Missed items on a PDI (used car purchase)

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Nayov

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I bought a used Honda (from a Nissan dealer) back in September.
Here are hits and misses from the PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection):

Hits: New oil, all filters (air, oil, cabin) new battery. NAPA parts. All safety inspections done (lights, tires and so on), legitimate. They did an absolutely stellar recon job - I saw the car before and it was truly amazing. Salesman said it was a $299 value and I believed him.

Misses: On the way home the entire under shield fell off, not just the oil change access portion (plastic clips broken). So that night I had to rig that back together. Rear window washer fluid didn't work. By the time I found out it was winter so I just only recently fixed it and it was not great to have to go through a winter with slop always on the back glass. Moonroof inoperable. That one they fixed and they did it willingly. I wasn't about to pull the headliner, so I didn't mess with it.

For sure this is not a certified Lexus and I was not expecting the gold treatment but I feel as if I basically bought a car wholesale. What about your experience?
Those of you who bought a certified (or regular) used car, was it 100% perfect?
 
I would guess the PDI wasn't as thorough as it should have been and the dealer also missed those items.
I probably would have went back to them to fix the under shield since it happened on the day you took delivery. It's hard to go back months later and tell them the rear ww and moonroof aren't working. If the price of the car was right it's hard to complain too much.

PS: I'm surprised a dealer sold a Honda at 'wholesale'....Dealers tend to overprice Honda's and Toyota's IMO.
 
Certified and PDI is a marketing tool.

Even at a Lexus dealer, certified pre owned is only as good as the person inspecting the vehicle.
How many guys doing a pre inspection bother to check the spare tire air pressure as an example?
 
The Chevy dealership in Yuma Arizona did a superficial PDI, and checked off a range of items they really didn’t check. They neglected to remove the shipping blocks on the front springs. Both mufflers were hanging down because the factory forgot to engage both rubber grommet hangers. On my first freebie oil change they left the dipstick out. You wouldn’t believe what they told me about the dipstick. Anyway, the only issues that I’ve had on my car were all caused by the Chevrolet dealership. 🙇‍♂️
 
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My only experience with a " Certified " used vehicle was with a Tundra I bought . The transmission went out and they gave me a big buck estimate to repair it . I told him it was Certified . The guy said " Show me . " I produced the paperwork and he said " We'll take care of it . " PDI's on all new vehicles have been ok . Well , except one time they tried to give me a truck with almost no gas in it . When I complained the sales guy reached in his pocket and pulled out a couple of 20's . It was closing time and I was tired . I took the cash instead of waiting on them to go fuel it up .
 
Last two truck purchases were perfect. One was a GMC CPO unit from a Chevy dealer, and had zero issues. The other was a purchase of a GMC at a Honda dealership. I was somewhat expecting issues since it was a GMC at a Honda dealer, but was pleasantly surprised.

Last minivan purchase from a Chrysler dealer was a bit of a challenge. It was a 4 year old, 46000 mile one owner unit, they had sold it new and done all maintenance... down to all of the oil changes. They sold it to me with a leaking power steering rack. It had been leaking for a long time, from the amount of dirt and sand that had collected, and had been soaking up the leaking fluid. It likely had never dripped on the ground, for the previous owner to notice. The dealer had done all of the oil changes on it, and someone had to notice that it was leaking. Yet no one ever did anything. I took it back two days later and they ended up putting on a new $1300 rack on it, and put me in a rental car.

But not only can it be a problem at a dealership.... it can be a problem between units at the same dealership.

Last Friday, was looking at a used truck on a new car dealer's lot in a rural, small town. Truck was a 2018 with 40,000 miles. Had all new tires, and new brake rotors and pads... and had been nicely detailed and appeared to be ready to go. Carfax shows that it was a local one-owner trade in.

Sitting right next to it was a 2020 truck with 30,000 miles, sitting on mismatched tires that were at/nearly at the wear bars. Carfax shows that they've had it since January, so they've had plenty of time to find a new set of tires for it. It still had the adhesive on the rear window, from where someone had peeled off the sticker from the auction. It was a lease turn-in from Michigan. Despite being on the lot for 4 months, it has clearly skipped any sort of reconditioning by the dealership.... and in that amount of time, no one has done anything about it either.

