Most likely loaners. The dealer rarely sells their loaners and rather send them to auction.

 

I have just seen some CPO '07s in So CA advertised for $27-28k (prem. and/or sport pkgs.) with about 15k mi, as "BMW Executive Vehicle" or similar. The Carfax says registered as manufacturer's vehicle, then sold at auction, before being offered by the CPO dealer.

Does this mean the cars were service loaners, demos, driven home and on dates by salesmen, or ? I also wonder why they would have been sold at auction rather than going straight to CPO status. On one of them, the Carfax said 4 tires were mounted though the car only has 12.5k miles.

Is any of this a red flag despite CPO status?

I have had no success getting the dealer to answer my e-mail question about this. Thanks.

As a result of finding out that an X3 I was going to buy was a lemon imported from the US to Canada, I had to learn Ontario law to get back every cent of my deposit.

Anyways, I came across an interesting piece of information (appended below the dashes). Since it appears that the lemon designation doesn't need to be carried over, it may be the reason why some cars (including BMW's) find their way to auction and sold out of state (and in some cases out of the country, since Canada has no lemon law), rather then having to be sold with a defective ("lemon") title.

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Once a vehicle is declared a lemon, the manufacturer has to buy it back. But there's nothing to stop the manufacturer from reselling it.

While all 50 states have lemon laws, only 19 require the title of a car declared a lemon to carry a warning. When a dealer sells a lemon out-of-state, the lemon designation is often not carried over.

 

Lemons?!?!

YIKES!! CA has lemon-law disclosure, but I hadn't thought of that angle in general. Thanks.

 

YIKES!! CA has lemon-law disclosure, but I hadn't thought of that angle in general. Thanks.

I'm not sure you would have to worry then.

Even if the car is a lemon from a previous state, the fact that it wasn't disclosed to you (of course that is if it is a lemon), you would still be afforded protection (find out, but I am sure that would be the case). I would think that a person in a non lemon law state, that purchased a lemon that came from a lemon law state, would have more to worry about.

 

Laundered Lemons

Yes, and laundering defective product via a legal loophole would be truly sleazy!

 

Yes, and laundering defective product via a legal loophole would be truly sleazy!

Unfortunately there are always ways around "defective" product laws. It's not a defect, it's a radical design enhancement that is beyond anyone's comprehension.

Apparently on the X3 tranny complaints (on '07's) to avoid lemon losses, they are stating it is not a problem, but rather "working as designed", and it just "adapted to your driving style".

The more reputable dealers are just selling them at auction, and are in turn being bought by indy auto dealers in Canada, who sell them to us

 

It could very well be a company car that was given to a BMW NA employee. Usually, look at the window sticker and see on the very bottom, where the car was initially delivered to. My mom's 325i was bought CPO also as "Executive Vehicle". It was probably a BMW FS employee since it stated a town in Ohio.

 

I just bought a nicely optioned 2007 328I 14,500 miles from McKenna in Norwalk CA for 26.5K (29,046 OTD). I asked several people at Mckenna and they all told me that it was not a loaner that it was an exec car. They swear that it was used as a one person exec car. I even checked with Rusnak (another BMW dealer) and they said that no dealer would ever use a loaded car as a loaner. It was never registered. CarFax shows it coming to port then to McKenna. It didn't have the original window sticker.

It is not a CPO car, but has a warranty until 10/2011 and 35k more miles. I felt that it was too good a deal to pass up.

The 328I has the Sports Package, Premium package, Cold Weather Package, & Parking Sensors. They even gave me a set of floor mats.

 

Most likely if you have problems with your car BMW will step in prior to doing a lemon. They don't want that on the title so they will do a trade assist and buy the car back clear title, this is what they did with my 335. I assume they then can just sell this as a low mileage CPO, mine had <2000mi on it. I think an executive car is probably a car given to a dealer executive like a GM to use as a benefit.

 

I've seen where some executive cars are used for celebs at certain events and then sold as new (untitled, anyway). For example, when BMW sponsors gold tournaments, they give out tons of courtesy cars to the golfers, TV, and other people to use for the week.

 

Executive Vehicle - euphemism for an untitled used vehicle.

 

I have just seen some CPO '07s in So CA advertised for $27-28k (prem. and/or sport pkgs.) with about 15k mi, as "BMW Executive Vehicle" or similar. The Carfax says registered as manufacturer's vehicle, then sold at auction, before being offered by the CPO dealer.

Does this mean the cars were service loaners, demos, driven home and on dates by salesmen, or ? I also wonder why they would have been sold at auction rather than going straight to CPO status. On one of them, the Carfax said 4 tires were mounted though the car only has 12.5k miles.

Is any of this a red flag despite CPO status?

I have had no success getting the dealer to answer my e-mail question about this. Thanks.

Most of them are BMW employee leases.. So.. corporate employees from NJ, or field employees or even factory employees from SC.. They get great deals, so they are usually loaded up....

So, not necessarily executives or even company cars... but, usually BMW employees..

They are usually sold at closed BMW NA auctions (BMW dealers only).. These are separate from the BMW FS auctions, where they sell off-lease cars, and are usually open to anyone with a dealer's license.

Most dealers are upfront about selling loaners.. And, if not, you can easily ascertain those through a CarFax...

regards,
kyfdx

 

Mine was exactly that way.
No person actually owned it since it landed loaded in Washington to a dealer there.

Since then the car was dealer to dealer and was a executive's car and sold thru South Western Auction to the dealer where they made it a CPO. My dealer replaced only the tires and has been perfect since.

CarFax says it is a one owner car before I got a hold of it.

Mine was not a loaner as evidenced by the wear & mileage. I have never driven a loaded loaner BMW so this one was loaded.

Since it is a CPO, you should be safe. The certification is quite long and any failure is subject to being a non CPO.

 

Thanks

Thanks for all the informative responses!
Jeff