coolsaber

Sounds like you know what you are doing but heres some things I have picked up along the way about CPO

-Its a Lexus aka toyota product. generally reliable with basic service needs. Hence why CPO value is hard to justify for these vehicles, but I can see Lexus's price to the used car market is CPO
-The real value vs perceived value is going to be the warranty and length of ownership. If you are buying an older model with only a couple of months left on the warranty, then thats something you would want with some additional coverage. However if your are buying a high mileage 15, CPO is middle ground. You still have the remainder of factory warranty and its a fairly new vehicle. If the pricing comes in the same as non CPO, then hell yeah CPO it is. But if your looking at a significant difference then why? Plus if you intend to keep the vehicle for a limited time, CPO isnt magically going to make the resell price that much higher.
-Finally I know that CPO has a list of checks and stuff that Lexus dealerships tout, but unless you were physically there at the time of inspection, its just a used car dealer telling you they did X,Y,Z. Who knows for sure what if anything outside of standard wash and detail they actually touched. Tires are expensive, but price that out from your selling price. You can use tire prices to easily workdown a nonCPO vehicle.
-Finally get the full vehicle report from the dealer, carfax, and maybe if your really interested an inspection from a trusted third party.

coolsaber

I personally have not seen Lexus dealerships remove CPO, but a couple years removing the CPO or adding it in on lease return purchases (leasee wants to purchase their lease) was a common practice at BMW. It never hurts to ask a dealership, cause the worst they say is no, and best for you is they say yes.

lesz

While the 161 point checklist sounds impressive, most of the items checked are things that any one of us could check for ourselves in less than an hour. It includes things like making sure that all of the power windows work, that all of the lights work properly, that the car starts, etc.

You can see the full list of items checked here:

http://www.lexus.com/documents/broch...t-brochure.pdf

When someone is considering buying a CPO vehicle, he/she is making a mistake if he/she is thinking of that vehicle as necessarily being in near new condition. The check for wear items only requires those items to meet a minimum level of remaining wear life left. So, for example, the tires only need to have 5/32 of an inch of tread left. That means that tires that only have about 1/3 of their usable tread left meet the CPO standard. Similarly, remaining brake pad depth only needs to meet a similar standard of about 1/3 of their usable pad depth left. Thus, it would be possible for someone to buy a CPO vehicle and, within 10,000 miles, have to spend $1500 or more on new tires and brakes.

Also note that, if the dealer has to spend money to replace, say, tires that don't meet the CPO minimum standard, it is likely that the dealer has already "paid" for those tires by discounting the trade-in allowance for the person who traded in that car.

The typical real cost to the dealership of "reconditioning" a vehicle to meet CPO standards and of paying for the CPO warranty is usually well under $1000, and, when the dealer adds $2000-2500 to the price over what a non-certified vehicle would be worth, selling that vehicle as a CPO vehicle adds significantly to the dealer's profit over what the dealer would be making if it sold the same vehicle without certification.

Some dealers are willing, in fact, to remove CPO designation from a vehicle and reduce the price. They are more likely to be willing to do so if that vehicle has been sitting on their lot for an extended period of time and if they are anxious to move it off of their lot.

Before buying a CPO vehicle, the buyer should be sure to examine the CPO checklist if, for no other reason, to make sure that things like the tires and brakes still have plenty of usable life left. If, for example, I was buying a CPO vehicle and if the tires only had, say, 6/32 of tread left, before agreeing to the deal, I would require the dealer to replace the tires or else to lower the price by an amount roughly equivalent to what it would cost me to replace those tires 8 or 10 months down the road. Examining the CPO checklist can also alert a potential buying to any cosmetic repairs that might have been done, such as repainting a bumper, which would make it easier for the buyer to know where to look to check to see that a quality repair job was done.

salimshah

Dont forget the labor charge will be there even if the item checks out OK. Granted that the master tech would not be working on checking fluid level. The effort may look trivial, but the shop labor will be passed to the purchaser. Does it it add up to 500? maybe not all, but it will be rouded up 1.5 to 2 hrs.

Salim

jtviet

I realize that this post is relatively old, but I'm responding anyway since it might still help.

CPOs are probably one of the best gimmicks to come along to help dealers sell used cars with more profit margin. In my experience, most of the items on the 160 point or however many point inspection is practically overcharged fluff which is billed to the cost of the CPO. It's practically a forced warranty added to the price of a used car that is put through tests and repairs that a "good" dealership should do anyway. Can a dealership remove the CPO status? Yes! Will most dealers remove the CPO status. That's most likely a big fat NO! Did I get the CPO status removed for some of my customers? Maybe 1 or 2 in my 10 years in the car biz. (Was in sales and dealer finance). In my opinion, if you like warranties, then CPO status is a great add-on. However, if you are not the extended warranty type, it's a hard battle to win to remove the CPO. Personally, I buy Lexus and Toyota because they last and have been reliable vehicles for me and I never buy extended warranties.