# Bought a CPO car over the internet... Not up to CPO standard, any recourse?



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

I know, I know I bought a car sight unseen, just pictures on the internet, and made a huge mistake in thinking that CPO meant something. Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.

The big issue is the rear bumper (photo to follow). I can't even come up with how this damage happened, but the spot to the upper right of the tow hook spot is has an entire chip of body missing. No retouching or spraying that. The other spots are obviously through all of the paint.

Next is damage to the air conditioner blower impeller. Makes a horrible racket if the blower is past the lowest speed. This is simply a warranty issue to me, but one that I will have to deal with my local dealership.

I have all of the CPO paperwork showing that the car is up to bmw standards in everyway, it just isn't. This car lived a hard 40k miles. And to get petty, the car came with 1 key, cpo report says that both keys were there. They are going to mail a second key to me, but just shows one more point where the cpo report was simply phoned in.

I realize that mistakes were made on my part. Mainly that I assumed that I had some security in purchasing a CPO car. (8th bmw, 1st cpo). Clean carfax, perfect cpo report. Regardless, am I out of line expecting that the body/paint on the rear bumper is unacceptable? I guess my next step is to find out what my local dealer will charge to fix the damage. I have spoken to my salesperson and let him know my concerns and sent pictures, but have not heard back yet.


----------



## Doug Huffman (Apr 25, 2015)

There is no Certified Previously Owned standard. Each independent franchise prepares its own certification standard.

Mine was lease return at 3 y.o./36K miles, and it had subtle cosmetic defects but I have discovered no mechanical defects from prevous to my purchase. I could not be happier.


----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

The air conditioner blower impeller you might be able to replace that under CPO. But, for cosmetic damage, I highly doubt the dealership will cover for that. CPO IMO is just a bunch of bs to mark the car up. Yeah, they give you an extra year of warranty. But, the warranty only covers "Mechanical items". It doesn't cover things like let's say 3 months into owning the car your leather seats start to tear or split. Or the battery dies. That kind of stuff won't be covered under CPO. But, if you have an engine or any other sort of drivetrain failure within that CPO warranty, that'll be covered. My parents got lucky buying a 2-year-old CPO Mercedes that still has two years of Bumper to Bumper warranty. So, they got a lot of stuff replaced. Seat bottoms were replaced due to "wrinkles" (it has Nappa leather so the leather isn't cheap. Came from Germany), rear wheels were re-finished due to the paint peeling, and a bunch of other things were replaced under the bumper to bumper warranty that would've cost thousands out of pocket if bumper to bumper warranty was expired. I wouldn't bother having paying a BMW dealership to repaint the rear bumper. I'd take it to a decent body shop and have them repaint it. I had a mobile body repair guy come paint the front bumper of my E90. Paid the dude $150 (plus lifetime warranty). The paint matches up perfectly. Can't even tell it was repainted. For the water spots, you can find a water spot remover on Amazon. Or if you want, have a detail shop remove them.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)




----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

KingpenM3 said:


> View attachment 1015555


Well, in that case, the rear bumper doesn't meet BMWs guidelines. Unless BMWs guideline/standards is a chipped-up bumper. But then again, the bumper isn't torn apart or missing. So, BMW nor the dealership have to repair it. They might do it to make you happy though. The weird thing is, I used to work at a dealership and we would repaint the majority of the bumpers of the cars if they had a scuff. Just so it's persentable. The paint wouldn't match 100%. But, it still looked better than a scuff. It didn't matter if the car was used or being sold as a CPO car. If the bumper had a scuff or paint chip, we would have it fixed.


----------



## ard (Jul 1, 2009)

are the brakes over 50%? Tires OK?

You are right to believe and insist the car meet BMW standards.

But you have utterly NO leverage to force this. If/when you contact BMW, they will say “its a dealer issue”. And dont be surprised if your dealer is a pussy in the situation.

You really need someone to do a thorough inspection.... could be stuff you aren’t seeing. Major body work, repairs, etc...dont think a ‘clean car fax’ means anything.

As an editiotrial comment...if there are 50 people that buy CPOs sight unseen and have no issues, does that make your situation ’not a big deal’? I always tell people that cannot trust car dealers. Period. Yes. 49 times out of 50, you are prolly being paranoid...but for that ONE person, it is a really good idea.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

moosaud1998 said:


> The air conditioner blower impeller you might be able to replace that under CPO. But, for cosmetic damage, I highly doubt the dealership will cover for that. CPO IMO is just a bunch of bs to mark the car up. Yeah, they give you an extra year of warranty. But, the warranty only covers "Mechanical items".


Car still has 3 months of factory warranty, I will be really disappointed if they don't sort the impeller issue out under that.


