Buying a Certified Pre Owned Car? Here's what happens Behind the scenes!

hello and welcome to the car care nut channel in today's video i'm going to walk you through the inspection process of certified used cars certified pre-owned whatever you want to call it but before we get started if you're new to the channel welcome consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos if you are a returning subscriber well thank you so much for watching another one of my videos without further ado let's get right into it so a small overview before we get started certified pre-owned cars they're almost like new cars the only thing that dings them from a new car is they have miles and they've had a previous owner the inspection of certified cars is not that the same of of just the regular used cars it's a very meticulous inspection every manufacturer will have a different criteria of what they want checked and what's acceptable and what's not today we are at a toyota dealership we're actually going to look at actual certified used cars that they have and my regular viewers will notice that we are not in the usual setup we are auditory leadership which i'd like to give a huge shout out for freedom and toyota and parkridge illinois for allowing us to come in here filming their shop and use their cars for this filming folks the inspection process of certified cars cannot be taken lightly because most of you the consumers will actually pay more for certified cars because it went through this rigorous inspection process in today's video i'm going to show you this process for toyota certified cars now this might vary from manufacturers but it's pretty much the same this needs to be treated as a perfect car it cannot have any blemishes cannot have any issues even the littlest thing needs to be taken care of and since we are talking about toyota certified cars let's share one thing toyota certified cars go through a 160 point inspection and this whole nine yard that when you go looking googling on the internet but i'll actually show you what really happens and what are the important things and perhaps you could use this information if you're going out to buy one or if you're not so sure about the dealership you're buying from you can actually redo this inspection and you'll pick out if they did a good inspection or they missed a lot of things and this car shouldn't be certified having said that let's pull the car in and start talking about the inspection process [Music] so every toyota certified inspection actually does not start with the mechanic bringing the car in looking at it and all that good stuff it actually starts with the sales department usually certified used cars you know somebody trades it in for a new car they buy it here by there whatever the case may be so once they get the car they're actually gonna run an extensive background check on the car background check that is a word usually not used with cars but here's how this works they're going to look at the carfax they get a required auto check they're going to look at multiple sources to make sure there's nothing obviously bad about this car has it been a major accident the title doesn't have any issues and everything looks right they're basically trying not to waste their time and most importantly money because believe it or not the sales department actually pays the service department to do this inspection so if they see any red flags before it even goes to the service department they're just gonna condemn the car and forget about it from then after they have done their checks and life is good and we like this car we want to try to certify it see what we can do with it they're going to send it to the service department now when it arrives as a service department this is where the dealerships will split some dealerships will have guys dedicated to working on used cars some dealerships will have all their regular technicians working on used cars i happen to work at a dealership where everybody works on used cars that means master technicians will work on used cars and certified level technicians will also work on used cars and certifieds to certify them so i am a toyota master diagnostic technician with over a decade of experience i've done this inspection multiple times throughout my career so we're going to walk through it here so the first thing in the inspection process as a technician when you get the car is a test drive and this is where dealership technicians will have an edge over others not because they're better not because all this stuff i'm not just saying that but because they work on one brand all the time so for example this 2018 rav4 behind me i have driven this car when it was brand new i have driven one with 200 000 miles with 10 20 30 40 all the different miles i've seen all their common problems i have worked on these inside and out i am very familiar with the car so just by getting in the car going to drive it i can tell things that many folks might not notice about the car because many folks will ask this question well is this car supposed to be this way is it supposed to be this loud or is this not normal is this car supposed to be not this smooth or this is normal a toyota technician should know that because they've driven the brand new one and they've driven ones as they progress with miles and age so that's the first thing that the technician will drive the car you know i'll take the car on the street go drive it and immediately pick up multiple things is it vibrating is there noises is there something abnormal is the transmission shifting right does the engine sound right did this car warm up quick enough is the ac or heater working right these are all the things as we're driving we're kind of listening to everything and seeing how everything feels because that could be a deal breaker right there everything is messed up something can be catastrophic does the car pull straight does it drive right it does you know all these basic functions just