So I thought I finally found a car. 2007 Mazda5, CPO (Certified Pre-Owned). Ran the AutoCheck and found two wrecks, one serious enough to have a police report number.
Maybe I missed something, but I kind of expected that CPO meant a stricter set of standards?
I think it means "sell a piece of E36 M3 for more than its worth" in French.
Keep in mind some people call the fuzz for any kind of accident. My brother recently rear ended an old woman and put a tiny tear in her rear bumper. No real damage but she called the police.
That is what I am hoping for. Minor scrape with no sheetmetal damage. I'll be bringing my magnet with me though. I guess I will at least go look at it.
The wife has been wanting me to buy something made within the last 5 years. My own personal requirement was that it be something I can hand her the keys with no worries, tote two kids in car seats, and get good city mpg. The Mazda5 fits my requirements perfectly, but they are so bloody hard to find for a decent price. I'm already looking to spend more than I'm comfortable with, but with the stupid high used car market I'm nervous about laying down $12k on a car with no warranty.
Chief Petty Officer ? Oh!
Get onto Mazda's website and search availability of new leftover 2010 models. There was no 2011 models and the newest redesign models are 2012's. If you take a take the base model (which is still well equiped) and a manual trans you can buy new, unwrecked in the high $15k range.
Edit: I just ran a search and it seems that 2010 manuals may be all gone from the 250 mile range of Atlanta. There are Sport Automatics still left but that raises the price by about $1,500 so then you are looking at $17.5-ish. That may be more than you want to go.
CPO means that they certify that the car was pre-owned.
Mazda CPO actually means something: a full factory warranty like it was brand new. I tried to find a CPO one as well and couldn't (that was worth the extra $$$). Honestly, I'd say screw the CPO and find a "regular" one, that's what I did and I got an 06 Mazda5 for $9K with 73K miles. It's been great!
We got burned a few years ago on a VW that had a clean Carfax but the AutoCheck showed a wreck. When it came time to sell the car we got pounded by reduced value over the wreck (it was fixed immaculately, one of the best repairs I have never seen, absolutely impossible to see). Even if the car was only grazed the records have now branded the scarlet letters on the history reports.
i emailed the dealer to ask if the price he quoted me took the wrecks into account and he said yes. My gut is telling me to just walk away, so I guess I have my lunch hour back.
I am not sure if this link will work but the same Silver Mazda5 that I drove back in Feb claims to still be available from the dealership in Cleveland (about 5 miles from the airport)
$15.8 would have bought this vehicle but wife insisted on an automatic.
http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/vlSelectVehicle.action?isCPOSearch=false&image...
Edit: Link did not work. Try the following www.mazdausa.com > shopping tools > search inventory > Cleveland, OH > all dealers > 2010 Manual Sport
A local mall has several brands, from the same dealer chain, displaying various models of cars. 2 are Mazdas, a 2 and a 5. I wandered over to inspect the interiors and the sticker prices and was ticked to see that the 2 had a added sticker with "Market Adjustment" of $295, while the "Market Adjustment" on the 5 appeared to $995. (My glasses prescription may need to be changed?) I thought the 5 was one of the least popular models in Mazda's lineup...right up there/down there? with the Tribute.
I found out after purchase that the CPO Volvo XC90 I had purchased for The Wife had been wrecked prior - parked in a street-side lot and it got sandwiched on the front end when a car lost control on the road and hit the one parked next to it. New front end sheetmetal and some mechanical repairs. I read the fine print in the CPO literature and so long as the repair was done correctly it passed the CPO inspection. I still raised hell with the dealer for failing to disclose it and eventually got a small check from them.
How long will you be keeping the car? If you'll keep it at least until the end of the warranty period (I don't know what Mazda's CPO is but Volvo and BMW go 100k miles/6 years from in service date) I'd think that the value hit would be small enough not to matter. Also, you can call your insurance agent and ask them to run the VIN through their insurance database, which should tell you not only when it was hit but how much the repairs ran and oftentimes where the damage was.
In reply to integraguy:
Not sure if your dealer was trying to profit off Japanese tragedy or just plain profit but look for prices to go up.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/03/japan-aftershock-high...
integraguy wrote:A local mall has several brands, from the same dealer chain, displaying various models of cars. 2 are Mazdas, a 2 and a 5. I wandered over to inspect the interiors and the sticker prices and was ticked to see that the 2 had a added sticker with "Market Adjustment" of $295, while the "Market Adjustment" on the 5 appeared to $995. (My glasses prescription may need to be changed?) I thought the 5 was one of the least popular models in Mazda's lineup...right up there/down there? with the Tribute.
Yeah, unfortunately the 5 is pretty unpopular. That means they didn't make that many either, so used ones are kind of hard to find. I think the dealers know this so they jack up the price.
Eh, maybe I'll look at other cars again. Short list: Maxima, Sonata, Altima V6. Funny, I work at AutoTrader and absolutely hate trying to buy a car.
