A Used Car Buying Guide to Certified Preowned Cars
People occasionally, will pay full sticker price and buy a new car rather than going with a gently-used old car, just for the simple reason that the idea of dealing with the unpredictable nature of the used-car business makes them profoundly anxious. It is not just that they’re afraid that they will be sold a lemon. It’s the whole process that comes in doing everything in their power to make sure that they get a square deal. It just seems to be too much of a hassle. Any used car buying guide will tell you want to look at for it’s still up to you to make a point that you put all the advice you get in that used car buying guide to practice. So if that is all, it is, why don’t people go buy a certified pre-owned car? The company that made the car in the first place is the one buying it back from an owner, refurbishing it, slapping on an extended guarantee, and selling it to you. Why, they even give you roadside assistance for a long, long time. Shouldn’t everybody just pick a certified preowned car and be happy with the deal they are getting?
Of course, that piece of mind that a certified preowned car gives you comes with a price tag. They’re usually 10% more expensive than an uncertified car from any old used car dealership. And they will cost you 20% more than if you bought them from individual sellers. However, many times, the thousand dollars approximately that you pay a certified program is well worth it. It grants you to buy a used car with confidence and save thousands over the price of new car.
Nevertheless, not all certified pre-owned programs provide you the same level of confidence or coverage. One car manufacturer may offer you a very benevolent 6-year guarantee, roadside assistance and even reimbursement for a loaner, while another dealer may propose you just 10,000 miles and nothing else. You will need to do a bit research to check about the programs that make the most sense for you. The used car buying guide at Edmund’s has detailed information.
When you’re out there trying to judge one choice of the car against another, the kind of terminology they use to describe their offerings can frequently be very confusing. What do you do if you’re confronted with what seems like a really good deal, and the car has a sticker on it that says that it is Dealer-Certified? That’s just the same thing as “certified preowned,” right? Not exactly. When you buy a certified preowned car, it’s the manufacturer of the car who’s doing the certifying. Those tests are far more comprehensive, and you can trust a big company to do the right thing most of the time. There’s only one way to be sure what precisely you’re getting. It’s only a dealership attached to a particular manufacturer who is ever allowed to sell certified preowned. An independent car lot will never sell manufacturer-certified preowned.