the basic drive from cold did the transmission start slipping when it was cold etc etc we can go on and on but you get the idea here but the biggest thing is do you know what is a known good example and that's the hard part when you go inspect a used car when you don't know what is the known good example having said that after this whole test drive which is usually a long much longer test drive we bring it in the shop and we start looking at the first thing which is the biggest deal breaker so the first deal breaker and the most common one that i see the certified cars get knocked off certification and they either go to the auction either become just an as-is used car just a normal non-certified car is bodywork so if you read the inspection sheet which i'll show you the inspection sheet later in the video they tell you walk around make sure the body is dent free no incorrect repairs and whatnot but in reality there is a rule for that and the rule is you do not want major collisions not small accidents so i'm backing out of my driveway and i ding this door well that's a small accident there was no collision with another car where the integrity of the body got compromised potentially so if i bend the store in and then i take it to a body shop they repair this they paint the door they do a good job on the paint they blend it into the back door and the fender that is a typical practice in body repair that panel now is painted however that is not a major collision we're not going to knock a car off certification because of that so here comes the three panel rule you want the entire body of the car excluding the plastic bumper covers because those typically get a lot of dings and scratches that is normal excluding those including plastic trim like like this wheel arch right here we want no more than three panel body work that means this is a panel the door the front fender is a panel the back door is a panel if i have more than three panels that have been painted or had any body work done on them it automatically disqualifies the car from certification if you get in a front-end accident this fender is going to get jammed in the door the hood will be destroyed so there's your hood got painted your fender got painted your door got painted and then they had to blend into the fourth door the fourth panel and now you have four panels but it goes so much deeper than that so i'm going to show you some things that you can actually do when you're going to buy a used car to basically apply these methods to inspect these cars the number one thing is you never inspect a car outside for body work you will never be able to see the true color unless you're indoors with good very good lighting most dealerships will have shops with really good lighting because technicians work and we need a lot of light so you want to scan the profile of the car this is the initial inspection by the way we're going to go into a little into it a little deeper you're going to look at the initial impression of the car do i see anything that stands out typically dirt and the paint and i work with toyota toyotas have some of the highest quality paints out there so finding dirt in the paint is like very very minimal and maybe you'll find one spec throughout the whole car maybe not so when you find a panel that's been painted before you might find three four specs here and there even the best painters you will have a couple spots where you will see when you're really looking for them so that's the initial inspection and again experience comes in when we're used to seeing the paint when the car is new so we can tell what kind of orange peel it has what kind of color depth it has what kind of sheen and shine that it should have so that is initial inspection and usually badly repair panels they'll scream at you in good light like where we're standing right here we're looking do you see how the the shine is uniform this is an original paint now this car is certified it actually this one does not have any panel damage at all so this is a good example because i'll show you the second method when i suspect like i see something because sometimes you'll get a tiny scratch someone will buff it a little too heavy and i'll see some marks in the paint when i see a panel that is suspect i'm gonna bring my best friend that i never use otherwise this is a paint depth gauge and when i put this paint depth case on the panel we're gonna get 3.5 mils now if you're in the painting world that is paper thin that is super thin how do you know what is normal i work on these cars every day i know whether their paint is thin but what if you're looking at another car look on the roof typically when cars get an accident unless it's it's a major accident where even the roof got painted which at that point you will easily cut it catch it because something catastrophic happened here look at the compare the roof like you can get one of these they are a little expensive but if it might be a good investment if you buy it between family members when they buy cars they go inspect them but you just put it on the paint and it'll tell you the thickness i got 3.5 here i got 4.0 here that is very close when you are scanning across the car and all of a sudden this is 3.5 this is 4 this is 3 you know somewhere close all of a sudden you have one panel that is 14. hmm something happened there now you've identified an issue now we're going to zone in that do they blend because even when they blend you'll have this area thicker paint and they'll get thinner and thinner and thinner and back to original because they blend it into it sometimes it'll be even thicker because if they did redid the whole clear coat this is how you start noticing let's talk about something else the door edges if you pass your hand here this is a smooth edge because when they painted this at the factory they painted the inside and the outside at the same time but when you go paint only the outside good body shops will actually paint the whole