:..Certified Used Vehicles - Would you buy just 'used' or only 'Certified'..:

I know about the 'certified' 140 point inspection etc.

I know (*at least Toyota*) give a blanket warranty for a specific time frame.

I have had very good luck with just buying "used" .. but wanna know if 'certified' is a more reliable way to go finding/purchasing my new to me 2018 - 1794 ED.

What do you all think?

Any of you buy 'certified'??

 

I personally have only bought certified.

**BUT**

That's because our dealership provides a lifetime engine warranty if it's certified.

 

I would go with the Toyota Certified

100,000 mile warranty from Toyota or 6 years whichever comes first.

Plus roadside assistance.

 

I bought certified on my last tundra (and extended warranty). On my current tundra, it was not certified but I still bought an extended warranty. You will obviously pay $2k for a certified truck and they appear to be "cleaner". For example, my current Tundra has some issues with parking sensors that I just don't feel like paying $1k to fix. If it was certified, I am sure I wouldn't have this problem........Go certified if the extra coin doesn't bother you.

 

I have been burnt badly on used non-certified Toyota’s. When I buy used now, I will only buy certified.

 

I've done CPO with both Mercedes and now Toyota. Both offered enough incentives to make it worth while.

Toyota even more so now since new and used trucks are so close in price. Just have to work to find them.

 

Same here! Lou Fusz in Kirkwood, MO

 

Funny
Wait until you need to try to make use of that for something big.

 

Realistically, that will be never. But I still have the paperwork. As long as all maintenance is logged in the Toyota app and you retain the receipts it’s covered.

 

Keep in mind the 6 or 7 years is based off of the original date of purchase.

 

I'd get a used non certified from a dealer, if you do your homework and verify everything is good. I'd be VERY hesitant to get it from somewhere else, especially people that had one turned it for a reason and likely went non Toyota.

I did well with a '15 Pro with 98k miles that wasn't 'certified'. Only one prior owner, highway miles only, religious oil changes, 4wd barely if ever used.

I would have gone for certified if it was available, but 98k is outside of their "certified".

 

I purchased a ‘15 last March that was sold as is. Mileage was 89k. Currently have about 96k and so far so good. Replaced all fluids the day after purchase. Just did water pump, drive belt, tensioners and plugs last week as PM.

 

I actually bought one from a dealer and they were the owners as it was the lot truck for the stores that they owned.

Under 42K and they would not sell it certified and all service was done right there!

They did try to sell me third party warranties until I walked out the door though during the pitch.

What does this tell you?

 

Small world! I checked them out when purchasing my vehicle. I almost bought one from them in March 2020...but the dealership local to me had one on display for like 2 months and no one would touch it because classically, Toyota didn't give huge discounts....until about March 2020. LOL Their loss!

 

Never certified. Some from dealers and some from private party.

 

My Tundra is a CPO. I wasn’t necessarily looking for a CPO when I was buying, just so happened to be that this truck was.

However, here is the issue I had. When I buy a vehicle (which isn’t very often) I know what to look for on used vehicles and am comfortable with my own assessment. That being said, when I bought my truck, I had been looking for a while and had also recently purchased a used Highlander for my wife; I was tired. When I bought my truck, I completely forgot to ask the dealer for a carfax report. 2 days after I bought my truck, I spotted some minor body damage that I missed on my inspection. I contacted my salesman and sent pictures, asking if they would fix the damage, seeing as it was a CPO truck, which on the Toyota website claims they will not sell a vehicle marked as a CPO if it’s been in an accident. He said no, so I asked then why was it sold as a CPO, to which I don’t even remember his answer. I requested a carfax report, which he gave me some bullshit excuse that his manager told home they no longer had access to the report. So you’re telling me, as a Toyota dealership, you don’t have access…again, I call bullshit. So I say screw it and buy the damn carfax myself. Come to find out, the carfax listed an accident on the truck and showed the damage to be in the area where I found damage. I could not for the life of me find any sort of info on the accident, which drove me crazy. But I had no issues with the truck and had my buddy do his own inspection and he found no issues, so I’m confident it wasn’t a major accident.