This level of inconsistency from unit to unit, at the same dealership, can be surprising, but it happens. The used car manager at this dealership needs to get out of his office a little more often. A good salesperson should also be bringing this truck, that is clearly not ready to be sold, to the boss's attention.
 
Jetronic said:
My experience with used car PDI: it doesn't happen. It's cheaper for the dealer to just replace whatever breaks/wears as it does and can't be pinned on the new owner.
Click to expand...
There’s a better chance of getting a fair inspection done by a fox selling hens

(I’d go as far as an authorized Lexus dealers selling used Lexus doing bogus inspections, but that’s for another day)
 
bullwinkle said:
What is an employee’s MIL? Did they make them pay for it? Sounds like bye-bye time if so!
Click to expand...
I think he means an employees mother in law. It's hard to tell from the post but it sounds like their 'mechanics' came up with $7000 in safety work needed in order to lower the price of his trade.....and then sold the car to one of the employees mother in law who got a good deal.
 
Not a PPI/PDI, but all it really took for the dealer to make our van “CPO” and give us that Chrysler 7 year/100k powertrain warranty + 3 months/3,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty was our salesperson saying to someone “hey make this CPO real quick” and a tech coming back 10 minutes later with 100+ things checked off.
 
It about impossible to get a BITOG worthy PDI from what I've experienced since the early 1990s.

My most recent was with my 2022 Nissan Frontier. I bought it used from the local Nissan dealer with just under 2K miles on it and it was a year old. The original owner's job went full remote, so he sold it back. When I got it home I noticed a small spot of tiny chew marks on the foam engine cover. OCD went nuclear and I went through and poked around everything in the engine bay. The air cleaner box was loaded with sunflower seeds. A couple hand fulls worth. Luckily that is all I ever found.

Years ago I bought a nearly new, ex-rental 2005 Chevy Trailblazer LS 4x4 from a chevy dealer. It's air cleaner housing and air filter were packed with beach sand.
 
My last car bought used was not PDIed at all.
At all even though the guy knew I was drvinig it home 1000 miles after pickup.

No new wipers (even though i asked for them, was told not just No but hell no, tanked the deal almost right there due to attitude, but it was a rare car and exactly what I wanted so.... )
Windshield water pump inop
Alignment was slightly off, couldn't be aligned due to too much rust on key suspension components, almost entire supension needed replacing.

but it looked good and was the right color and rare engine combo I wanted, so in the end I was still happy with it despite sinking in several thousand in extra $$

Then again, they DID say in fat letters in thier ads "Wholesale to the public"
They clearly meant it.
 
Skippy722 said:
Not a PPI/PDI, but all it really took for the dealer to make our van “CPO” and give us that Chrysler 7 year/100k powertrain warranty + 3 months/3,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty was our salesperson saying to someone “hey make this CPO real quick” and a tech coming back 10 minutes later with 100+ things checked off.
Click to expand...
Selling price is higher so absolutely they want it to be a CPO.
 
palmerwmd said:
My last car bought used was not PDIed at all.
At all even though the guy knew I was drvinig it home 1000 miles after pickup.

No new wipers (even though i asked for them, was told not just No but hell no, tanked the deal almost right there due to attitude, but it was a rare car and exactly what I wanted so.... )
Windshield water pump inop
Alignment was slightly off, couldn't be aligned due to too much rust on key suspension components, almost entire supension needed replacing.

but it looked good and was the right color and rare engine combo I wanted, so in the end I was still happy with it despite sinking in several thousand in extra $$

Then again, they DID say in fat letters in thier ads "Wholesale to the public"
They clearly meant it.
Click to expand...
I didn't really do my homework on the 10 y.o. Lexus that I bought from a GMC dealer. I'm just lucky they fixed the things I found after the fact, or that would have been bad (at least $1600 at a Lexus dealer). Service mgr. treated me like a human, which I found odd, since they don't do that (GMC dealers treating people as humans) where I live.
 
I would expect that there is a sheet with sign off boxes AND the signature of the person who did the checks. There is no shifting of the person responsible.
 
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