----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

KingpenM3 said:


> The car still has 3 months of factory warranty, I will be really disappointed if they don't sort the impeller issue out under that.


Since it is still under factory warranty, try to pick out as many issues as you can and see if BMW will replace it under warranty. Never hurts to try. My parents like I said had the wheels refinished on the Mercedes. The dealership didn't want to refinish them since wheels are a cosmetic issue. So, my dad contacted MBUSA spoke to them about the issue, and a few days later, got the dealership to refinish the wheels.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

moosaud1998 said:


> Since it is still under factory warranty, try to pick out as many issues as you can and see if BMW will replace it under warranty. Never hurts to try. My parents like I said had the wheels refinished on the Mercedes. The dealership didn't want to refinish them since wheels are a cosmetic issue. So, my dad contacted MBUSA spoke to them about the issue, and a few days later, got the dealership to refinish the wheels.


For sure, I'll be working the whole car over for a last minute warranty trip.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

ard said:


> But you have utterly NO leverage to force this. If/when you contact BMW, they will say "its a dealer issue". And dont be surprised if your dealer is a pussy in the situation.


Gotcha. I'm going to see what the dealer says first, then consider contacting BMWNA.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

These were the two pictures that were on the internet listing. I'd say you would have a hard time seeing anything if you didn't know you were looking for it.


----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

View attachment 1015564

View attachment 1015565

[/QUOTE]
You cant see anything lol


----------



## jdeday (Jan 8, 2005)

How was the car transported to you?


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

jdeday said:


> How was the car transported to you?


I flew into Austin and drove it home (~300 Mike's).


----------



## ard (Jul 1, 2009)

KingpenM3 said:


> I flew into Austin and drove it home (~300 Mike's).


Wait. Then you didnt buy it sight unseen....

Shocking, actually.


----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

KingpenM3 said:


> I flew into Austin and drove it home (~300 Mike's).


Wait, soooo how did you not see that damage?


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

ard said:


> Wait. Then you didnt buy it sight unseen....
> 
> Shocking, actually.


I mean, all of the legal paperwork had been signed and fedex'd back to the dealership the week prior to my arrival. Not sure the point you are trying to make.


----------



## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

moosaud1998 said:


> Wait, soooo how did you not see that damage?


I saw it, but I also made the choice at that moment to try and ignore it and not ruin the excitement of the 16 year old that I bought the car for. It was a special moment. It was irrational and irresponsible on my part. I told myself at the moment that a scratch or two on a 3.5 year old, 40k mile car is to be expected. We were at the dealership less than 10 minutes. Incredible buying experience. Once I had some more time to check out the damage I was disappointed and believed that they failed to disclose the extent of the damage on the CPO checklist that I was provided with my paperwork. And of course the issue with the hvac fan wasn't discovered until we were on our way to our next destination.


----------



## moosaud1998 (May 14, 2020)

KingpenM3 said:


> I saw it, but I also made the choice at that moment to try and ignore it and not ruin the excitement of the 16 year old that I bought the car for. It was a special moment. It was irrational and irresponsible on my part. I told myself at the moment that a scratch or two on a 3.5 year old, 40k mile car is to be expected. We were at the dealership less than 10 minutes. Incredible buying experience. Once I had some more time to check out the damage I was disappointed and believed that they failed to disclose the extent of the damage on the CPO checklist that I was provided with my paperwork. And of course the issue with the hvac fan wasn't discovered until we were on our way to our next destination.


If it's for a 16-year-old kid, I wouldn't even bother fixing any cosmetic issue.


----------



## MauiSteve (Apr 3, 2019)

For sure all CPO cars come with 2 keys, so they must make that right. The body stuff is kinda your own fault. CPO cars often have wheel rash, rock chips, etc... and it would have been quite reasonable of you to ask for higher resolution photos of the vehicle if you were buying it over the net. Also, you should have asked your sales person to do a walk around inside and out and itemize wear and tear. Those water spots should polish out relatively easily with some light cut polish like Sonax perfect finish.

It will be interesting to know what the salesman will say in response to the paintwork damage.

Regardless, get the rear paintwork fixed, then perhaps find a detailer who will to a single stage paint correction to the whole car for reasonable $$. Then after the car is polished you and your 16 year old can get some Armor Sheild IX from avalonking.com and put a proper coating on the car to give it years of protection. But if you don't get your paint polished first you will be sealing in all the imperfections, water spots, iron particles and other crap.

Nice 1st car for a 16 year old. Fixing the paint ought to encourage the teenager to respect and be more careful with the vehicle, rather than to have an attitude of meh- it was scratched already.


----------

