Cadillac certified pre-owned warranty

Cadillac’s certified pre-owned program explained

If you’re new to certified pre-owned cars, they’re used cars that have passed an inspection at the dealership and include an added warranty and other benefits. Every automaker has its own CPO standards and benefits, though.

For Cadillac, CPO vehicles must be under five years old, have fewer than 60,000 miles on their odometers and pass a rigorous 172-point inspection at the dealership. In return, CPO Cadillacs come with:

• A one-year/12,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, which adds to the remainder of your four-year/50,000-mile factory warranty. (If that’s already expired, the CPO warranty miles on the date you purchase the CPO vehicle.)
• Courtesy transportation while your vehicle is in the shop for a warranty-covered repair.

» LEARN: What does a car warranty cover?

How good is Cadillac’s CPO warranty?

Cadillac’s CPO warranty is about average. One year or 12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage is pretty typical fare in the CPO world, where similar warranties can range from three months to two years.

Cadillac is also right in the middle among its luxury competitors. Audi and Mercedes-Benz offer one year of added protection on their CPO vehicles — but only for a few dozen parts. Meanwhile, Lexus and Porsche offer two years of bumper-to-bumper warranty with no mileage limit, which is the gold standard at the time of publishing.

» MORE: Best CPO warranties

CPO Cadillac benefits

While Cadillac’s CPO warranty is perfectly adequate, the program’s secondary benefits fall way short. Cadillac lists just two non-warranty benefits on its official CPO page:

• Courtesy transportation
• My Cadillac Rewards Points

And there are big asterisks associated with both.

For starters, Cadillac is vague on exactly what “Courtesy Transportation” entails, simply stating that it “provides alternate transportation if your Cadillac requires warranty repairs.” We called three different dealerships for clarification and received three different answers.

“Courtesy transportation means we’ll take care of you,” said an Atlanta-area Cadillac dealer. “We’ll give you a ride, a loaner vehicle, heck, we’ll even pick you up if you break down.”

Sounds reassuring, but a dealer in Portland gave a totally different response. “That just means we’ll give you a ride,” he said. “We don’t even have loaner vehicles.”

A dealer in Seattle clarified the discrepancy. “I think the official policy is to give CPO customers rides,” he said. “But some dealers like us go the extra mile and offer loaners, when available.”

So, you’ll get free rides with your CPO Cadillac, but you won’t necessarily get a loaner vehicle (like Lexus offers). Nor will you get a $50 per diem to help cover a rental car (like Genesis offers).

Many CPO warranties also offer 24/7 roadside assistance and help cover meals and lodging if your car breaks down far from home. But Cadillac offers neither, which is odd for a luxury automaker.

In terms of the My Cadillac Rewards Points, we received similar confusion from dealerships. The program lets you redeem points towards service, OnStar plans, accessories and more. However, we called six different dealerships and they didn’t know about this perk or why Cadillac listed it on its certified pre-owned page. (One dealership even confirmed that you don’t earn points on CPOs, only on new purchases and service.)

Is a CPO Cadillac worth it?

Let’s get right to the point: Paying extra for a CPO Cadillac could be worth it if the dealer is charging less than $1,000 extra for CPO status. Otherwise, you could get more value if you order your own pre-purchase inspection and a separate extended warranty. (You’d almost certainly get more benefits that way, too.)

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s explain our reasoning.

How reliable are Cadillacs?

In terms of overall reliability, Cadillacs fall squarely in the middle of the pack.

In its 2024 Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power ranked Cadillac 12th out of 30 for overall dependability. On average, the study found modern vehicles exhibit 190 problems per 100 vehicles after three years of ownership. Cadillacs exhibited 196.

Reliable vehicles are less likely to actually put their warranties to use.

Consumer Reports came to a similar conclusion, ranking Cadillac 16th out of 30 brands for overall dependability. RepairPal was a bit less optimistic, ranking Cadillac 26th out of 32 brands.

RepairPal tends to rely upon older data, but that doesn’t imply that newer Cadillacs are more reliable. The truth is even stranger — virtually every other automaker has gotten 33% less reliable since 2018, so Cadillac has just naturally risen in reliability rankings by hovering at around 190 problems per 100 vehicles.

However, even though 190 is the new average, it used to be considered unreliable. As a result, purchasing a Cadillac that has passed inspection and includes a longer warranty could be a smart move — but only for the right price.

How much does a certified pre-owned Cadillac cost?

According to a study by iSeeCars, Cadillac dealers charge an average 5% premium for CPO vehicles over pre-owned ones. This means that a “used” Cadillac costing $40,000 might cost $2,000 more when sold as a CPO vehicle.

That upcharge can really stack up when looking at newer luxury vehicles, too. The added cost for a used Escalade that would normally cost $80,000 could be an eye-watering $4,000.

$2,000 to $4,000 is a lot to pay for what amounts to a 172-point inspection plus a one-year warranty. In our analysis of Cadillac’s extended warranties, we determined that you can buy extended warranty coverage for Cadillacs at around $1,500 per year — and even that was way too much, considering Cadillacs only require about $1,100 per year in maintenance and repairs on average (adjusted for inflation).

If you’re primarily interested in buying a Cadillac that won’t give you trouble, consider this: you can hire a third-party mechanic to conduct a thorough, 90-minute inspection of the vehicle for as little as $200. The service is called a pre-purchase inspection, and we strongly recommend them for any used vehicle with over 10,000 miles. Plus, you’ll be getting the opinion of an objective third party — not the very dealership trying to sell you the car.

All this being said, a CPO Cadillac could still be worth it if you find one at the right price. If a dealer has a used XT4 for $40,000 and a CPO one for $41,000, that extra grand could be worth it for the quality inspection, bonus year of coverage and free rides if you need them.

CPO vs. extended warranties for Cadillacs

As we mentioned above, one alternative to buying a CPO Cadi is to simply:

1. Buy a used Cadillac
2. Have it inspected yourself
3. Purchase your own extended warranty

Just know going in that, while this route may be less expensive overall than buying CPO, it’s still pricey. A pre-purchase inspection plus one year of extended bumper-to-bumper coverage may cost around $1,700 in our experience. That’s more than you’d probably spend on repairs, but it could still be well worth it if you value peace of mind and protection from repair bills above all else.

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