The used car market can be a minefield.
An offer for a pristine car with impeccable health appears on the internet and before you know it, after the seller has driven off into the sunset, the mechanic hands you a jaw-dropping bill.
Sometimes it’s just bad luck, but in many situations preventive measures could have been taken.
One of these measures is to buy a certified used car and not a lemon from a suspicious stranger on Facebook Marketplace.
A certified pre-owned car is a used car that meets certain condition criteria and passes a series of rigorous tests by the manufacturer.
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This process is carried out by dealers who are then able to sell used cars as certified pre-owned cars.
Eligibility criteria vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but most brands in Australia select cars that are less than five years old and have no more than 120,000 kilometers on the clock.
If a car meets these criteria, it will undergo a thorough mechanical inspection as part of the Ferrari Approved program, consisting of up to 190 checkpoints.
Generally, manufacturers rate between 90 and 165 control points, with 100 being the most common number.
Another set of minimum scores qualify the car for sale as a certified used vehicle, which brings a number of benefits to the buyer.
Perks vary by manufacturer, but some of the bonuses you can expect from a certified car include a warranty, full service history, roadside assistance, and perhaps even free maintenance for a certain period of time.
For example, Nissan Australia offers certified used cars three years of free roadside assistance, a 1000km exchange policy, service benefits and warranty options.
Audi offers a two-year, unlimited mileage warranty and two years of service and roadside assistance on its certified used cars.
The program is designed to give used car buyers peace of mind, says Joshua Ferguson, general sales manager at Brighton Automotive Group.
“It offers more convenience to the buyer,” Mr. Ferguson said CarExpert.
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“The car must meet certain criteria to become a certified pre-owned vehicle. Many more inspections and checks need to be carried out to ensure that the car has a real history.
“The dealer looks at the car, but the manufacturer provides a set checklist to ensure the car meets certified pre-owned standards.”
Certification gives car buyers both confidence in the history of the car they are purchasing and a safety net in case something goes wrong.
No public seller can offer this guarantee, even if they follow a strict maintenance schedule and sell the car honestly.
So what’s the catch? Certified used cars generally cost more than their non-certified counterparts.
American automotive research firm Kelley Blue Book estimates that the price of a certified used car is about 1.8 percent higher than a regular used car, but other sources predict this figure to be closer to 10 percent.
The difference can therefore range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars depending on the price set by the dealer and the specific model, so not all certifications have the same value.
The question is whether you are willing to pay for peace of mind.