|
|
|
Ok, I get it I bought the car but the siren song of certified had me. I bought the car yesterday and it currently has 20,000 miles on it. I was drawn to the dealer by their Internet advertisement that said the car had 19,000 miles on it.
This is the same dealer that did this -
https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forum ... 30#p405530
The car went through certification on October 18, 2018. Since that time it was driven 1,000 miles by one of the dealer employees. The CPO sheet they handed me was not a fresh inspection.
So I looked at the annual State inspection and it was completed last October, so I am also not getting a fresh State inspection. I'll have to shell out another $100 in several months. It should pass but that isn't the point. We recently bought two other vehicles and both came with fresh inspections (one was a CPO Subaru and the other was non-CPO). Both had brand new tires.
Tire question:
Looking at the CPO inspection report I see in the Adj. column that there is a check mark at - Conditions/abnormal wear (sidewalls/alignment problems). I look at the repair audit copy and they did a 4 wheel alignment on the car and then rotated the tires.
I am no tire expert but I do know that if tires have been running on a car out of alignment those tires are not wearing correctly. Rotating them will exacerbate wear. The first column on the report is Volvo Std. which I assume means the condition is within Volvo standards. The tires were not marked in that column but were in the Adj column. Hm -- what??
Tire thread reading on 10/18/2018 was LF 9/32 - RF 7/32 - rear 8/32. I don't have a tread depth gauge so I can't say what they are at this time and after 1,000 miles of driving what they are at today.
I am worried that they have given me tires that are going to have premature wear. For goodwill they probably should have just installed new tires.
I called Volvo of America and the woman I spoke to was a bit concerned that they were selling a car that was certified half a year ago and then driven by an employee for 1,000 miles after the certification.
This just makes me apprehensive and wondering what else don't I know. The dealer history has not been exactly clean with me. Is a CPO car just a gimmick to sell cars?
|
|
-
|
|
|
I would talk to your dealer's sales manager and the owner of the dealership, explain your problem, see what each says.
Perhaps the problem lies with a scheming tech or the person who drove the car did some fiddling with the tires - maybe the wheels as well.
The dealer might not even be aware of such hanky panky.
If you are not satisfied, THEN go to Volvo. When I purchased my first Volvo, an "88 GLE 745, I got it at Volvo of Nashua (NH) - several years later they had a purge of employees because the owner had an issuee with his daughter and her husband who ran the dealership. About a year later, a new Volvo dealer opened up about a mile away - subsidized by Volvo - Lovering Volvo of Nashua put Volvo of Nashua out of business!
Volvo does care about Volvo owners.
PS check the year codes on the tires, their dates might be instructive!
|
|
-
|
|
|
The code is 3915. So the tire was made on the 39th week of 2015. It is on my V60 2016. What should I think about the date of the tire and year of my car?
Car has 20,000 miles on it and I wonder if these are OEM tires?
"PS check the year codes on the tires, their dates might be instructive!"
|
|
-
|
|
|
Those are factory installed tires.
It can easily take a year for a tire to get produced and mounted. Remember, Volvo would place an order for the tires that meets or exceeds the expected production volume. I would assume that the wheels and tires get paired at some other facility than the production line, wouldn't want to have a bunch of grease monkeys manning tire mounting machines and wheel balancers near the end of the assembly line.
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new
|
|
-
|
|
|
That's the info I was asking for and now I have to figure out why my drivers door closes harder than all other doors.
The drivers door has two pink dots on the door, one dot above the latch and one dot below the latch. No such dots on other doors and it is not below the paint. So apparently someone attempted to adjust the latch. I didn't notice the door closing harder during the initial test drive.
No air noise and all gaps look well aligned. I am guessing it is the latch itself that is not properly aligned.
Of my past three cars, two cars have been CPO cars and the other is a Honda CR-V (non-CPO). The only car that never had any questions about it, never had a return to the dealer, etc. was the non-CPO car.
Maybe from now on I'll shave off a few dollars from the purchase price and go non-CPO. ;) Maybe it is the expectation of the CPO to not have any issues that causes an issue? My expectation might be higher with a CPO car?
|
|
-
|
|
|
It may be annoying that 5 months and 1000 miles have passed since your car was "certified" but I wouldn't look at it as though you've been duped or shorted, not for that reason anyway. It means that the car has been in their inventory for a few months after they took it in. I bet that happens all the time.
As for the tires, the worst one was @70% (assuming new is 10/32"). Do you change your tires at 70% tread depth? I think it's unreasonable to expect brand new tires on a used car (unless they're within 10-20kmiles of needing replacement. At the rate of 3/32" per 19,000 miles those tires should be ready to replace at around 50K miles - pretty good for OEM tires on an expensive European car, IMO. All that said, if they're wearing unevenly, abnormally, or making lots of noise, then you have every right to go back to your dealer and ask for an alignment (or new tires).
Just my stinky opinion but I figure all those "180 point inspections" are gimmicks to give you a warm fuzzy feeling about buying a (gasp) used car. I think you'd be really lucky if the service tech actually checked half the things on that list.
CPO on the other hand, that comes with a nice factory warranty does it not? My advice would be to take your CPO inspection report and do your own inspection of the car. Look for the gross and obvious. If you find something that they clearly should have caught then your dealer should be quick to fix it.
When you're all done checking it over and addressing any issues, you'll know your car (and your dealer) a lot better. Then you can really settle in to enjoy your new car!
-Will
|
|
-
|
|
|
Thanks for that reply.
