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Lucking out with repairs? A 5+ year old car won't be offered under a certified pre-owned program, but a 2-3 year old one will. That gets you another 5 years (7

Lucking out with repairs? A 5+ year old car won't be offered under a certified pre-owned program, but a 2-3 year old one will. That gets you another 5 years (7 years from the in-service date) and 100K miles under warranty. My last used car needed a new transmission, serpentine belt, water pump and alternator... and all of it was replaced under warranty, with door-to-door pickup and rental cars. When that 7 year warranty came to an end, I sold the car, took $2K and bought another 2-year-old car with the fully loaded trim. That works out to ~$400/year, with the same benefits of buying used versus new, but having a factory warranty brings a lot of peace of mind.

JohnTHaller 11y ago
Certified pre-owned may have a warranty, but the "certified pre-owned" part is just a fancy way of saying used. And there's often nothing "certified" about them at all. A friend of mine in CA just purchased a "certified pre-owned" Honda 2 days ago... quite a bit of extra cash for a "182 point rigorous checklist" they do to ensure the car is in great working order. Over a dozen of those 182 points were skipped. So, all kinds of things marked as verified working that are just broken.
- dangrossman 11y ago
  Certified pre-owned is a fancy way of saying "used, with a 7 year drivetrain warranty from the manufacturer", which is a lot different than "used and those broken things are your problem now". The checklist isn't the point.
  - JohnTHaller 11y ago
    Honda advertises it as being sure that everything on this huge checklist is double-checked and ensured to be working properly before you buy it. The salespeople specifically tell you that. My point is that ads and salespeople lie (surprise) and the "certified" bit doesn't mean anything.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
      - JohnTHaller 11y ago
        I'm not discounting having a warranty. You can get a warranty on a used car from all sorts of places. Certified Pre-Owned is defined by Honda (and many others) to specifically have the advantage of not having specific things broken when you buy a car. That's what the "certified" part is. That's the whole reason they mention, specifically, the 182 point certification check. It's one of the main reasons my friend paid all the extra money for a certified pre-owned car vs getting the same basic car "used" elsewhere. My point is that the "certified" bit is mostly BS. And not just at Honda. You're still likely to get a car with a bunch of broken stuff when it's "certified".

JohnTHaller 11y ago

Certified pre-owned may have a warranty, but the "certified pre-owned" part is just a fancy way of saying used. And there's often nothing "certified" about them at all. A friend of mine in CA just purchased a "certified pre-owned" Honda 2 days ago... quite a bit of extra cash for a "182 point rigorous checklist" they do to ensure the car is in great working order. Over a dozen of those 182 points were skipped. So, all kinds of things marked as verified working that are just broken.

dangrossman 11y ago
Certified pre-owned is a fancy way of saying "used, with a 7 year drivetrain warranty from the manufacturer", which is a lot different than "used and those broken things are your problem now". The checklist isn't the point.
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  Honda advertises it as being sure that everything on this huge checklist is double-checked and ensured to be working properly before you buy it. The salespeople specifically tell you that. My point is that ads and salespeople lie (surprise) and the "certified" bit doesn't mean anything.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - JohnTHaller 11y ago
      I'm not discounting having a warranty. You can get a warranty on a used car from all sorts of places. Certified Pre-Owned is defined by Honda (and many others) to specifically have the advantage of not having specific things broken when you buy a car. That's what the "certified" part is. That's the whole reason they mention, specifically, the 182 point certification check. It's one of the main reasons my friend paid all the extra money for a certified pre-owned car vs getting the same basic car "used" elsewhere. My point is that the "certified" bit is mostly BS. And not just at Honda. You're still likely to get a car with a bunch of broken stuff when it's "certified".