All that being said, to me, CPO doesn’t mean jack shit if the dealer does shady crap like this. I fully admit my mistakes on missing the damage and not asking for a carfax to begin with, that is absolutely on me. Would it have changed my mind about buying it? I can’t say for sure, but I absolutely love my truck, so it all worked out.

Also make sure you know all of the pricing regarding the CPO. It adds some money to the price, which was another thing this dealer didn’t disclose until they came back with the offer sheet.

 

I bought a '08 once that was certified. Near the end of the coverage, the rear bearings started to go. They fixed it for me under the coverage. I got my money out of it.

My brother bought a corolla that was certified. The salesman said when the coverage is about up, bring it in and say there's a funny noise when driving. They'll look it over, probably find something, and fix it under coverage. Now of course that's the salesman ... and they say anything it seems. But still.

 

Haha that’s not a bad idea.

I will say I do like the fact that as long as you take your truck to an ASE certified shop, Toyota honors the CPO warranty. My buddy owns his own shop and I trust him wholly with my vehicles. Hope I never have to use it, though.

 

Somebody else on this Forum also stated that the CarFax ONLY shows police REPORTED accidents. So - more times than not - an small accident, single vehicle, no one hurt, would go unreported and yet in the actual history of the truck would change the value (*somewhat*) of that vehicle.

So, putting EVERYTHING into a CarFax report is a little unicorn-ish for me...the big stuff would be reported but a small fender crease or dented bumper etc would be utterly unreported.

YMMV

 

Mine had a small cress in the driver’s side A pillar. I just assume maybe a branch fell on it or something hit it on the interstate. My body shop fixed it for pretty cheap so I just let the issue go.

 

If I were to buy from a stealer ship in these times and at current prices, I’d want certified. But I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a used Tundra from a private owner with good service records if my in-person inspection revealed no obvious problems.

 

^^^T H I S^^^

 

Nope.

 

The above is exactly what I meant about the incentives. The CPO Tundra we just bought only has 12k miles on it and they included 4 years of free maintenance. It's cheaper and has better coverage than a brand new truck. Just took a while to find.

 

How much warranty on a used would you need to buy to be equivalent to the CPO warranty? There is your answer.

I never bought a Toyota CPO but I own a CPO from another brand. My understanding of CPOs is that any vehicle can get CPOed as long as it is of the manufacturer's brand and below the manufacture's thresholds of mileage, accidents, and any other relevant criteria. Most vehicles CPOed are low hanging fruit for dealerships as in they don't require major repairs but they will typically replace consumable parts that are out of spec/tolerance.

 

This is actually why I bought new in 2020. In March of that year, as Toyotas have classically tended to do, resale values on used vehicles were high. HOWEVER, new vehicles are the bread and butter of dealerships...so there was about a 2 month period where sales were super low, and therefore, deals were as well. I could have gotten a slightly used vehicle for maybe $38.5K, CPO....OR a brand new one, with an engine lifetime warranty, TRD Offroad/SR5 Upgrade/Blackout packages, etc. for about $41K, which is what I did.

 

Heck yeah, I got mine in December 2021, just before the prices got out of control. $29k for a 16 SR5 dbl cab next cheapest around was $31k. (Both certified.)

 

Generally speaking, I am confident with toyota and a non-certified vehicle would not be a deal breaker if I could verify a good service history. That being said, I am glad I had a certified used vehicle when I bought my FJ - that vehicle would have cost me big bucks if I would have not had the certified designation. I dumped that POS at 98K miles because it had more warranty fixes/issues than any other vehicle I have ever owned (to include my 05 Rubicon Unlimited that i still have). Previous to my current Tundra, I bought a non-certified Tacoma and it was a great vehicle that never gave me a problem. My 2018 Tundra was purchased with ~23K miles and I got them to deal on the price and include a platinum warranty/$0 deductible in the deal, but overall I would have purchased even without the warranty or certified designation.

 

My last three auto purchases have been CPO, it is worth it to me. But I have my doubts the 140 point inspection is even done on these.

 

I know Honda has a physical form that the tech has to sign off on. They also are required to maintain a certain level of factory training in order to certify vehicles. If they don’t complete any portion of the checks and it comes back with a defect that was supposed to be addressed the dealer faces being charged back by American Honda.