"certified pre-owned"

[JH 50]

Hello everyone. I have been reading this board for over a year, however, I do not yet own a Cadillac. I was wondering if what your thoughts were on purchasing a certified pre-owned vehicle from a dealership. The Cadillac website states that the warranty is 6 years/100,000 miles from the date the vehicle was put into service. I would like to purchase a 2000-2002 STS eventually and was wondering if it was worth it to pay the overinflated dealership price to get the piece of mind of the warranty. Would the warranty cover things such as the water pump, alternator, electonic shocks, etc. if such failed during the warranty period? My favorite Cadillac is the CTS, but I can not justify buying a RWD vehicle living in Western New York with the winters that we have here. Thanks to anyone who takes the time to respond.

[danbuc]

If you are willing to spend the extra money from a caddy dealer to get the warranty you should definitely do it. These car s when used can usually be bought for a good price but to fix, they are just as expensive as the new ones. You mentioned the shocks I believe, and if I'm not mistaken I think they are covered under the warranty since they are not really supposed to go bad that easily. This is good since for the part alone they are over $400. Thats just once shock before installation and labor. It also covers most of the powertrain and probably most of the electronics. This stuff is expensive to fix whether you have a '95 or '05 caddy. Expensive cars are expensive to fix. Thats why I think if you are willing you should certainly go for the warranty especially if its a '00 or '02. That way, you'll still have a few years left on it. Hope this helps.

[Ranger]

Yes the warranty will cover all the things you mentioned. It is an extention of the new car warranty. Not a bad deal really. It is a better warranty than the buyer got when it was new. That said, you'll have to weigh the difference and the price. When I bought mine I passed on the warranty and saved $600. The reason I passed is that the car still had 2 years if I remember correctly on the original warranty and it was only going to extend it by one more year I think so I figured it was worth the gamble and it has payed off. The car still had the 120 point check and had all neccassary repairs made to it. Any problems were taken care of during the origianl warranty and I have not had a problem since.

[tjtjwdad]

Also, keep in mind, that in order to obtain this extension (warranty), the car still has to be under the factory warranty. That means there will be some 2000's out there with expired factory warranties, those in particular that were placed in service from late 1999 thru today. The 2001 model factory warranty will start expiring starting late summer and early fall of this year.

Keep this in mind!

Jim White

[franey]

When i bought my 96 SLS, IT was a certified car by GM and came with a BUMPER TO BUMPER , WARRANTY . I DID NOT pay anything extra for the warranty, the warranty also transfers to the next , buyer. AS long as the months and mileage are under the original certified program. This is in my opion the best warranty you can get , much better than the new car warranty , because of its longgivity . I will always buy a CERTIFIED CAR FROM NOW ON.

[Ranger]

I DID NOT pay anything extra for the warranty,

If it was and extended warranty, rest asured you paid extra for it. It may not have been listed in the charges but was built into the price. NOTHING is free. Next time ask how much the car will cost without the warranty and watch the price come down.

[franey]

LARRY , I BOUGHT the car on E BAY auction , and i did not pay anything extra for the warranty , as i said it just transfers to the next owner, which was me. I did not pay GM anything for the warranty . ALL I had to do was present the local CADILLAC dealer with the CERTIFIED CARD that came with the car , they looked it up in their computer and would fix anything that went wroung from bumper to bumper . I never had one bit of trouble with the dealership fixing anything. This did not include normal wear items , like brake pads and etc.

[Ranger]

Oh, you didn't say you bought it on Ebay. I was under the impression you bought from a dealer. You got the best of both worlds.

[JasonA]

Our Cadillac was purchased under Cadillac's certified pre-owned program and it worked out pretty well. The warranty expired at 75,000 miles I think (don't remember exactly). Any work that was required (which was little) was performed, no questions asked.

Don't discount places like Carmax either. You can purchase extended warranties there, sometimes for 5 years/60,000 miles from the POINT OF SALE. So if you buy an '02 with 50k miles and purchase the extended warranty (which is pretty comprehensive), your vehicle will be warranted almost until 2010, and 110,000 miles. That's a great deal I think...it may cost a few extra thousand up front, but it might be worth the piece of mind. We are planning on purchasing a large SUV in the next year or so (probably a GM Tahoe/Yukon) and I think Carmax is the way we might go.

[Bob*97 SLS]

The key here is 'Put into service." If the car was originally bought in 2000, then the 6 yrs would be up in 2006. So if you buy the car now, it will be a 2yr warranty. The milage says 100,000 miles. If when you buy the car it has 50,000 miles on it then the warranty would be for 50,000 miles. So that make the warranty 2 yrs/50,000 miles which ever comes first. The 6/100,000 sounds great. But you need to do the math. Yes, I agree, the warranty is a must!

[Dasher]

I am totally against extended warranties and never, ever buy them. However, after buying a 1993 STS in 1995 and driving it for seven years, when I bought my 2000 STS with 35k on it in 2002, I BOUGHT THE EXTENDED FACTORY WARRANTY.

I have driven the car two years and 35 k miles (it now has 70k) and I have already paid for my warranty.

As somebody said, do the math, BUT GET THE WARRANT! It will probably be well worth it. If not, the peace of mind will be.

[Greg P.]

Generally, I advise against most extended warranty plans, but when buying a Cadillac, I would highly recommend the GM "Certified" preowned warranty. I had one on the last used Caddy I bought and if I ever buy another used Caddy, I think I'd go for it again.

The Certified warranty is real bumper to bumper warranty backed by GM that covers pretty much everything. I used mine to cover some trivial things that I probably wouldnt have paid for myself such as a few broken interior trim pieces and some major expensive repairs such as the infamous mid case seal repair. The repairs on these cars can get expensive. Replacing the wood on the console would have been over $400 alone if it hadn't been covered under warranty.

The other good thing is a free loaner car while your car is in for service. Check with your dealer to make sure this is included.

You will definitely pay for the warranty. It's not free. If I remember, my dealer wanted something like an extra $1200, or maybe it was $2500, i cant exactly remember now. I think we haggled that away but I'm sure I paid for it.