CPO Question re: certifying a BMW that was in a crash

[ard]

CPO cars can be in crashes. DO NOT THINK A CPO IS A GUARANTEE THE CAR IS 'CLEAN'.

Do a google search for 'CPO Guidelines'... you will find a pdf of the actual cpo inspection AND criteria they use.

They are required to verify maintenance- they are not required to look for accidents. The are required to do body work quality inspections. There are certain repair/damages that will automatically prevent CPO certification. It is not clear what their liability is if they 'miss' something. In other words if the car was in a bad crash, damaging part of the body that would exclude CPO- but they miss it and sell it to you as a cpo, My recollection is there is no guarantee they will 'make it right'

Cars may go through any number of hands before a dealer throws a CPO on it... It is my personal belief that dealerships really do not want to look any harder than they must to do a CPO- indeed, if they look too hard and find a problem with a car they already own, they screw themselves.

A BMW dealer can only cpo a car they own. So a VW dealer that is owned by say Braman cannot take it to Braman BMW and certify it. They would need to sell it to braman. CPO it, and sell it to you. But that COULD be done with the stroke of a pen (I once had a private party sell a BMW to a dealer, dealer cpod it, sold it to me, all in 4 hours... I prepaid all inspections, so no risk to the dealer. Cost $2500 total on top if the private party price. For an M5) Very difficult to do, and I've never heard of it working with two dealerships.

Finally, get your own PPI no matter if you get it cpod or not. Indeed, why get a cpo? Just do a very thorough PPI and buy a BMW gold plan extended warranty.

GL

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