Buying Certified Pre-Owned Cars

Cpt_Kirk

Cpt_Kirk

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Ted Striker
Our Plymouth Neon is at the end of the road. I'm keeping it going by replacing everything that it needs, but the car has served its duty. We're looking to move on. (ProTip: Don't ever buy any Neon. Total p.o.s.)

Budget is roughly $15k but more importantly, we want the monthly payment to be under $250/month to stay in budget. We've pretty much settled on the eighth generation Honda Accord after looking at Nissan, Mazda, VW, Toyota, and Mercury models.

This would be my first purchase from a dealer. Does anyone have any tips or helpful info for someone going into a certified pre-owned lot? Not sure how flexible the price could be with a used car.
 
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Honestly, it comes down to the dealer. Some dealers will haggle with you all day and both of you can come out happy as long as you both have a realistic end price in mind. Others will play hardball and will give you one number and say take it or leave it.

I have heard a lot of certified pre-owned were cars on lease, so that would at least mean the maintenance was kept up to date.
 
Around here, a lot of the mainline dealers are trying to act like carmax, no negotiating.

So really you never know unless you get up and walk out.
 
I have no issue walking out if the deal doesn't go in my favor.

If they were leased vehicles, I'd be happier. I would like to see a good maintenance schedule history.
 
Do your homework,get prices from some competitors,be ready to walk away if your not happy with the deal.
 
With a certified vw your warranty is often longer than the new model. Stick to a 2.0t engine if you buy one. They use the engine in more than half of the new vw/audi's now and it is reliable.
 
Last month I bought a certified Honda Accord from Katy Honda of Houston.

The warranty is as good or better than the factory warranty. The car had 7,500 miles and was like new, but much less expensive than new.

We did the traditional car dealer haggle, they came down a couple of thousand dollars from the advertised price.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
Our Plymouth Neon is at the end of the road. I'm keeping it going by replacing everything that it needs, but the car has served its duty. We're looking to move on. (ProTip: Don't ever buy any Neon. Total p.o.s.)

Budget is roughly $15k but more importantly, we want the monthly payment to be under $250/month to stay in budget. We've pretty much settled on the eighth generation Honda Accord after looking at Nissan, Mazda, VW, Toyota, and Mercury models.

This would be my first purchase from a dealer. Does anyone have any tips or helpful info for someone going into a certified pre-owned lot? Not sure how flexible the price could be with a used car.
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The key to cheap cars is never replace anything it doesn't need to actually run, just keep it limping along as it falls apart around you. Usually a Neon or a Cavalier would do 250,000 miles before it does that, unless of course you put a 250hp nitrous kit on it.:lol: Then a rod goes out the side.
 
Test drive everything before negotiating. While they are in the back room cooking up their "best offer," look it up on www.kbb.com with the mileage and options to see what it's worth. Use that as your Do Not Exceed price, and share your source with them. His "best price" was KBB + $3000, we settled on KBB - $800. It helps to shop at the end of the month, too, they want all the sales they can get.

The payments will, naturally, be influenced by your downpayment. I had one dealer lower the payments by $10/month and take off a year when I added $1000 to my downpayment. So I saved ($10 x 48 months) + ($199 x 12 months) by fronting another $1000. You do the math, I was satisfied.

Visit the new/used dealer(s) of your choice, and walk in expecting that they are out to swindle you out of your last dime. Stand up for yourself. I had a dealer try to lower my credit score because two other dealers that day had run a credit check. Don't be afraid to yell, it works. Then the finance lady wanted me to sign something that they didn't have to spend more than $100 fixing things on the car. She nearly passed out when I tore it up. Threw it away and told her that I didn't care how much they spent fixing it. Then I tore up the replacement form and said I flat out wouldn't buy the car as it sat. So another form magically appeared, and me, my wife, the finance lady and someone else went out and recorded everything on the car that needed to be done.

See, it pays to read everything they hand you, and if you don't like it, don't sign it. Be prepared to walk, and do so if necessary. There are many other car dealers and many, many other cars out there. The dealer needs your money, you just want a car from one of them.

Can you tell that I hate car shopping and despise car salesmen? I go as infrequently as possible, buy 1-2 year old low mileage cars, and never pay more than 75% of new selling price (NOT sticker price). If they don't want to deal, I go somewhere else.
 
Gah. I drove the living crap out of a 2005 Neon. It even had a turbo. Fun lil car but the torque steer was awful!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Have your financing planned with a bank of your choosing before you walk in. I did my homework and knew the rate I could get, but still made the mistake of telling them they could do the financing as long as they could match my known rate. They came back to the table with a rate nearly a full percentage point higher than I knew I could get independently. And they hit my credit with a hard pull three separate times for three different financing institutions. I was ****ed and sent them back to their room.
 
