New Car Types

Certified pre-owned vehicles, or CPOs, are just the thing for the tightwad car buyer: You sidestep the hit from the initial depreciation and still get a thoroughly checked-over car, backed by the automaker. So it’s no wonder that even though new-car sales have cratered of late, CPO sales have been rising. It’s a great way to get into some exciting cars for a lower initial outlay.

Car and Driver will be looking at all sorts of desirable CPO cars in the months to come. First up is the BMW 3-series, in part because no other car has impressed and seduced the staff more consistently over the years and partly because this writer recently needed to buy a practical daily driver.

But BMWs have never been bargains. As an inveterate cheapskate, I decided to investigate a certified pre-owned BMW. BMW started its CPO program in 1996. To qualify as a CPO car, a BMW cannot be more than five years old, have more than 60,000 miles on the odo, and cannot have been seriously crashed. It also must pass a thorough inspection at a BMW dealership. If the tires or the brakes are more than half-worn, they are replaced. A CPO car is supposed to perform, if not look, like a brand-new BMW.

A BMW CPO’s warranty takes over when the new car’s four-year/ 50,000-mile coverage ends, continuing for two more years and raising the mileage limit to 100,000. In January, I bought a 2007 BMW 335i sedan with 23,421 miles on it, so I wound up with a warranty for four years and two months, or 76,500 miles. That’s longer coverage than the original buyer received.

But there are a few catches. The CPO warranty isn’t as extensive as new-car coverage. All of the principal mechanical, electrical, and body components are covered, but the navigation and stereo systems, as well as “wear items” that are covered under the new-car warranty—spark plugs, wiper inserts, fluid, etc.—are not. Finally, each warranty repair under BMW’s CPO program is assessed a “handling charge” of $50. Even with these caveats, the CPO coverage protects against expensive major failures.

Finding a CPO BMW was easy. At

, every CPO Bimmer available in the country is listed by price, location, body style, and transmission type (this is BMW, after all). And because BMW has records on every car, the listed colors, interiors, and options are accurate, unlike the incomplete descriptions that accompany the listings on sites such as www.autotrader.com.

While perusing these offerings, remember that these are still used cars, with widely varying prices, and are subject to negotiation. If you’re willing to search farther from home, you are more likely to find a car with the color and options that you want at a reasonable price. I found my heavily optioned 335i at Zimbrick BMW in Madison, Wisconsin, about 375 miles from Ann Arbor. After a little bargaining over the phone, I shaved the price from just below $34,000 to $32,500.

When I drove it, there was the same unworldly smoothness that always impresses in new BMWs. The body has some small stone chips in front but not a single door ding. It has the look of a new car inside and out. Like all 335s, it can slice through traffic with its effortless power and precise, nimble handling, yet when cruising at 75 mph, it achieves nearly 30 mpg. Given that my car stickered for nearly $49,000 when it was brand-new, I’d say the CPO program finally adds bargain to the long list of 3-series virtues. It’s not surprising that BMW’s CPO program sold 104,500 vehicles in the U.S. last year.

How Much does BMW Certification Cost?

I test-drove a used BMW 335i that was not a CPO car and asked the salesman why the dealership hadn’t performed the certification. He replied that the car could be certified if I so desired, but it would add about $1500 to the price. Here’s where the costs were: The inspections to certify it require 10 hours of shop time, which runs about $1000 at a BMW store. Add the $500 or so that BMW charges the dealership for the additional warranty coverage, and there’s the $1500. But that extra price is contingent on the inspection not uncovering any further work needed on the car. This particular 335i was wearing new tires, but if they needed to be replaced, their cost (more than $1300 for a sport-package car) would have been tacked onto the $1500 fee. Likewise, add another grand for new brakes. So, on average, the extended warranty of a CPO model could cost the buyer $2000 or so.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q2/certified_pre-owned_2007_bmw_335i-feature

When Audi’s 580-hp, twin-turbo V-10–powered, all-wheel-drive RS 6 was unleashed upon the world in 2008, even the Europeans must have been a bit shocked to see that it was (at least initially) available

only as an Avant wagon. After all, that direct-injection, dry-sump, 5.0-liter V-10 is cribbed from the

. But that perverse mix of Lambo and family truckster only makes the RS 6 even more insanely attractive.

Top speed is electronically limited to 174 mph and Audi says 0 to 62 mph takes only 4.5 seconds. Audi’s signature Quattro all-wheel-drive system distributes the 479 lb-ft of torque and the standard six-speed automatic transmission can be shifted with paddles. A “Dynamic Roll Control” system makes sure the aluminum suspension elements always put the tire faces square to the tarmac and keeps the body from slopping over. Available six-piston, 16.5-inch diameter ceramic front brakes are big enough to allow the nearly 4500-pound RS 6 to spit in the eye of physics.

Audi announced in August that the RS 6 would also be available as a sedan. America gets to choose between neither of them.

Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/08q4/dream_wagons-feature/audi_rs6_avant_page_3