thing medium to low quality paint jobs the ones that are done on the quick they will tape it right here and if you pass your hand here you actually feel the tape line that is your immediate telltale sign we haven't even gotten to structural damage and the big stuff this is just small stuff any car that has more than three panel body work it already got disqualified and we won't even go through the rest of the inspection speaking of the rest of the inspection and begins the inspection first inspection is under the hood i'm going to check everything make sure all the fluids are good but before i do that i've already test through the car so i already have an idea of if i saw anything or heard anything or didn't like anything in that test drive i'm going to check on it now we're not checking maintenance items at this point i'm not going to check the battery i'm not going to check the air filter yet because now i am still trying to find out is this a certifiable car am i going to find a disaster here that is going to push her off to the auction and off she goes we're going to look at everything anything else stands out and this is where part two of bodywork comes in because some potty shops will do a phenomenal job or it's really hard to tell unless you start digging further we'll remove some panels we'll start looking around maybe see if anything out of the ordinary and here's where experience comes in again you've seen these cars new and now you're seeing them after two three years by the way toyota certified they're up to six six years or younger not up to 60 years because it could be six years old and 85 000 miles or less so this one actually happens to be on the higher end of that spectrum a little bit not by age but by miles so we really want to spend time we're going to listen to the engine we're going to look around see if anything stands out here from an initial inspection one thing stands out right now to me is the battery now the battery is not original on this car however i'm not going to just say oh this is not a result batteries garbage no because something like a battery is not a major concern at this point but i'm going to look at it is this the correct size is this the correct rating is this a correct battery for this car and it is in this case so we're good then i'm going to look at after-market stuff that are not good if i see an aftermarket alternator i'm going to test it if i see an aftermarket starter i'm gonna test it because just because something is aftermarket we're not gonna just automatically say it's garbage no we're gonna investigate it and see what's going on and why was it replaced on such a young car and then last but not least we're going to do a computer scan make sure there are no codes no again we're still looking for disasters to disqualify this car let's raise the car up and again continue seeing if this car is worthy of being certified or not [Music] let's do the under car inspection now before i do that i put i've been putting up videos for some time on common problems for toyota's and some people have accused me of trying to say toyota is not a good car they're fabulous cars but i do this video so when you come inspect the car that you're buying you ask the salesman hey put it up in the air i want to look at it you can know what you are looking for because i see so many people do this at the dealership where i work they bring the car in lift it up and here's this potential buyer looking at the car missing everything they should be checking checking everything that is irrelevant and just irrelevant fluff basically so if you're buying a model research common problems for that model and write them down go look at them for example we are under a 2018 rav4 are they common for ball joint problems they are not are they common for leaks not to 2018 but if you're looking at 13 to 15 they would be so we're going to look at the common problems first anything that stands out we're going to stop reassess talk to sales because if this car has a catastrophic oil leak we're going to investigate why it happened but that could be a deal breaker where sales says i'm not liking this car we're not going to tear into this car pull the trends out and start sealing stuff this is not certified we're just going to get rid of it or fix it sell it as a regular used car and that's it but we don't want major work on certified cars because that's the whole point that is a nice car to begin with so our inspection starts from the front we're still on the body part we're going to look at the frame rails we're going to look at everything make sure there's no structural damage structural damage is the end how to goes we're done we're not even selling another lot as we walk back we're going to look at oil leaks we're going to look at suspension make sure everything is good right now we're not looking maintenance item we're going to inspect everything underneath is there anything that stands out accident wise damage wise even if you ran over something on the street and damaged underneath we're going to look at all that walk into the back i'm going to also look at the frame rails in the back look at the size make sure i didn't miss anything in my initial inspection now we've checked this car looks good i'm liking it here doesn't seem like there's any deal breakers with the certified car so here's what we're going to do next we're going to start with our maintenance items now we're looking at okay this car is certifiable now let's get it up to par if it's missing anything in maintenance if it's missing anything else that we need to take care of nothing major just little stuff folks typically use most certified cars are lease returns four-year-old cars that people just got bored with the car they traded in because the newer model came out and whatnot usually these are the certified cars or the majority of them talk a little bit about the disasters with certified cars that you absolutely need to know about later in the video