"Certified" Preowned = Limp Dealer Scam!

His rant is almost a year old...Do we really need to start slinging shit over this again??

 

Guess I should be happy with my ""Certified" purchase then. New tires, filters, oil change, tranny service (could not prove as of yet but assume they did as everything else was done and documented and oil seems clean), rear end oil change, etc. The paper work I asked for and received was a print out off of the shop computer and it did not say the spark plugs were changed. I bought new ones and when I went to change them I removed 6 brand new ones (then put them back in).

To the OP. Sorry man for your experience. Some dealers really do suck.

 

Maybe TW should remove threads after a couple months? Most topics on here have been anyway! Besides, it relieves stress to sling shit every now & then!

 

Wow. Guess I didn't notice.

 

Even though the rant is a year old, it was a very fine rant. On the rant scale I'd have to give it around a 8.5 for effort, but the lack of paragraphs bring the total points earned down a bit to 7.0
Had the original poster included some pictures with his rant the scoring could have been substantially higher. All things considered, he did a dam fine rant. Now... let's get back to the original program scheduled for this time slot.

 

i know this is old, but it couldn't fit my situation more!

trusting in the Certified used a Pile of Bull and the stealership told me this directly: "its a guideline, we don't have to go by any of the things on there".

My truck 10 w/ 41k miles, only had a 132 out of 160 point inspection done, as the entire detailing/paint/body section was left blank (oh, that's right.. with the exception of the cabin air filter)

I purchased my vehicle with a Dent on the back and 2 nice cracked headlight housings, yet the certification documents CLEARLY state that the vehicle cannot be sold with cracked housings or dents. Long story short: Call toyota. If you want any results: Call toyota. Did i say this enough? Call toyota. My problem got fixed quickly, on the stealerships dime, the way it should have BEFORE it was ever put on the lot for sale.

On a side note: like the orignal poster, im good with my hands and since whats happened i have gone thru the truck with a fine tooth comb.... Changed the plugs, i was pleasantly surprised to see NGK's on the Driver side bank Denso's on the Passenger side bank all gaps were significantly off.
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When i pulled out the oil (which, according to the stealership had less then a "couple hundred miles" added to my ~ 500 i'd driven it) it was the worse oil i'd ever seen in my life. Did i mention the drain plug had started to drip (reason i decided to change) and was able to remove with my fingers? hmmmm... how hard is it to torque that baby down?

 

I saw one of these at my local dealer the other day. It was a 2007 double cab with about 35000 miles. The sticker claimed the Kelly Blue Book price was ~$29,500 but they were offering it for ~$24,500... which is only about $750 less than I paid for my brand new 2009 AC Sport back in 11/2008... from the same dealer! I don't care how many points they checked that is just nuts.

 

While having the mixed plugs is cool- That probably means those were the orignal plugs- with about 11K too many on them hence the bad gapping.

Glad they got at least some of it fixed for you tho.

 

I can't be the only one with good experience with a certified used.

Sure there were some issues with the truck I found after I bought it. The dealer didn't even try to argue - it was "yes sir it will be fixed immediately" at a cost of several hundred dollars to them and $0 to me. We're talking AC condensor/dryer, fender flare, LED taillamp assembly, and more.

Guess I got lucky. I know a lot of salesman would try to screw their customers with the "certified" bit.

 

They probably did the 160 pt inspection but did just that, just inspect it just not fix it

 

i agree. i don't even bother reading stuff like that. i made it about 3 or 4 lines.

 

It is just a marketing ploy for the 160 point inspection. One advantage is that they will fix items after the fact. We looked at a Lexus at the dealer that was "Certified". I told the salesman that they only did 158 points because the vehicle had clear left front damage from a prior accident the left rail had shoddy repairs and the right headlamp had moisture in it.

 

i worked for a bm dealer for 31/2 yrs doing test drives for techs. i've seen the certified process in person. total joke. they don't look it over very well at all, and don't want to spend any money on it. the dealer is in constant hot water with bm north america because of customer complaints about vehicle condition. he is the most blatant example: car was such a lemon the company bought it back as such. then re-sold it as certified. the new owner spent just as much time as the original in the service drive. it's criminal. i had to quit working for these people for my own sanity!

 

Paul, Kudos for not compromising your integrity!

 

Didnt your certified truck come with an extended warranty

 

Do you mean BMW?