All things being equal, what would you recommend?
2006 Subaru Impreza 2.5i Station Wagon / $13K / 39K miles / Certified Pre-Owned /Carfax 1 owner
or
2007 Subaru Impreza Sedan $12K / 49K miles / Certified Pre-Owned / Dealer lifetime warranty
If this is comparing apples to apples, then I’d choose the one with the warranty.
“Lifetime” warranty?
10K miles is a drop in the bucket, unless you are talking about 500 versus 10,500. If the warranty is legit I would go with it too.
I wonder what the dealer’s lifetime is?
If you don’t need a wagon it’s a complete no brainer. Longer warranty, newer car, NOT a wagon are all positives. Carfax is irrelevant.
and what it covers. . . It’s probably a lifetime warranty on something very unlikely to give out, like the oil pan or the sun visor.
[b] Dealer lifetime warranty [/b] Yea, how old is the dealer? Get his medical records before you put any value on that one.What does “certified pre-owned” mean anyways?? That some one can prove or authenticate it’s a used car? That shouldn’t be too hard the car is 4 years old and has 39k miles, yep it’s used!
When you say CPO, that should mean that they are certified by Subaru. Make sure of that. If not, don’t buy it. I have no idea what a dealer lifetime warranty is. Read the document carefully, and decide if it means anything. As some of the other guys said, the lifetime warranty is almost certainly not a bumper-to-bumper warranty. And the warranty probably does not cover wear and tear. As a car ages, most repairs will be wear and tear, and I question the value of the lifetime warranty because of that.
“Certified pre-owned” is a marketing term invented by car manufacturers to justify charging more for a used car sold at the dealership than the same used car would cost on another dealer’s lot or a private sale. Usually it means some kind of inspection and warranty. Different car makers are different so be sure to get whatever promises and claims they are making in writing.
I would not buy either one; the warranty will exclude many things, as pointed out. Both cars, if not maintained meticulously since new, have the potential for expensive problems before 100,000 miles. We have a very large number of posts to back that up.
If you want a wagon, a used Ford Focus can be had for next to nothing, and you can replace many things on that before you reach the Subaru price tag. A used Toyota Matrix is a good buy as well.
It’s still just another used car.