but at this point we're going to look at your tires this will may vary between manufacturers but for example toyota the minimum threat depth should be 5 30 seconds breaks should not be below 50 not worn 50 percent if they are 50 you got to replace them that going back to the tires they need to be matching tires of the correct speed rating and size we can't have oversized tires we can't have mismatched tires even if this is not an all-wheel drive car still they need to be matching tires with the correct speed rating with the correct load rating the correct tire for the car doesn't have to be the original brand but it needs to be the correct tire for the car same thing with the brakes and this is the one that kind of gets into the aftermarket stuff brakes are considered safety items we're not gonna just let go of a car with unknown aftermarket brakes so that's a big deal that some dealerships usually miss and they say ah their brakes they look brand new we're good because usually these cars again they're not too old they might have brand new aftermarket brakes but are these 50 dollar brakes or 400 brakes how do you know and are you going to put your dealership's name and reputation with this it's not worth it just replace the brakes and have a nice day then we're gonna go under the hood and do our maintenance inspection now or little stuff inspection we're gonna check the filters we're gonna check the battery test it we're gonna look at the oil condition then we're going to dive into the service history does this car need maintenance what kind of miles does it have wait does this car have 30 000 miles do we need to replace differential fluid do we need to do any kind of other maintenance are the filters do is the brake fluid do how is that doing we're going to start looking into everything to see what this car needs if it's overdue on some maintenance now you rarely get a car that has 120 000 miles because they're capped at 85 so spark plugs are not the case however some newer toyota models spark locks are due at 60 000 miles so you got to replace them at that point this car needs to be up to date on maintenance currently and another thing is good dealerships will actually look at this car and go like is there a maintenance that's gonna be due in the next two three thousand miles like let's say spark plugs is 60k and you're at 57 000. why are you going to sell this car this customer as a certified car and have them come back in 3 000 miles and pay for a spark plug replacement the good dealerships won't do that they'll just take care of the maintenance that way you take this car to your next service to your following service you won't need anything because your brakes are at least 50 your tires are good your everything else has been taken care of so you're not going to be doing heavy maintenance as soon as you buy the car now once we are past the disaster zone first the stuff that disqualifies this car from certification and we are passed the basic maintenance stuff just whatever this car needs we're going to list it we're going to go inside and even outside in some cases we're going to do our function test we're going to make sure every little thing works and i mean every little thing mirrors windows electronics safety devices and some of the stuff we've already tested in our test drive stuff like cruise control adaptive cruise control parking sensors adaptive parking whatever the case may be all these systems get checked and rechecked because again this is a certified car ac heater performance not just it works no is it good it needs to be perfect remember so we're going to go through everything in this car to make sure everything is a hundred percent correct down to the most important thing especially in toyotas the floor mats make sure they are correct make sure they clip on the clips on the floor because this could be a safety hazard and this is actually something very important make sure that the floor mats that are with the car you know most of these used cars that have the floor mat thrown in the back they don't want them getting dirty until they deliver it but i'm gonna take these floor masks make sure they fit make sure they're right then go in the back make sure my spare tire is there all the tools all everything nothing is missing the owner's manual is there we have two keys and they both work and there's nothing wrong and the list goes on and on we basically test everything in the car and this is something you absolutely should do when you buy a car because it it's really the worst thing in the world when you buy a car then the next day you find out oh my rear windows don't work oh my god my seat doesn't move because it's broken and now you already bought it and you might be on your own at that point so check everything spend the time if the salesman is yapping in your ear just tell them you know what could you just give me a minute here i need to look at everything give me a minute go have a cup of coffee come back while i check the car and a few other things that are standard or certified cars we're going to replace the wiper blades or wiper inserts depends on the car and model we're going to change the oil at this point and then another thing that gets checked is the radios now remember these new cars they have radios and these radios have software updates and things we make sure that the radio update is the latest version always because it is the worst thing in the world when you've done all this work on the inspection you you present this car to the customer and guess what the radio has problems because it needs an update you just failed your customer because now they missed everything that you've done in the car but the main thing that they want doesn't work and this is horrible so that is one that is usually actually missed at this point i have went through the car checked it out spent some time with it now me and the car have become either best buddies or worst enemies if we are best buddies this car is