Not too far from me there is a huge auto pool sales lot. The lot has literally thousands upon thousands of cars that were declared a total, theft recoveries, and pretty much you name it. At one time this facility (there are several in the chain) used to be a licensed dealer only but opened to the public a few years back. My wild guess might be that they have 10k cars at any one time there.
Those cars are sold right and left and they’re obviously not being purchased as parts donors…
I’ve mentioned the story before but a Subaru dealer I worked for once took in trade a 1 year old Chevy with only 3k miles on it. The car was showroom new in and out and the people trading it in were dumping it because “they just didn’t like it and decided they wanted a Subie”.
The dealer resold the car in a heartbeat and over the next few weeks it came back with electrical problems. A co-worker was the guy charged with sorting them out and which he did.
A week or so later more hiccups in the electrics and the trail led to the harness underneath the front carpet on the drivers side.
That led to pulling up the carpet and at that point it was discovered the car was actually two. It was the front half of one welded to the rear half of another with everything you could think of spliced or cobbled.
No one even welded gusset plates to strengthen the floor so it’s a sheer miracle the car never buckled in half at the first pothole.
The car also had a clean title through the entire process. My boss called the people up, apologized for what had transpired, and told them to come back down for a full refund or another car if they chose to use that option. He washed his hands of the car by sending it to auction. That of course meant it ended up in someone else’s hands in who knows what state.
While the dealer may not have known the past history of the car, they are responsible for it. They are considered experts and have to take responsibility for the condition of the car, especially if they sell it as CPO.
I’m in full agreement with you Mr. Sanders and personally, i’ve always considered the CPO designation the same as a Carfax designation; it may or may not be the whole story.
I feel like I’m living a horror story. To let all of you dear, kind people with your most excellent advice know, I went to the Subaru dealership today. The Legacy had Left front and rear bearings replaced-- well, we hope so right? Anyway, the owner refused to take the car back. I spent 3 hrs. there because my son told me I should NOT drive the car away until I got a resolution. I called Subaru corporate and the lady was able to get this to resolution within about 30 min. The owner had refused to come to a resolution because he said he had to see what corporate wanted to do about it. (I figured he was lying cause his lips were moving). I had called corporate early this morning with a curiosity of what they might be able to do to help me. So I ended up with a 7yr. “wrap”. I drove away with shaky knees from the draining of my tiny teacup of courage and a tear in my eye from relief. I have learned some valuable lessons: go to the cartalk community early in the deal for great advice, take car to someone else for inspection, get it out on the highway quickly with windows down and radio off, and be very suspicious of 1 yr. old car with low mileage – among other lessons. note: I had my son comb the car as best he could since he has worked on cars all his life including body shop work but I should have had him drive it. Carfax didn’t show much except VA Beach rental Axxx and an auction sale in FL - [maybe they pulled it out of one of those sink holes]. Also I will be taking it to another dealer for service. Soooo grateful to all of you - keep up the good work - your service is the BEST!!!
It seems that each time someone purchases a used car with a flaw someone here will suggest that the car must have been washed out to sea.
I think you should trust you sons hands on inspection over internet strangers, don’t let the thought of the vehicle being involved in a disaster without some evidence worry you.
Noisy wheel bearings on a rental car may have been caused by someone hitting a curb at 40MPH, check if the tires were recently replaced.
As I mentioned earlier, failed wheel bearings on an '15 Subaru due to a manufacturing defect have a near zero probability. It has to be flood or curb whacking.
As to warranty, curb whacking or floodwaters are not warrantable causes unless the service manager wants to fudge the claim a bit.
You got the 7 year wrap warranty, for free and that is a a fair deal. If this is the only problem with the car, it might even be the best you can hope for at this point.
Well there was also an electrical issue in addition to the two wheel bearings, or at least a flashing brake light for some reason. So the electrical plus the wheel bearings plus the city of origin seems to be more than just a passing guess on high water issues. Who knows though maybe the guy renting it got it dried out and turned it in and no one was the wiser? But then they usually run them longer than 11K.
the lease returns and trade-ins that were in good condition were kept and sold as CPO, whenever possible
The ones that were somehow undesirable, suspicious or otherwise questionable were swiftly sent on their way to the auction
I’m guessing some dealer may have passed on OP’s car, and that is how it eventually wound up at the auction
I have nothing against the idea of auctions, by the way.
Whatever dealer mechanic certified OP’s car may not have actually driven it. Or else they would have brought the wheel bearings to somebody’s attention. I suppose it’s also possible the mechanic did hear the bearings, told the service manager and was forbidden from performing the repair.
They also don’t sell them to the public like they used to. Most of the top tier rental company have a second tier company as well, like I believe it is Avis and Budget. Avis rents them for awhile, then they go to Budget for renting at a lower rate. By the time they get rid of them, they will have over 40k miles on them.
I think db4690 made a very valid comment about the mechanic being forbidden from doing the repair; assuming the dealer even sent it back to the service department to be looked over and noisy bearings were pointed out.
It would crimp their bottom line so sell it and then deal with any aftermath. The dealer has the consumer’s money and there’s no way the consumer is going to get it back short of battling it out in court.
Db4590 is also correct about the less than desireable cars being sent to auction for whatever reason it may be. In a very, very few cases the dealer may have a good car that just won’t sell in the area so they dump it just to get rid of it and improve the cash flow for the month.
In most cases those cars are going to auctions for more worrisome reasons.
Ask for an extended bumper to bumper warranty if returning car is not an option. Something likely happened to it and cpo does not check wheel bearings. You cannot inspect them easily they either work or fail get noisy.
A few times, I pointed out a few things on off-lease cars or low mileage trade-ins, and the service manager chewed MY ear off
Talk about shooting the messenger . . .
One time, the tire tread depth was too low for CPO. So in order to sell it as such, they would have to be replaced. And the budget wouldn’t allow for that. I believe the manager was looking at it terms of money.
Another time I pointed out a cracked headlamp lens, and I got the same treatment. Probably because the headlamp was a very expensive glass assembly, and the lens wasn’t available separately.
My worst “sin” was that I actually noted the flaws on the checksheet. Worse than just telling somebody, because there was a paper trail. I suppose they could have filled out a clean checksheet and forged my signature.
They actually did forge my signature once, but that’s a story for another time
@db4690 Having bought a few CPO cars I can attest that the list is just marked off without even looking at the car. I had one that said the sunroof was in good condition where the car didn’t even have one. I didn’t have time for practical jokes but was going to ask them to show the operation to me.
I only like the CPO warranty for reassurance. I check the car out myself as any other used car and I make sure I am not paying extra for the CPO. I cross shop with private and other dealer prices.
As to why a CPO car may have a checklist in which someone just went through the motions that could be due to:
A. The sales dept. has no intention of paying the service dept. to perform that inspection even if they do get a cut rate, internal pricing so someone in the sales dept. may check everything off; in some cases without even seeing the car or sending it to the service dept.
B. They’re expecting the mechanic to do a full stem to stern inspection and are paying him .2 hours to do it. The disgruntled mechanic will be irritated (or flat out pxxxxxx off) over working for nothing or near nothing and will pencil whip the form followed by sending the car out the door.