The dealer will make money in every office you sit in. Whether you're negotiating the trade-in value of your car, the cash value of the car you're wanting to buy, or the financing charges/percentages/etc in the finance office - everybody you talk to is an expert in extracting as much of your current and future income from you as they can, and they practice their techniques every single day.

Treat each transaction separately.
- Get the highest dollar value you can for your trade-in. Period. If that means you sell it on ebay or craigs list or at another dealership, then so be it.
- Once you settle on the value of your trade-in, find the car you want that you believe you can get for the price you are willing to pay. Negotiate that price down. Expect to leave the dealership multiple times before you get the price you want. Leave them your phone number so they can call you when they are hungry (usually at the end of the month/quarter/year when they are up against a quota).
- After settling on the price of the new-to-you car, it's time for the finance guy to fleece you. If you already have financing lined up through a bank or credit union, tell them - and make sure they don't pull your credit score. If you will be using the dealership to shop for financing, understand that they will get multiple quotes but will most likely only show you the one that gives them the best deal for the dealership. Tell them to show you all of the financing offers they have received for you. You spent your hard earned credit score to get those quotes - they have to show them to you. If you're going with one of them, pick the one that makes the most sense for you. It will probably not be the one the dealership would have wanted.

Remember: everyone you talk to wants your money, and will get it in as many ways as they possibly can.
 
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Another member here put me on to the way I buy cars (other than new) now.

Dealer who specializes in going to manufacturer auctions of lease return vehicles, you buy at $500 over his auction cost. He's very picky, takes the car for any warranty, recall, etc. prior to delivery.

If you want Certified, you can buy that.

When we bought my wife's BMW, best I can tell, we saved around four grand from what dealers were selling- maybe more.
 
SCCutler said:
Another member here put me on to the way I buy cars (other than new) now.

Dealer who specializes in going to manufacturer auctions of lease return vehicles, you buy at $500 over his auction cost. He's very picky, takes the car for any warranty, recall, etc. prior to delivery.

If you want Certified, you can buy that.

When we bought my wife's BMW, best I can tell, we saved around four grand from what dealers were selling- maybe more.
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How do you find a dealer that does this?
 
catmandu said:
Not affiliated, just a happy customer, was worth the $99 Southwest flight and drive home:

www.offleaseonly.com

Everything from econo-boxes to semi-supercars.
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This looks interesting.

I'm going to separate all three transactions to limit the potential of being wrung out, if I go to a dealer. Neon is going on CL. Financing will be independent from dealer.
 
Do your research, find the car you want, used or new, then contact the internet sales department of the dealership.

The dealerships tend to know that people are

a. lazy
b. get stars in their eyes.

As a result before 30, I screwed up in car buying by wasting a couple grand here or there, last car, went to the dealership, dealership wouldn't haggle, so I went home. Researched the model online, saw the same car I was looking at, asked for an internet quote, and got the price down about 5 grand just at the request of an internet quote. I could have done more back and forth if I wanted, but I felt the price was fair so I bought the car. If you want to go even more aggressive, contact another dealer for internet quote and then play one quote off another.

When you are at home....and this is the key, you are not at the dealership with stars in your eyes, they are competing to get you out of your pajamas and into the dealership, when you're at the dealership they see the lust in your eyes, and you're going to give them what they want. It's a huge difference.
 
CPO will have to come from the Honda Dealer and be about 1-3 years old(2 is the usual, often off-lease cars), so you will be limited in your choices. It will also be more expensive than an non-CPO/non-honda dealer car.

Honestly, with Accord, i wouldn't care if the car was CPO. They are so well made, that the extra cost is not worth it. CPO warranty is very limited, mostly to drivetrain and few other bits. You can get 3rd party warranty for that for peanuts for Accord(and I would not do that either)

I'd be looking for well maintained 2 year old with less than 35K on it so that there is still some factory warranty left as an insurance.

Not sure what 15K buys you, but i don't think it's CPO money

p.s. Leased <> better maintained
 
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I'd look on Craigslist or whatever and get something from the guy who owned it. I only ever bought one car from a dealership and it turned into a disaster.
 
Best car deal I ever did was when I figured out two dealers that had the exact vehicle we wanted and I sent them both a ***FAX*** saying whoever got back to me first at X price (which I had already figured out was reasonable via Consumer Reports real price service) got the deal.

I had a call back in 30 minutes. They had handed the fax to the fleet/internet guy because they had no idea what to do with it. Fleet/Internet guy had the authority to make deals without ANY of the usual dealership sales drama.

He called and said he needed $80 more than my price to make the deal. Done. Picked up the car two days later. All I had to do was have my own financing to avoid the finance guy's games.
 
