The advantage of the CPO is not necessarily what you find out when you buy it but down the road. You can inspect all you want when you buy it but you can't predict 4 years down the road what will need to be replaced or breaks.

IMO, you aren't paying 3K on CPO for the inspection. It's about the extended warranty. You get an extended warranty elsewhere, and it will be at LEAST that much.

To cover all bases, what's an extra $150 for a PPI on top of a CPO vehicle. A PPI could point out extra issues that the dealer can fix prior to delivery.

I have access to dealer auctions too, and thought about buying a vehicle and putting money in the bank instead of the dealer/CPO premium. What turns me off? PPI will not tell you if you have a potential tranny / air suspension / electrical issue. Basic and surface engine / drivetrain / suspension / electrical functionality, sure. Checklist looks very similar to a CPO inspection (minus computer checks).

There's no right or wrong here. Some people will pocket the 3-5K saved buying by themselves over CPO. However, with the history of these vehicles and their trans, vanos, air suspension, HVAC system, etc..., $3000 will fix one of these problems. Put on top of this the finance options of buying CPO (0.9 can save an additional 2-3K), it's a great program.

Are you a gambling man? Or are you willing to buy insurance for a dealer showing an Ace?

True you can get a car at auction but how many people are actually going to do that and there's not much of a selection. From what I've been told by the pre-owned people at one of the dealers here is if a pre-owned car is not CPO they will do it for about $3K.

Done it before and had other friends do it. Processing paperwork to transfer title dealer to dealer and dealer to you ~1K, CPO~2K. If you are buying out your lease at the same dealer, you can get away with CPO'ing it potentially around 2K.

As an added note to my previous post: Just happened:

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...-low-rpms.html

Guy ended up getting it covered by warranty - $5000 job for an acceleration jerk. PPI would not have found this out...

Again like I said the majority of people don't have the time or have the want to go through an auction. Otherwise, everybody would be doing it.

Remember everyone... For the CPO warranty you are ONLY paying for a 2/50 warranty period of time since the factory warranty is for 4/50 to begin with...

That is the part that made me not go with an extended warranty. (I hope I don't regret that decision.)

The 50k miles part of the warranty is simply not applicable to many people. I don't know many car owners who drive their cars 50k miles in the first 4 years of ownership, and then do 50k additional miles in the following 2 years. I think the 2 year part (and the person's own mileage habits, as well as the mileage of the car at the end of orig 4 years coverage) should play a bigger role in determining if a warranty/CPO is worth it or not. Obviously this is different from one person/car to another.

In my case, I had 42k on my 3.0 when it was time to decide whether I needed the additional 2 years of coverage or not. With a bunch of sensors and belts and pulleys and others changed in the last couple of months under orig warranty, (and the fact that these fixes were warrantied for 2 years anyway) I took the risk and decided that for the additional 2 years and 20k miles (based on my usage of the car), I didn't need the extended warranty. It is a risk that I hope will work for me. (of course now that I have jinxed it, my whole engine will probably blow up on my way home today. :))

If the warranty/CPO was for an additional 4 years/50k miles, then I would have more than likely would have looked for a warranty or a CPO car. If I were planning on putting 25-30k miles per year on my 4 year old car, I would have definitely gotten the warranty.

That is if today you are buying an '05 that was put into service in '05. If you are buying an '06 today you are getting 3 years of CPO, '07 4 years of CPO, etc.

Was not arguing this point - I did not say anything about how common it is.

Actually, I was confirming your quote of $3K to certify from my own experiences.

I don't think this is the case. CPO is 2/50 over the standard 4/50 new car warranty.

05 in-service= 2 CPO years
06 in-service= 1 New Car year, 2 CPO years
07 in-service= 2 New Car year, 2 CPO years

CPO isn't as comprehensive as New Car, so you can't lump them as the same.