I also think CPO is a gimmick and it costs us to buy that gimmick. Although the CPO Volvo warranty is a good one and I get another 2 years of warranty. I think 2 years.
I also think that the techs may not check all the points. Our Subbie CPO car the day after purchase I was looking under the hood and saw a coolant reservoir that was 99.9% empty. Hm? Now how could the tech miss that one. During the initial test drive the car wouldn't start .... dead battery. Installed a new one and off I go. The first time I go to hit the brakes the pedal fades almost to the floor. Told the sales guy, you need to bleed these brakes. Now how did the tech person not notice?
It is only recently that we started buy CPO cars. I've reached an age that the only work I want to do on cars is the easy stuff. But I'm not sure if our next car will be a CPO?
There were some other things the tech people didn't notice and it took me a while. Such as the radio head unit had lines in it while the Nav unit was turned on. Fixed under warranty but another missed item. There were others I just can't remember.
So I am a bit gun shy about believing the check points. Plus this particular dealer falls under the fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me mantra. What they did with the PCV extended warranty that Volvo was paying for did make Volvo of America very unhappy.
I've never had low profile tires and never had a tread pattern like these tires. To my they look more used than what is noted on the measurement. I won't know until they car measured.
These Continental tires have this --- I think:
"Continental Tire’s QuickView indicators are visual signals located in the tire tread that reveal the tire’s performance level as well as if the tires are wearing evenly. They visually inform drivers of the level at which the tires are performing in dry, wet and snow conditions and also when it’s time to check the vehicle’s alignment.
The Tuned Performance Indicators are the letters D,W, and S which are molded into the tire tread and fade as the tire wears. The D stands for Dry, the W stands for Wet, and the S stands for Snow.
When the S fades away, it shows that the tire is no longer optimal for snow traction. When the W fades away it indicates that the tire is no longer optimal in wet conditions. Finally, when the D fades away it is no longer optimal in dry conditions and has met the minimum legal tread depth and the tire must be replaced."
This tire thing is (so far) the only thing I have questions about and that is a good thing that makes me happy!
I read a lot of contracts. I expect to get what the contract calls for and nothing more. If they offer more, it is out of goodwill.
|
|
-
|
|
|
I wouldn't get too bent out of shape by the tire condition. 20K on factory tires is at half life, and as a wear item, you have 20K to save up enough money to buy 4 new tires with the tread design you want. Granted, rotating tires BEFORE alignment should be the proper procedure, but the tech probably found the car steering to one side and had it aligned before he realized that a front tire was prematurely worn. No big deal so long as the car still drives straight.
For cars purchased on or after November 1, 2018, the Certified by Volvo provides a 5-year/unlimited-mile exclusionary coverage from the original in service date of the car. Vehicles that were originally sold as Certified Pre-Owned prior to November 1, 2018, the Certified Pre-Owned warranty provides 7-year/100,000-mile coverage. All Certified by Volvo vehicles are equipped with complimentary Volvo Roadside Assistance for the entire timeframe of the warranty, regardless of mileage as well as a complimentary 3 month trial to SiriusXM radio. There is no deductible charged for repairs covered by the Certified by Volvo warranty; regardless of the number of components that are repaired.
As for the Subaru and low antifreeze level in the overflow bottle, I also panicked when I saw my daughter's 2008 outback with about 1/4 inch of antifreeze in the bottle. It took a while to realize that the coolant system was 'old school', ie. not pressurized! It truly was an overflow bottle. I understand some Subaru dealers cheat when doing a brake fluid flush - they empty the reservoir and refill it - end of job. And guess what, a 4 spark plug replacement is $300! $75 for the plugs and $225 for labor.
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new
|
|
-
|
|
|
Well I measured the tread.
The one tire that must have been wearing incorrectly is 6/32. Subtract the 2/32 on the band and I have 4/32 remaining on that tire. Hm? What does that mean but it isn't the 8/32 as reported.
The other tires are 7/32 and that isn't the 9/32 as reported. What does that mean?
Heck if I know and all I know is that the numbers don't match the certification sheet.
My tire guy said they are good tires, they just don't have the depth that was recorded on the CPO report. Hm?
|
|
-
|
|
|
Either the mechanic who drove the car for a while was an Autocross fanatic, or the inspector lied. Send the results to the Dealers's head honcho, not the salesman who sold you the car.
My kid sister bought a used pickup truck years back. The day of pick up, she notices that the truck no longer sported the almost new tires from the day before. They tried to pull a fast one and put 4 mismatched tires on the truck. Morale: Never trust a car dealer, once you sign on the dotted line it is yours.
--
Keeping it running is better than buying new
|
|
-
|
|
|
Seems that the consensus is to speak up about it. It is not my nature to speak up about stuff, my nature is to just live with it. So that I have documentation, I am going to send something to Volvo. I will also speak to the dealer.
The sales guy may want to take back the dozen roses and chocolate he gave to my wife. :)
|
|
-
|
|
|
Well I measured the tread.
The one tire that must have been wearing incorrectly is 6/32. Subtract the 2/32 on the band and I have 4/32 remaining on that tire. Hm? What does that mean but it isn't the 8/32 as reported.
The other tires are 7/32 and that isn't the 9/32 as reported. What does that mean?
Heck if I know and all I know is that the numbers don't match the certification sheet.
My tire guy said they are good tires, they just don't have the depth that was recorded on the CPO report. Hm?
|
|
|
|
|