When I'm in a new place and need a car, I find a small local dealership that has been around 20+ years and has a repair shop (you don't stay in business as a neighborhood car dealer by ****ing people over). Rather than negotiate price, I offer the deal, "I'll give you your asking price, but if I have problems, I want to be able to use your shop and get the parts at your cost to fix it." I've never been turned down and picked up a lot of side work that way as well.
 
Henning said:
When I'm in a new place and need a car, I find a small local dealership that has been around 20+ years and has a repair shop (you don't stay in business as a neighborhood car dealer by ****ing people over).

. . . .
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Yep. I use a dealership that's been around for almost 50 years and is still owned by the same family. They're basically just honest. They don't hem and haw about warranty issues or recalls, they're good about loaner cars, and they don't recommend unnecessary services every time you drive past the joint.

Good dealerships also actually do everything required for a pre-owned car to be "certified." There are some steps that a lot of dealerships skip because they're a pain in the ass to get to and the dealers figure that customers won't check. One example is replacing the cabin air filter. I checked. It was new. That was a first in my entire car-buying lifetime.

Where I live, brand-new cars lose a lot of value due to the dirt, dust, weather, animals walking on them, winter salt, and so forth. Used cars are a better deal if you can find a good one, and certified used cars are usually good ones if you find a good dealer. At least if the car has a problem, a good dealer will make it right without a hassle.

So again, it gets down to finding a good dealer. Car dealers range from sleazebags to saints, so ask around and find a saint. That's really the best car-buying advice I can give if you're talking about buying from a dealer.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
Yep. I use a dealership that's been around for almost 50 years and is still owned by the same family. They're basically just honest. They don't hem and haw about warranty issues or recalls, they're good about loaner cars, and they don't recommend unnecessary services every time you drive past the joint.

Good dealerships also actually do everything required for a pre-owned car to be "certified." There are some steps that a lot of dealerships skip because they're a pain in the ass to get to and the dealers figure that customers won't check. One example is replacing the cabin air filter. I checked. It was new. That was a first in my entire car-buying lifetime.

Where I live, brand-new cars lose a lot of value due to the dirt, dust, weather, animals walking on them, winter salt, and so forth. Used cars are a better deal if you can find a good one, and certified used cars are usually good ones if you find a good dealer. At least if the car has a problem, a good dealer will make it right without a hassle.

So again, it gets down to finding a good dealer. Car dealers range from sleazebags to saints, so ask around and find a saint. That's really the best car-buying advice I can give if you're talking about buying from a dealer.

Rich
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I literally grew up on the same type of lot, but I was there day one. The same brothers are still in business in the same neighborhood, the one they grew up in and still live in.
 
Check John's lot. He has some cars in your range with really low miles.
 
Certification means squat without a warranty that backs it up. And don't believe the carfax hype. They only have what they can mine from accessible records.
 
flyingron said:
Certification means squat without a warranty that backs it up. And don't believe the carfax hype. They only have what they can mine from accessible records.
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Ahhhhmen! We bought an off lease "certified" Mercedes 302, or was it a 320?, anyway, sedan , a 2003 model. Four door, 23000 miles. from a dealer. It was a dog. After many breakdowns I spoke with a factory rep out of New Jersey, who, after "reviewing our cars history" stated " well after all, you bought a used car" ( on a trip, it broke down in buffalo where the service manager said, " get rid of it before it runs out of warranty" . (You may recall this was when Mercedes was still hooked up with Chrysler) . We dumped it, bought a lexus, new, no more problems. For us the Lexus has been a wonderful car. (2).....We also had great luck with Hondas early on. ( I know people who have owned earlier Mercedes who drove them well over 100 thousand miles with no problems. ) car dealers will get away with anything you let them. Go in the last day or two of the month, state your wishes and know what you want. If they refuse, walk out. Lots of dealers to chose from.
 
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flyingron said:
Certification means squat without a warranty that backs it up. And don't believe the carfax hype. They only have what they can mine from accessible records.
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Certification, IF it's factory certification is an extension of the factory warranty. Some other programs are dealer certified and have an after market extended warranty that may or may not be all that super-duper. :dunno:
Carfox is only as good as the data they collect, which isn't always reliable, I have seen vehicles that showed damage history that weren't, but more that looked like they had been hit by a train and showed no accidents. :yikes: It's a starting point, but like logbooks on an airplane, they may not show the whole story! :D
 
N747JB said:
Certification, IF it's factory certification is an extension of the factory warranty. Some other programs are dealer certified and have an after market extended warranty that may or may not be all that super-duper. :dunno:
Carfox is only as good as the data they collect, which isn't always reliable, I have seen vehicles that showed damage history that weren't, but more that looked like they had been hit by a train and showed no accidents. :yikes: It's a starting point, but like logbooks on an airplane, they may not show the whole story! :D
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If insurance didn't fix it, Carfax likely doesn't know about it.
 
