I drove an hour and a half to see a vehicle, with money in hand. Found the exact model and color I was looking for, not to mention its Certified Pre-Owned! SCORE!!!! ..Not quite.. I went through all the trouble of getting a loan, finding a ride, and driving almost 2 hours to look at said car with full intentions to buy right at opening time.
This is where I'm glad I did my research into these cars, the CPO program, and brought an auto body tech with me.
As I started walking around the car the salesman (Nick) started immediately trying to get me to taker it on a test drive, I'm not sure if he didn't want me to inspect as closely as I was at the moment. Regardless I gave him my ID to copy and took the car about a mile or so down the road, turned around and drove to a nearby parking lot to inspect the car with no interruptions. I opened all doors, trunk, and hood. CPO vehicles are supposed to have NO VISIBLE DAMAGE, essentially a re-certified almost NEW vehicle.
There was paint missing all the way up the edge on both drivers side doors, there was many 1-2 inch long deep scratches that you could sink your fingernail into all over the car, the front bumper's lip was creased in at least 2 spots and there was damaged paint all the way along the front edge, the passenger side had 4+ dents and there was paint missing from the center of most of them, the chrome/silver trim under the window on the drivers side front door was clawed to the point that it looked sanded with 80 grit sandpaper, the interior looked like wolverine drove it because there were deep scratches all over the door handle and the steering wheel was severely worn for a vehicle that was supposed to show no apparent wear, the headliner had sweat stains or coffee all over it, the tail light on the drivers side has moisture inside, the passenger side headlight has a chip out of the center of it, the rear bumper had severe scuffing all the way across the trunk opening from sliding cargo in and out of the trunk, there were various other scratches and a good amount of swirling all over from the roof to anywhere else you wanted to look closely at..
My point is after reviewing the CPO list by VW again I realized that the tech obviously and very blatantly lied to get this car CPO certified. I asked to have the cost reduced since I would have to get the cars finish refreshed including a serious buff and have a few panels re-sprayed, new headlight or a repair, new drivers door panel, get the window tint removed because of the bubbles and wonky cuts, get a new taillight, new front bumper, etc.. Mr. Nick says he will find out what they can do but "you need to expect this type of damage to a used vehicle" Obviously glossing over the fact that they lied on over 7 points of a CPO checklist to get a vehicle certified that was not eligible.
Nick tells me that "this car will sell to someone who doesn't take care of their cars near as well as (me) and they will be thrilled because they "think" it will be a great deal."
That line really stuck with me about how Boucher must work as a company.. Makes you think that he pretty much agrees it is too much but its okay because some poor sucker will buy it anyway. He also offered to see if the dealer would be willing to improperly repair the scratches by just blending the clear to fix the finish and that's when my friend inquired about de-lamination from the different clear coats and asked if I get any additional paint warranty for that and Nick said no. He also said they might be able to get the dents out that are lower in the doors but not the ones on the body lines because those are "tricky". Now, that is true, but they should have a capable tech for this.
Anyway, Nick comes back and gives me the story that they have more into the car than what its posted for online so that's the bottom dollar (another lie I found a cheaper ad online after) and I left with nothing but $15k in my hand. Do not trust the CPO and do not trust Nick especially. He didn't even smile at me until the end when he told me that "I hope it works out for you next time" yikes.. Needless to say I don't recommend. read more