Close; CPO is an inspection and criteria process that needs to take place prior to a car being eligible for the factory warranty extension. For eg. my car was a Certified Pre-Owned car because it met the criteria and went through the 150 point inspection process. Had I chosen NOT to secure the extended warranty, I would have paid less for the car.....so I'm not sure how the CPO process is more "lucre" for the dealer in and of itself as I don't believe I would have paid more for the car than a non-CPO car if I didn't get the warranty...

...anyhow, that's my understanding from the discussions I had with my dealer.

Dave

 

Not quite. A CPO car both passes the inspection criteria AND has the extended warranty rolled into the price, which is the main reason they cost more than comparable non-CPO cars.

A car may meet the inspection criteria and qualify to be a CPO car, but it is not a CPO car unless so designated and with the extended warranty.

I think what SinF meant was "no reason to buy a CPO car" unless you're going to buy a non-CPO car and then go out and purchase and extended warranty.

 

I'm not sure what he meant and if it is the way you say (and I'm sure it is) then his comment makes even less sense if you can't "divorce" the process from the warranty.

I was just going by what my dealer told me and the fact that he did offer to lower the price if I didn't want the warranty....had I taken him up on that, the car hadn't changed and still went through the certification/inspection process but I see what you mean about "qualifying" vs. "being". Thanks for the correction; I'm new to the Jag world and still playing catch-up.

Cheers,
Dave

 

Right, I've had the same offer before. What he meant was he could take your car out of the CPO program and give you a discount. It then would have been a non-CPO car, but you could have still purchased a JLR extended warranty on your own.

 

Makes sense. I wonder what the cost difference would be? I think the dealer told me the CPO warranty was around $3,500 - $4k Canadian....

Dave

 

Maybe Jaguar operates differently. I used to drive Mercedes for many years, so I am only familiar with their CPO. Here how it works there (and also likely how Jag works):

-CPO requires 'extensive' checklist to qualify, but most of it are basics (e.g. are tires and pads have enough life left on them). In practice, you get less out of CPO than what you'd get out of prepurchase inspection if you were to pay for it.

-CPO also has a warranty associated with it, but it is very specific in its coverage to the point of it being useless. With Mercedes it only covers catastrophic engine failure, and not actually things that do fail like electronics, roof, emission equipment.

-CPO (and only CPO) cars are qualified for extended factory warranty. This is as good as factory warranty and covers everything but wear&tear items. You have to pay extra for this, and it is expensive. (e.g. $5K for 2 year extended warranty on Mercedes SL). Despite this expense, it is recommended for complicated cars, where in case of SL hydraulic suspension pump failure easily can net you $5K+ bill. Any after-market warranty for these cars would have weasel clauses making it not worthwhile.

Therefore, I recommend one of the following:

1. Buy CPO, pay for longest possible extended factory warranty, never worry about repair bills
2. Buy non-CPO, pay dealership to do prepurchase inspection, then cover expenses out of pocket

For F-type, it is unknown what makes most sense. I am not aware of any common failures other than timing chain and tensioner issues caused by following unreasonably specified long oil change intervals. There is also potential clutch issue for MT, but none of these MT cars are available used yet. For Mercedes SL, where hydraulic suspension is a known weak spot, purchasing non-CPO car was a big gamble.

TL;DR: CPO by itself is not a good deal. Read the fine print for CPO coverage.

 

I've had 2 Mercedes CPOs and my understanding and repair reality is completely different. On the SLK they replaced a headlight, a failed key FOB, and a headlight washer that had paint coming off that was not from stone chips. Maybe it was just my dealer.

I've looked at cars that were advertised with words like CPO eligible which the dealers told me that the cars had been inspected and repaired to CPO standards, but the extended warranty had not been activated - that would cost extra.