certifiable here's what this car needs for me to certify it as a technician we even list body stuff so if this car needs has dings have scratches i'm going to list all of it if the seats need cleaning if the car is heavily looks heavily worn i might actually knock it off certification because you can clean the carpet but you can't really start ripping into the car to replace the whole car carpet because it's all torn apart or the seats are torn this is too much but a little scuff here a little mark there we can fix that and that's not a big deal we're again still looking at a car that's not abused and neglected so i report my findings to sales and typically you know car has 40 50 000 miles brakes usually below 50 percent tires are likely the typical stuff with these do an alignment on the car after the tires replace the wipers do an oil change maybe filters maybe not some cars will have minor oil leaks here and there you know filters leaking oil pans leaking small little stuff here and there some of them will have a water pump you know a water pump is not a major repair here so you need a new water pump because it's just starting to leak i don't like this this needs as a certified car sales will make a decision at that point depends you know i'm not gonna get into the sales land because that's a whole different world but they will decide are we gonna certify this car and spend all the small fortune or are we gonna just let her go and see ya now as i film this video we are in the strange times of the end of 2021 where used cars are so scarce that they just don't exist so these these treasures that i'm working with right now used cars they're very hard to find they are trying more and more to really spend money on these cars i remember days where we used to get a certified car there's a little bit up on the miles a little bit up on the age like closer within that limit where the sales department says nah it's not worth it just under the auction this thing needs tires needs brakes maybe needs a wheelbarrow nah too much work send it off they don't do that anymore they fix everything and anything unless it is something major and catastrophic which indicates this car didn't have a good life let's briefly talk about a few things that would actually disqualify this car from certification as well any modifications cold air intake ecu chip whatever not certified have a nice day even if you go put the original stuff back once you start modifying cars for performance especially a toyota land unless it's supra or something like that what are you doing to yourself this car gets disqualified because i don't know how this owner drove it did he beat on it i'm driving it here i'm trying my best here but i didn't take it on the highway drive it three hours so where these are signs that this thing is no good have a nice day another thing is after-market accessories that are improperly installed you have a trailer hitch it's fine if it's aftermarket is it mounted properly is it they did they install it to the original mounting point but is there a wire wrapped around the exhaust to go to the front for the battery that's improper install that either needs to be taken off corrected or it's no no go for a certified and the next two i've lightly covered on them but let's recap them here in one section excessive wear and tear now i get in the car carpet's a little dirty seat has a few scuffs on it the interior there's a few scratches here and there but nothing major but i get in a car the carpet's worn down to the metal the seats are ripped and take just torn apart basically and the interior has gouges and pieces broken and missing this is not normal for a six up to six year old car has 85 000 miles this is someone that just beat this car and didn't take care of it this is not certified have a nice day it's not worth it and then the other thing is inconsistencies in their service records now i see this car it had an oil change when it was new and then here it is at 70 000 miles well where's the rest of it yes it could have gone to an aftermarket shop it could have gone guy could have done it himself but if i'm not liking this car and i see that this is a problem because was this car neglected there are certain things that even the best mechanic in the world can't tell you this is god honest and any mechanics watching i can't predict the future of this car i can do my due diligence right now but there are certain things that you cannot know until you drive the car for not driving around the block drive it for a month two three so if i see any signs that this car was not taken care of she gets knocked off certification because it ain't worth it i'd rather deal with the sales manager getting a little upset at me than deal with a potential owner that paid a small fortune and now they're stuck with a car that was not taken care of by the previous owner now after i've certified the car it's certifiable we fixed anything that it needs and everything is a-okay my journey is about to come at an end with my new best friend here so we're gonna fill out the inspection form now this is specific to toyota every manufacturer might have one different or might not have one at all i don't know about other manufacturers is 160 point inspection quality assurance inspection check sheet now most other technicians will know this by heart because you've done thousands and thousands over the years of certified inspections but we're going to fill this out and one thing for our owners and this is something you might want to know if you're buying a toyota certified you're actually supposed to get a copy of this and i say supposed to because i've seen so many leaders don't give it out which is a big no-no but that's how it is you're basically going to sign this i'm going to sign this that i did the mechanical inspection and i gave recommendations on like body repairs okay this car has a thing here thing there needs to be fixed taken care of life's good once the used car manager