The growth in used car marketplace has been accelerating each year as American's appetite for leasing new cars outstrips historical trends of purchasing cars with four and five year car loans. The move towards leasing creates a predictable cycle of used cars hitting the market. Most leased cars are returned to the dealer within 24 and 36 months from the origination date of the lease.
The leasing phenomena has changed the dynamics of the used car marketplace by injecting quality pre-owned cars that often have low mileage and excellent service records. Many readers may remember the days when a used car lot looked like a collection of "misfit toys" from the popular animated cartoon movie. Today, a used car dealer strives to find quality low mileage cars with no history of accidents, abuse or stress to the car.
The certified pre-owned (CPO) BMW program is an example of taking the used car buyer seriously. BMW created a certification checklist that all used cars must pass in order to be qualified as a CPO car. If a BMW is still covered by the original warranty and passes the CPO checklist, BMW adds a two year /50,000 mile additional warranty to the original warranty. As I learned about this program, I was amazed to see resulting BMW used car warranty you can get from a BMW dealer.
For example, if you purchased a certified used 2006 BMW 525i with 23,000 miles from an Authorized BMW dealer; there would be approximately 3 years left on the original warranty. The three years is based on the balance of the BMW new car warranty; four years or 50,000 miles.
If you purchase the used BMW 525i from an authorized BMW dealer and they sold the car in the CPO program, you would receive following mileage warranty:
Original Mileage Warranty Remaining: (50,000 - 23,000) = 27,000 miles
Total BMW Used Car Mileage Warranty: 77,000
You can drive the car 77,000 miles and still be under the BMW warranty program. If you don't drive many long distances, you would also have a five year warranty on the car (3 years from balance of original new car warranty + 2 years from CPO certification) so you can rest assured that your used BMW vehicle will deliver many years of driving pleasure.
When buying a BMW used car or any used car, research the warranty programs from each manufacturer. With an ample supply of quality pre-owned BMW cars on the marketplace, it pays to buy the car from an authorized BMW used car dealer. Sellers on popular auction sites may have a slightly better purchase price, but what is the cost of downtime, repairs and service that an additional 50,000 miles could bring to your BMW used car
