO or not CPO. Like you said, CPO is like insurance.. for piece of mind. Buying a used vehicle (even new vehicle for that matter) has it's risks of buying one with issues. Especially in private market where it's not even just an off-lease vehicle, you have to figure the owner is getting rid of the vehicle for some reason, perhaps damage or problems.

So, if you're the type that needs the "peace of mind" to know that you'll live trouble-free with the car for 3 years or 100,000 total miles, then go for it. For me, I did not think it was necessary and my car has gone 26K already with no issues whatsoever.

Also, keep in mind, it's 3 years or 100K total miles so if the car you're looking for has low miles (say 36K), are you going to drive 21K miles per year to balance out? I would think that for most of the vehicles on CPO, the owner will max on years rather than total 100K, so really, you might get to 80K and 3 years is up and then everything craps out at 90K, so you missed it anyway.

Jabberwock

AlexusAnja - good points - it is a crap shoot no matter how you look at it. And its possible to argue the pros and cons either way on going CPO or not. There is no right or wrong answer as some of it will depend on pure luck of the draw. I agree that in the end it probably comes down to the temperament of the buyer and their level of preferred risk tolerance.

V8_Fan

For lexus, CPO is worth it. For Toyota, no, as Toyota CPO is only 3 MONTHS/3K miles. On my LX, the CPO extension to 5 yrs is up in 6 months. The only thing that I claimed on the warranty is soon after I bought it (3 yrs old at the time), I noticed I had to keep the steering wheel about 10deg off center to keep the car straight, yet the alignment was correct (could let go of the steering wheel and it would track straight). The dealer thought it was initially an alignment issue and said that wasn't covered, but the tech determined the VGRS steering ECU needed updating, and that was covered. The ECU alone was $800 + labor. Other things I tried to get covered as a piece of external plastic trim that is only sold with the quarter window cracked. Dealer wouldn't cover it. Also, the rear 3rd brake light lens cracked due to extreme AZ heat, also not covered, as lights are considered "trim" under the CPO warranty. The warranty does NOT cover an interior pieces, creaks, any glass or anything that comes with the glass (like the plastic mounts on the window), lights (at least exterior, even if the light fails). It does cover the vehicle's electronics, engine/drivetrain/suspension, brakes, seat/door motors, etc. Those are the "big ticket" items where repairs will run you $1K+.

On my LS, I got the warranty out to 6 yrs/100K (bought the car w/ 22K mi last fall). I figure I'll drive a max of 12K mi/yr over 6 yrs=72K mi+22K=94K mi, close enough to 100K. IMHO, it's not worth it getting the 125K option, as it costs $800 more for that extra 25K mi. The way I look at it, if it hasn't failed by 100K mi, it probably won't fail by 125K mi (CPO excludes maintenance items like water pumps, which typically last 120K mi).

As others have said, the CPO is cheap insurance. I wouldn't buy it on a used Corolla, but on complicated vehicles like any of the Lexus cars, one repair can cost you $2K. You do pay about a $2K premium for a CPO vs. a non-CPO. If the car is high mileage and is pretty basic, like a LS430 non-nav version w/ 80K mi, I don't think the CPO is worth it. But on any LS430 ultra where a single air shock runs $1K for the part alone and where they are known to fail at 60K mi, it is worth it. Last word of advice: look at the service records carefully to see what kind of person the PO was. If service like brake pad replacement was declined and the car looks kind of thrashed (wheel rash, etc.), or if there were electrical problems like batteries kept dying, I would avoid it.

slclexus

Not to further muddy the waters, but I have a related question.

The LS430 we just bought is still under the original factory warranty until October. Given some of the great points made about the expense involved if any major systems need work, is it worth it to extend the factory warranty? And probably most important, can you actually extend the original warranty or attach a CPO-type warranty through Lexus?

Oh ... by the way. The car was a PP purchase, not through a dealer.

Thanks.

V8_Fan

To my knowledge, the extended warranty is not "factory" in the sense that it's merely platinum like the CPO. The factory warranty covers everything short of rock chip damage (covers stuff like creaking interiors, cracked trim/tail light lenses while the extended and CPO warranties don't). You have to read the fine print before you buy. The CPO warranty starts the day you buy the vehicle, so if you buy a 1 year old Lexus CPO, you are wasting your money, as there are still 4 yrs remaining on the factory warranty; both the factory warranty and CPO would expire at the same time! The CPO warranty does NOT start after the factory warranty expires.

KaiserSea1

I paid 26k for my 06 LS and 1700$ for the extended plat warranty in 08, a CPO at the time would have cost me over 40K. (perfect storm gas prices were almost 5$) Better deal non-CPO

In 2009 I paid 23K for my 03 SC and 3500$ for a plat used car warranty. Could have gotten an 05 CPO for 28K. Better deal CPO

Every deal is different.