takes care of these things he will sign it and then he's liable for this these recommendations that we gave him and then the service manager also signed it because basically he's the head of the department he said my technician went through this signed it i also signed it i looked at everything that he did and then the last signature is actually your signature when you buy the car the original copy stays at the dealership stays with the file of the certified car and one of the copies this is a carbon copy you know multiple copies here one of them goes to you the new owner so this is actually good because you could tell from the signature who are the guys that certified this car and when did they certify it that is something that many leaderships unfortunately don't do so if you go buy a certified ask for this sheet because it belongs to you and you need to sign that otherwise it's incomplete paperwork for this car to become certified and alongside that little inspection every manufacturer will have different period for for warranty but for toyota land as the day to film in this video it's one year 12 000 miles on everything if the car is out of the factory comprehensive warranty which is like three years 36 in the us but it gets seven years hundred thousand miles of powertrain warranty so there is a little booklet that you also should get with this sheet when it's done that explains what is covered and what is not and all everything in detail i always tell you any warranty you buy you got to know what it covers but most importantly what it doesn't cover and that booklet covers everything and you can actually ask any dealership to share that with you you can go through it look it up is it worth the buy certified or just buy used car with ext aftermarket extended warranty you can make that decision on your own now let's talk about some red flags for you when you're going to buy a certified car unfortunately these are things that some dealerships will pass through they're not a good idea and it usually ends up in disaster almost always but to avoid that mess for you here are a few things first avoid rental cars x rental cars that became somehow certified you'll see those here and there usually it's that one certified car that's cheaper than the rest look at the carfax because there's actually not a rule in the certification that it cannot be an x rental car if it's in good shape passes inspection sure it does pass the inspection but if this car had a good life i wouldn't want to risk it with a certified car another thing is if you go and you watch this video and you go look at a certified car and you see some of the stuff that we talked about or missed and you can easily see them i would question the technician that actually did this certification now things happen mistakes happen i understand that but we're not in the planet of fixing mistakes you're just trying to buy a decent car for yourself just walk away from that and have the dealership deal with their disaster it's not your problem make sure you check the car just because it's certified doesn't mean look we're all humans we're all imperfect by the way so things can get missed things happen that's why you got to do your due diligence you're the one shelling out a small fortune for this car you gotta do your due diligence look at the cars i understand folks some people don't know much about cars some people are not sure but you watch this video you've seen me do these things at least try to look at the things that i've talked about look at the paint look at the obvious red flag and then the last one that i see always as a potential problem try not to buy certified cars that are borderline so in toyota's case six years or younger 85 000 miles or less let's say you go buy a card it has 84 500. well that's way too close or it's two weeks from being seven years old that's a little too close and that's how you can tell these dealerships are desperate that not desperate dealerships will look at this and be like that's too close now with it forget it we'll just sell it as a regular used car cheaper somebody will buy it and it's okay there's nothing wrong with it but it's it's just too close to be certified your your brilliant certified range is going to be from new all the way to five years old that's the safe range i would say and then again from new potentially all the way to 70 000 miles especially in toyota land typically this is the miles where you're still in the honeymoon period there's nothing really major wrong with these cars and anything that happens with them they're usually taken care of warranty what not all this good stuff well there you have it folks that is the certified inspection process there's a lot of steps and we condensed it into this relatively long video but it's actually a very long process that takes that involves multiple departments everybody's looking at and then the manufacturer is breathing down the dealership to make sure that they follow their guidelines and trust me when when things go south they really go south especially with certified cars because if a customer brings back a car and they find a disaster it is a bigger disaster for the dealership i hope this video is helpful informative i hope you learned something new if you like it consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribe to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 495,619

Keywords: buying a certified pre owned car, used car inspection, used car, buying a car, cpo car, toyota certified, toyota certified vehicle, pre purchase inspection, check car history, how to inspect a car, how to inspect a car before buying, used cars, certified cars, best used cars, worst used cars, toyota, lexus, the car care nut, scotty kilmer, toyota used car, toyota inspection, toyota maintenance, toyota certified pre owned, used cars for sale, used car buying tips, dealership

Id: raQ_Rra3upQ

Length: 35min 18sec (2118 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 04 2021