Do you have a Carite near you? They sell previously leased, newer used cars. Fully serviced before you purchase. Fixed prices. We bought each if our kids 2-3 year old Toyota Camry with less than 30,000 miles on them for $15,000 out the door…including an add on for new tires.
These may have been said already, but… check the car fax report.
Tips from me based on my experiences:
I bought my current used SUV in another state because it was thousands less than a comparable vehicle here. It was 1 year old and had 8k miles. I found the original sticker in the glove compartment. I paid 60% of the original MSRP.
My used car before this, I bought at a place that had signs everywhere that they don’t haggle. I took a printout of the car in another state, different color, 1000 dollars less, on the very last day of the month. They came down 1000 because they wanted to make the sale to hit their monthly goals. This was a newer version of my previous car which I absolutely loved. I kept it for 6 years and till about 130k miles. Would have kept it longer but had 2 car accidents in it and decided I wanted a SUV for my own piece of mind.
My used car before that, I bought on a whim at a dealership that sold cars they bought at auctions that had been repossessed. I got a 2 year old car with 12k miles for 7.5k. That was during senior year of college. I remember calling my mom and asking how to take a car loan. Lol. She was less than thrilled till I explained how good the deal was. Plus, my old car needed 4 new tires and a tune up and had 150k miles on it. I had planned to replace it after college anyway. I kept that spontaneously purchased car for 7 years and 150k miles.
My used car before that I bought when I was 16 from a shady little dealer and they had to jump start it for me to test drive. Note: if that’s the case, don’t buy the car. Lol. I put thousands into repairs on that car and I only kept it til 19 when I swapped cars with my mom and she traded my car in on a new one instead of hers. I was very grateful because her car got me through to senior year when I spontaneously bought the other car. In addition, I had bought an extra third party warranty on that car for like $1200. It didn’t cover a single problem. Be wary of those, if offered. I kept wishing i had that 1200 every time something broke on that car. The car had low miles, but was 13 years old. Keep in mind that just because a car has low miles doesn’t mean that the parts aren’t old and more likely to fail. I clearly learned a lot from that car buying experience.
Hope this helps.
We often buy used but CPO. We have done what post #19 explains. Buy with 15-20K miles, have the longer warranty.
Since I know you’re a Costco member now, I’ll mention that Costco has a used CPO program. My brother who lives in NYC bought a used Subaru through this largely hassle free. He doesn’t like the negotiate process (who does?!).
https://www.costcoauto.com/cpo/how_the_program_works/default.aspx
This is also true for Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans. We paid less for my daughter’s brand new Rogue than a friend did for her used one. We had planned to buy a used Subaru, but the prices on that were also higher than the new Rogue.
@scubadive If that works for you, that’s great. I hope you trade them in regularly increasing the CPO pool with the longer warranties.
I’m kind of surprised how much used Subarus are going for, at least list price, compared to some brands I consider to be more upscale and which have more bells and whistles.
I buy cpos so why would I trade them in to increase the pool? I recommended not buying a used Suburu because a new one costs marginally more. My child purchased a new Suburu and it was maybe 1-2k more than a cpo. I would say the safety features, trim and accessories with the price negotiated was a deal in our case. List price is irrelevant its the price you negotiate.
Now some of this may depend on the market in which you live but i have found Hondas, Mazdas and Toyotas are less than their new vehicles making it worthwhile. However when buying used you can get ripped off if you don’t do your homework.
We have done very well with cpo’s but it is with patience and extensive research we have found these deals.
My CPO is a Subaru. I see the points about prices between new and CPO being marginal but be sure to check options if options are attractive to you. My CPO Subaru was loaded - and that new would have cost plenty more.
We shopped for a CPO car last year, and came to the conclusion it wasn’t worth it. Yes, prices were less than new , but for a few thousand more, you could have 1-3 year newer car! When it is time to sell the CPO (assuming you don’t hold on to your cars forever), the CPO will automatically be worth less simply because it is an older model. Plus the newer cars had more safety features than even those only a few years older. We also found the Costco prices still varied by dealer. A non-Costco dealer gave us an even better price. It may be a good place to start however.
I also asked a friend today that I thought had a Subaru how he liked it. He recently traded it in for a Honda CRV. He really liked the Subaru but said it rusted out majorly at around 110K miles and that Subarus are known to have rust issues. It’s making me think twice because we have much older cars of different makes and haven’t had problems with rust despite twice the mileage he had.
How many Subarus do you see on the roads? (here, lots). How many are older models? (here, lots). How many of those appear to be rusty? (can’t recall seeing rusty Subarus!).
There are lots of good choices out there. There are also lemons of all makes and models. I personally think you can drive yourself crazy over researching.
Of course you should research. But no make/model goes unscathed.
Kid wanted a Subaru of a particular color… that was a color from 2016, so only a couple of used ones were available in the entire area. After seeing that a brand new one with more options was not significantly more, she quickly “fell in love” with a different color and drives a 2019 model. 
Every other car on the road here seems to be a Subaru. There is quite a demand for CPOs, so the prices reflect that.
Yes, it kind of makes me wonder though why more people don’t pick up on what you and your child have, @BunsenBurner, and rectify that pricing pattern.
The new car market is facing a tough year, too. April represented the 10th straight month of year-over-year retail sales declines, although it varies from by make/model. And with that, manufacturer incentives kick in for many new cars resulting in some good deals of MSRP.
If people are going to overprice Subarus, they might not be the car to buy right now. I’m seeing CPOs for nice, low mileage Volvos as cheap as Subarus. Volvo is a preferred brand for me and has many more extras for the $$.
Go for it then! Kid went with a Subaru because she wanted to blend in with the crowd… and to spite Toyota for giving her a bad quote for her Matrix.
We’ve bought new once and once from CarMax. Paid for the privilege but I can’t say I regret either of those. The rest have been used from various dealers, none CPO and I regret only one of those.
Don’t buy anything in a hurry, Look at enough of whatever you want to buy that you can recognize the stinker, and consider repair costs for the brand and model, not just reliability.
Car make/model-specific forums may be places to ask about what to look for when shopping used cars of that make/model.
Yes, I’ve found them useful for new car purchases as well. And for just general questions about your car.
I just got a “new” car–turned in a 2009 Mercedes ML350 (SUV) with 190K miles and got another 2015 ML (2015–the last year that Mercedes made the ML). It had 30K miles on it and was half the price of a new Mercedes SUV (GLE). We’ve had really good luck buying used Mercedes. There’s an independent service shop near us that only services Mercedes and the guys there will help you buy a used Mercedes. They go to various car auctions. My H loves old cars and he found out about this shop through an online forum.
I bought a CPO and am very happy with it because of how we use cars. The CPO is driven 30k miles a year, and we will keep it for 150k miles. So by buying a 3 year old CPO with low mileage, I’m buying a car at 30 to 40 percent off and it will be driven for 4 and a half years, rather than buying a full price car that will be driven for 5 years. But, I think it’s interesting that the same dealer who sold the car to me for $28k two years ago sent me a postcard offering a trade-in value of $10k if I bought a new car from them. That’s a lot of depreciation! I definitely think you pay a premium for the warranty on a CPO, and my take-away from all this is it really depends on how many miles you put on a car and how long you intend to keep it as to whether a CPO is worth it or not.
Update: The repair shop that did the faulty oil change turned out to be a decent, honest place, took responsibility and repaired all the damage (supposedly - time will tell).