I did research and found the exact CPO car I wanted at Darcars. I went in with a max price I was willing to pay, and told myself I’d walk if they wouldn’t meet my price. Did a test drive, did some negotiating, and wound up paying several hundred dollars below my upper limit. Buying new would have cost me at least $7,000 more - this was a Toyota.

I was in and out in less than 2 hours. This was about 4 years ago, and I’ve had absolutely no issues with the car.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

Your data is inconclusive. How many NON-certified pre-owned two year old cars have you purchased for comparison? A two year old car is a two year old car. CPO is a gimmick to get you to pay more.

Well, some CPO does have additional benefits. They do screen out the really bad ones, ones with accidents, and etc. Often the CPO cars will also come with an extended warranty. This screening and additional warranty has some value - how much value depends on the individual.

I would in general not buy a 2-3 year old car of any well regarded brand since the discount is unlikely to be advantageous versus buying new at a well negotiated price.

I bought a CPO Mercedes E350 coming off a three year lease that only had 19,000 miles for about 40% less than the original price. It came with an extended warranty plus two years of free maintenance. I used CarGuru to search for the car and it did a very good job in assessing it's value versus other MB's. So, I know got a good price plus the free maintenance was a valuable bonus.

NP here and I think people are mainly talking about off lease Hondas and Toyotas not being great deals. Luxury brands like Mercedes are a different animal because a substantial portion of their new car sales are leases so there are a lot of used cars that come on the market so you can get them for a substantial discount.

One thing though I would caution against using 40% off the original price as your benchmark for the deal you got as it is unlikely anyone is paying MSRP.

FYI--CarMax actually churns most cars they buy from people to other dealers. Not many actually make it to their own sales lots. Used to work at CarMax corporate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

Your data is inconclusive. How many NON-certified pre-owned two year old cars have you purchased for comparison? A two year old car is a two year old car. CPO is a gimmick to get you to pay more.

Well, some CPO does have additional benefits. They do screen out the really bad ones, ones with accidents, and etc. Often the CPO cars will also come with an extended warranty. This screening and additional warranty has some value - how much value depends on the individual.

I would in general not buy a 2-3 year old car of any well regarded brand since the discount is unlikely to be advantageous versus buying new at a well negotiated price.

I bought a CPO Mercedes E350 coming off a three year lease that only had 19,000 miles for about 40% less than the original price. It came with an extended warranty plus two years of free maintenance. I used CarGuru to search for the car and it did a very good job in assessing it's value versus other MB's. So, I know got a good price plus the free maintenance was a valuable bonus.

Anonymous wrote:You people are being ridiculous. People aren't leasing Toyota/Hondas/subarus and especially not "for the feeling of a new car" nor is anyone outside of Michigan getting offended when a sales rep rolls up in a "Japanese" car.

Car salesmen have been giving you a bill of goods

You seem angry.

You people are being ridiculous. People aren't leasing Toyota/Hondas/subarus and especially not "for the feeling of a new car" nor is anyone outside of Michigan getting offended when a sales rep rolls up in a "Japanese" car.

Car salesmen have been giving you a bill of goods

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid Carmax like the plague.

If you have seen some of the crap I’ve sold them
That they over paid for. Stay away. Far away.

The CPO is ok if your not super car savy. The 120k warranty can be worth the small increase in cost.

We’ve had great luck with Carmax twice! Just buy models that are 2-3 years old (no older) and it’s likely you’re buying from someone who sold their perfectly-good car to move overseas or from the dealer’s spouse who got tired of driving the same car after a coupe of years. It can save you thousands!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

And you never thought to wonder why someone would own a car for only two years??? huge red flag

It's called Lease Returns. Very common in the auto sales industry!

For luxury brands maybe, not regular cars

We've bought Toyotas off of leases with no issues. Those are 20-year cars (at least!) Two years in someone else's ownership is not a big deal. Many, many people lease cars routinely because they like driving newer model cars--and not just luxury cars.

You can certainly opt to always buy new and then you'll always know exactly where your car has been. But I'd trust a CPO off a lease from a dealer over a former rental car or a private owner, and when we bought our most recent car, the cost differential between the three wasn't that big. But to each his own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

And you never thought to wonder why someone would own a car for only two years??? huge red flag

It's called Lease Returns. Very common in the auto sales industry!

For luxury brands maybe, not regular cars

Lots of non-luxury brands come off-lease. It's fleet vehicles. Typically it's American brands like Ford or Chevy, since companies don't want their sales reps driving around in a non-American car and pissing off one of their customers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

Your data is inconclusive. How many NON-certified pre-owned two year old cars have you purchased for comparison? A two year old car is a two year old car. CPO is a gimmick to get you to pay more.

You'll only find a CPO that's 2-5 years old since that's the maximum age they'll certify it for. We traded in our Audi in very good shape to an Audi dealer, and I heard the sales manager on the phone with someone further up the chain asking if he can CPO the car. He was told no since our car was 6 years old and thus to old.

At least for Audi, to get a car CPO'd there's a 300-point checklist and they hand you the results which show each item was checked and corrected so it'll pass. We bought an Audi CPO before and they showed all the stuff they did to get it CPO'ed. New set of brakes and some things like that.

I realize Audi is more upscale so maybe Toyota or Honda aren't as rigorous, but the CPO is real at least for Audi.

I bought a CPO Toyota Solara and an issue was found almost 3 months after I bought it. Toyota covered $1200 and I paid a $50 deductible. That was the only issue I had and it was nice to have the warranty. CPO vehicles are great for someone like myself who doesn’t know cars well, provided you find a good deal. I drove to NY to pick that car up because the deal was the best I could find for that model.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do know CPO is BS.

? We've bought certified pre-owned cars and never had an issue. Obviously you should do your own due diligence on any car, but the point of CPO for us is the warranty. If you're buying an old enough car maybe it's better to buy it sans warranty from a private seller for less, but it's been worth it to us for two-year-old cars coming off leases.

And you never thought to wonder why someone would own a car for only two years??? huge red flag

It's called Lease Returns. Very common in the auto sales industry!

For luxury brands maybe, not regular cars

With all the new electronic gadgetry in cars now adays. getting a car with a manufacturers extended warranty, could be worth it.

extended warranties are usually worth a couple grand depending on the deductibe and how long they cover

and if you go CPO you want a manufactures warranty, not a third party warranty

Anonymous wrote:I would avoid Carmax like the plague.

If you have seen some of the crap I’ve sold them
That they over paid for. Stay away. Far away.

The CPO is ok if your not super car savy. The 120k warranty can be worth the small increase in cost.

Car max doesn't keep the crappy cars they get. They sell them to other resellers.

Go to autotrader.com and select certified under the advanced search options.