Henning said:
If insurance didn't fix it, Carfax likely doesn't know about it.
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They report accidents from state data bases, but some states like Florida take up to 12 months to report! Ask me how I know! :mad2: :rolleyes:
 
RJM62 said:
So again, it gets down to finding a good dealer. Car dealers range from sleazebags to saints, so ask around and find a saint. That's really the best car-buying advice I can give if you're talking about buying from a dealer.

Rich
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I'm not going to say there aren't ANY good hereditary dealers, but one of the reasons they are often 50 years in the same family is that dying is just about the only way to get someone's hands off the franchise. Even at that they are heritable. Most states have rather onerous franchise laws, put in place precisely so manufacturers can't mess with a franchisee, like rescinding the franchise, or limiting territory, no matter how bad they treat customers.

I don't claim to be a car buying expert, but my habit is to drive cars for 10 years or more. I like to buy new when I can; my last car was used, and though there are things I like about it there are other things that make me wish I hadn't. Anyway, I figure even if I make a $1-2k 'mistake' every time I buy, I don't make it very often so I can live with the consequences.
 
N747JB said:
They report accidents from state data bases, but some states like Florida take up to 12 months to report! Ask me how I know! :mad2: :rolleyes:
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Not all accidents are reported to the police either. Lot's of misrepresentations exist in the Carfax system.
 
I've heard the horror stories about buying used rental cars, but ten years ago I bought a Toyota Matrix from Hertz. It was a year old with 35K miles. My son has it now, and it's still going strong with 220+K on the clock. Best car value purchase since my '69 VW Beetle. Go figure.
 
Pilawt said:
I've heard the horror stories about buying used rental cars, but ten years ago I bought a Toyota Matrix from Hertz. It was a year old with 35K miles. My son has it now, and it's still going strong with 220+K on the clock. Best car value purchase since my '69 VW Beetle. Go figure.
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Hertz actually takes really good care of their cars.
 
Pilawt said:
I've heard the horror stories about buying used rental cars, but ten years ago I bought a Toyota Matrix from Hertz. It was a year old with 35K miles. My son has it now, and it's still going strong with 220+K on the clock. Best car value purchase since my '69 VW Beetle. Go figure.
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During college I was a car porter (vacuum cars, shuffle them around the lot, between offices, to/from service) for Enterprise RAC in a couple of different offices. They changed the oil only every 7,500, and only changed the oil filter every OTHER oil change. To this day they send me e-mail ads for their used car sales; never gave a second thought to buying one. There's a reason for the phrase "Driven like a rented mule."
 
DJTorrente said:
During college I was a car porter (vacuum cars, shuffle them around the lot, between offices, to/from service) for Enterprise RAC in a couple of different offices. They changed the oil only every 7,500, and only changed the oil filter every OTHER oil change. To this day they send me e-mail ads for their used car sales; never gave a second thought to buying one. There's a reason for the phrase "Driven like a rented mule."
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I change my oil approximately every 50,000-100,000 miles change my filter every 20,000 and still get 250,000 miles out of cars. Modern engines don't need plugs or oil changes very much, and top up oil is typically sufficient to keep the additive package functioning. Unleaded gas and computer controlled engines changed the reality of auto serve requirements, yet we still sell the ancient practices because they are more profitable.
 
Henning said:
I change my oil approximately every 50,000-100,000 miles change my filter every 20,000 and still get 250,000 miles out of cars. Modern engines don't need plugs or oil changes very much, and top up oil is typically sufficient to keep the additive package functioning. Unleaded gas and computer controlled engines changed the reality of auto serve requirements, yet we still sell the ancient practices because they are more profitable.
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Would love to see the blackstone results from that.... Mine gets 8qts of full synthetic every 5k.
 
ktup-flyer said:
Would love to see the blackstone results from that.... Mine gets 8qts of full synthetic every 5k.
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I thought full synthetic was a 8k-10k proposition? Every 5k sounds like traditional full-dino interval.
 
ktup-flyer said:
Would love to see the blackstone results from that.... Mine gets 8qts of full synthetic every 5k.
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Actually, Blackstone is the lab I used to experiment with when I realized the oil change thing is a big scam. I used to run tugs for a company that never changed the oil in 100,000hrs between rebuilds, and these were 3600 and 4500hp 20-645 or 710 EMD 2 stroke super/turbo- charged engines. We just change filters at the end of a trip down and up the Mississippi, top off the oil as required, and monthly send a sample to Blackstone who told us how much extra additive pack we needed to add. And these were old style mechanical injection engines, the only time the oil got drained was for overhaul at 100,000 hours at full throttle.

You can waste your money if you please, won't hurt anything, but you don't get a return. The primary thing that would get me to change oil is if the engine gets overheated.
 
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