Volkswagen CPO Nightmare

I have recently had a terrible experience buying a "Certified Pre Owned" Volkswagen at my local dealer. Before purchasing the vehicle, I was explained what "CPO" reconditioning entailed, and was assured any mechanical and cosmetic problems the car had would be corrected before delivery. I trusted the word of my sales person, but did not see all the blemishes the vehicle had until the day after delivery as I purchased and picked up my car at night (big mistake).
The problem I am having right now is that the used car manager has thus far refused to provide me with the CPO checklist or inspection form that my car supposidly underwent. Does any kind soul happen to have a Canadian Volkswagen CPO inspection form that they could forward me so I can see what "reconditioning" work my car should have had.
As of right now, the best the dealership has done is offered to install a set of Chinese, off brand tires on my car to replace the weather-cracked Continentals that the car currently has on it (see picture link), that should never have passed a safety in the first place. I thought the whole point of CPO was the fact that they recondition the cars using OEM or factory parts. I am hoping tires fall under this too, but I have no way of proving this without a copy of the check sheet.... Click the link to see the photos of their CPO reconditioning job....
https://imgur.com/a/w4GUuMO

cwatson9510 said:

I have recently had a terrible experience buying a "Certified Pre Owned" Volkswagen at my local dealer. Before purchasing the vehicle, I was explained what "CPO" reconditioning entailed, and was assured any mechanical and cosmetic problems the car had would be corrected before delivery. I trusted the word of my sales person, but did not see all the blemishes the vehicle has until the day after delivery as I picked up my car at night.
The problem I am having right now is that the used car manager has thus far refused to provide me with the CPO checklist or inspection form that my car would have underwent. Does any kind soul happen to have a Canadian Volkswagen CPO inspection form that they could forward me so I can see what "reconditioning" work my car should have had. As of right now, the best the Dealership has done is offered to install a set of Chinese, off brand tires on my car to replace the weather-cracked Continentals that should never have passed a safety in the first place. Click the link to see the photos below of their CPO reconditioning job....
https://imgur.com/a/w4GUuMO

Click to expand...

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They cannot knowingly sell a car with safety issues (ie. Failing tires, brakes; etc.). All of the other problems like paint, dents, scratches; etc. are all transferred to you as it is a used car.

As for the CPO inspection, it's all pencil whipped anyway. At least at my dealer it was.

Thanks, that is from the US site but I am sure the Canadian checklist would be much of the same if not the same. Looks like the tires just have to all match and be in good shape. I might have to settle for the Chinese tires. Still BS they would deliver the car to me like that and refuse to show me proof of a CPO inspection.

cwatson9510 said:

Thanks, that is from the US site but I am sure the Canadian checklist would be much of the same if not the same. Looks like the tires just have to all match and be in good shape. I might have to settle for the Chinese tires. Still BS they would deliver the car to me like that and refuse to show me proof of a CPO inspection.

Click to expand...

They can’t refuse to show you the CPO paperwork as you have to sign off on it saying that you agree to it, and if there was anything wrong that was fixed it says on the cpo paperwork if I am not wrong


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Unfortunately the dealers don't give two ****s about the CPO certification and VW Canada cares even less... I had issues with my CPO golf and when I called vw customer care they basically told me to go **** myself

I think that all these type programs are just marketing window dressing. 'Certified Pre Owned' probably means exactly that. They certify that it was, in fact, owned by someone else and it is not a new car. Big deal. To them it is more profit in that they can charge higher prices to a gullible public. To you it is worth about as much as it costs to print the forms.

Sigh...

PH

It doesn't help when the customer doesn't do their part either. Lots of things wrong with this transaction on both sides, it sounds like. It will be hard to take exception to things you paid no attention to at delivery and signed off on. If you can prove they out and out lied and/or misrepresented things, you may have some chance.

Exactly how is this a "nightmare"? You bought a used car. Sounds more like you didn't look it over closely, and now have buyer's remorse.

You picked it up at night.

All tires have a date code right on the side.

I have a tread I started here specifically warning people to look these cars over.

The issue is going to reside with the selling dealer, and what you signed off on.

I looked at a CPO 2104 sportwagen that had a blown headgasket which was discovered during my inspection. The dealer knowingly sold the car to someone else after I declined the purchase of the vehicle.

I absolutely agree that I made several mistakes on my part, but to sell someone a "Certified Pre Owned" vehicle with no inspection paperwork, no recon work, and with tires that should not pass Ontario safety standards is pretty shady.

Any yes oilhammer, I found your thread after the fact lol

a certified preowned car comes with a bumper to bumper warranty for 2 years here.car must be under 60,000 miles i believe here

If the tires would fail your local gov't run safety inspection, then you certainly can report this to the authorities.

We have safety inspections here, and we have such a mechanism in place. However, those tires would not fail here. Tires will only fail here for exposed cords showing, a severe out of round (like a slipped belt) condition, or lack of tread pattern on one third of the surface. Dry rot, date codes, do not apply.

I did not make this rule, but I would urge you to investigate how it works in your area.

BTW, there are a LOT of these buyback cars that have "new" off brand tires on them.

While I personally wouldn't drive around with those tires, the so called "safety" that is performed in Ontario has such loss interpretation that you can literally pass anything. One mechanic might say those tires are a pass all day, while another would never sign a safety with those tires in a million years...

Like I said above, unfortunately dealers don't give a damn, if they can sell the car "CPO" with doing as little work as possible, they will. That piece of paper you receive can easily be written by some kid working a desk job... I know this because I used to be that kid just checking off the boxes on these supposed "CPO" cars. I would literally get the paper, do a quick cross off on the list and give the sales manager the paper, and the tech would thank me for saving him 5 minutes. I trusted most of them actually did the proper certification, but for the brand I worked at, CPO didn't mean that much more then just a regular safety

Sounds like it all comes back to the owner doing their own due diligence in inspecting the car themselves (or having it done by an independent mechanic) just like in any used car sale. The bumper to bumper means little if you signed off saying everything is great at delivery. You must inspect and insist any of this stuff is fixed/repaired/replaced pre-delivery. The lot and salespersons are there to sell cars. They may not know anything about the car other than what their commission is supposed to be.

Lightflyer1 said:

Sounds like it all comes back to the owner doing their own due diligence in inspecting the car themselves (or having it done by an independent mechanic) just like in any used car sale. The bumper to bumper means little if you signed off saying everything is great at delivery. You must inspect and insist any of this stuff is fixed/repaired/replaced pre-delivery. The lot and salespersons are there to sell cars. They may not know anything about the car other than what their commission is supposed to be.

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Yea this pretty much sums it up... My "CPO" golf didn't have a brake flush done prior to delivery. As per the so called CPO rules, if the car hasn't had any history of services done as per the owners manual, the service must be done prior to delivering the car. My car was 3 years old at the time, with no service of a brake flush, and the owners manual specifics the first flush to be done after 3 years, regardless of mileage. I asked the dealer upon delivery of the flush, and they didn't do it, why would they... So I argued with the sales manager and he went on to give me some of the dumbest excuses I've ever heard. When fighting with vw Canada, they basically told me that it's not their problem and said to solve it with the dealer as they can't control what their dealers do... In the end I had to go to the owner of the dealer and she was nice enough to refund me the brake flush cost as I had already done it on my own dime... If it was anything else I wouldn't have taken delivery

It's a terrible story! I'm also going to buy a used car right now, but I'm very afraid that I'll get into a similar situation. Does anyone have contacts of a reliable car dealer?