Certified Pre-owned

jdewolfe · May 12, 2010

Hi everyone- so I had my truck in for some work today at my local dealership (not where I purchased the truck from). When I went to pick up the truck, the service guy told me that everything I brought the truck in for should have been fixed before I purchased the vehicle. He also said that it all should have been fixed before it even became a Certified pre-owned. They are fixing all of the issues I had but the brakes. So, the front brakes need to be repaired apparently and the rears just need the drums turned. I sent an email to the sales guy that I bought the truck from to see if they could help me out with any of this. I'm just waiting to see if he will respond. If he does not, I will try calling. If I don't get anywhere with the dealership, who can I try next? Have any of you run into this sort of situation?

Thanks!

Jeff

pm26 · May 13, 2010

On paper, certified pre-owned should mean that the vehicle passes a number of strict inspections which involve all vehicle systems and everything is fixed to work properly.

Unfortunately, in practice, certified pre-owned often means that they are merely certifying that the vehicle had a previous owner. If it starts, runs, and stops, and A/C is cold, it's good to go.

Some dealers take certified pre-owned inspection seriously, some do not. This is true for all vehicle makes. I have read horror stories about people buying certified pre-owned Volkswagens that turned out to be complete POSs.

AlaskanSilverado07 · May 13, 2010

Been there, done that. Bought a GM Certified Silverado in 2008 only to find it had a Fram oil filter, the oil was black, the air filter was an aftermarket mess that had seen its better days and basically the truck never saw a mechanic to perform the certification inspection. Some shop monkey simply checked off the boxes and they certified it. I raised enough hell with the dealer and the BBB that they gave me an extended warranty but it didn't make me feel any better. GM Certified is a joke...my philosophy now is if you want a guarantee, buy new like I did a couple months ago.

trucc_boi · May 13, 2010

i got really lucky.. my dealership didn't give me the certified warranty when i bought my truck, but i still have til july on the factory bumper to bumper and a few more years on a 72k mile extended warranty that i didn't know i had when i bought it (dealership here just told me about it when they ran my vin).. plus the 100k powertrain warranty.

works out better because my factory warranty and the extended warranty is way better than the gm certified use car warranty (which i think is like 1 year/12k miles on bumper to bumper.. not sure on the powertrain)

DEV1ST8R · May 13, 2010

I'd raise hell with the dealership manager. If that didn't go anywhere, contact Better Business Bureau?

vester · May 13, 2010

I have a CPO and have been happy with it. I think my dealer only changed the oil and made sure the CEL wasn't on. When I changed all my fluids, the TCase and both axles were low. I think the issue is that the dealer wants to spend the least amount of money possible to "certify" the vehicle. If he waits until after it is sold, he can charge it to the CPO warranty rather than pay for the fix out of pocket.

The nice thing about the CPO warranty is that it is an extension of the B2B warranty rather than a 3rd party insurance policy. There is no arguing with an underwriter and no parts that aren't covered.

On my one reoccurring issue I had with my truck there was a simple way to get it fixed. A couple of days after I had it in for service, GM called me to ask how my visit was. I told the call center that the dealer didn't fix the problem. At 8:30 the next morning the service writer called me and asked me to bring it back so they could have a 2nd look. What do you know, they actually spent some time, found the issue and fixed it. GM will also send you a mailed survey shortly after your purchase, if you answer that negatively, I guarantee you the dealer will be calling you.

ColoradoSkiCountry · May 14, 2010

Those are just "sales" terms used to attract buyers and to give a warm fuzzy feeling to people who really think it means something. I've visited other auto forums and everyone of them has a post or two regarding the OEM Pre-owned program/inspection not being what is advertised. Don't feel too bad, your not the only one out there getting screwed over.