Genesis certified pre-owned warranty

Genesis’ certified pre-owned program explained

Genesis’ certified pre-owned program is called, quite simply, Genesis Certified.

In order to qualify as a Genesis Certified vehicle, a used Genesis must pass a 191-point dealer inspection that includes a thorough check of the vehicle’s engine, transmission, interior and electronics. All Genesis Certified vehicles must also be under five model years old (i.e., at least a 2018 in 2023) and have fewer than 60,000 miles on their odometers.

CPO Genesis vehicles come with a generous six-year/75,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty and a bevy of benefits, including 10 years of roadside assistance with no mileage limit.

» LEARN: What does a car warranty cover?

How good are Genesis’ CPO warranties?

Altogether, the perks mentioned above were enough to land Genesis a spot close to the top of our best CPO warranties list.

All brand-new Genesis vehicles come with a five-year/60,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain warranty from the factory. Unfortunately, Genesis’ powertrain warranty normally doesn’t transfer to the second owner or beyond, but a hidden benefit of buying a CPO Genesis is that you get that 10-year/100,000-mile factory warranty reinstated.

Genesis measures its warranties from the date your vehicle was first sold new (not CPO).

That means buying a CPO Genesis gets you one year or 12,000 miles of extra bumper-to-bumper coverage and four more years or 40,000 more miles of powertrain coverage over buying a conventional used Genesis. That far surpasses most luxury competitors and, depending on how you look at it, could mean that Genesis has the best CPO warranty at the time of publishing.

How do Genesis’ CPO warranties compare?

The only CPO warranty program that really comes close to Genesis’ is Lexus’, which offers an extra two years/unlimited miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage on its CPO vehicles.

If you plan to take your vehicle cross-country regularly, that lack of a mileage limit theoretically makes a CPO Lexus the better choice. However, when you look at each brand’s CPO and factory warranties combined, both automakers technically offer a total of six years of bumper-to-bumper coverage. Genesis even takes the lead time-wise with four extra years of powertrain coverage.

CPO Genesis benefits

In addition to arguably industry-leading warranty coverage, Genesis Certified vehicles come with the following benefits:

• 24/7 roadside assistance for 10 years, with no mileage limit (includes towing, dead battery jump-starts, flat tire changes, lockout services and gas deliveries)
• Rental car reimbursements of up to $50 per day for up to 10 days while your Genesis is in the shop for a warranty-covered repair
• Travel reimbursements of up to $100 per day (up to $500 per occurrence) if your Genesis has a covered breakdown more than 150 miles from home

You’ll also get a free Carfax report and three years of complimentary Genesis Connected Services with your certified vehicle.

Overall, these are excellent benefits for a CPO program. Ten years of roadside assistance is more than we’ve ever seen from a CPO program — most automakers offer seven years/100,000 miles or less.

Is a CPO Genesis worth it?

Even though Genesis’ CPO program is among the best in the business, buying a certified Genesis isn’t a guaranteed good deal. It’s not necessarily a bad deal, either, though.

Think of it this way:

• Is a certified pre-owned Genesis worth buying if you’re in the market for a luxury car? Probably.
• Is it worth paying extra for a certified pre-owned Genesis? Possibly, but make sure you’re getting a good deal.

Here’s why — in general, paying extra for a CPO vehicle is more likely to be worth it if:

• The vehicle you want isn't very reliable.
• The cost to buy CPO is within $1,000 of the cost of buying used.
• The CPO warranty offers at least one year/12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage.

We’ve already established that Genesis offers a good amount of warranty coverage, but let’s break down those other two points in more detail.

How reliable are Genesis vehicles?

Genesis vehicles tend to rank well for reliability. Despite being relatively new to the market, Genesis managed to land in second place out of 32 brands in J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, with roughly 23% fewer problems in their first three years than the industry average.

Consumer Reports, which uses data from a wider range of model years, ranked the brand 12th out of 24 automakers. That outlet’s data suggests that Genesis’ sedans rank higher for dependability than its SUVs and that its electric vehicles leave some unknowns.

There are plenty of good cars that aren’t worth buying CPO. In fact, well-built cars often have less upside from being certified because they don’t break down as frequently.

“Genesis is on the horizon of becoming one of the more affordable and impressive luxury cars,” mechanic Amelia Nolan told ConsumerAffairs for our breakdown of Genesis maintenance. “By 2030, they’ll likely offer an entire electric lineup, which’ll reduce operating costs. It remains to be seen, however, how much that’ll affect maintenance costs.”

For the time being, when things do go wrong on Genesis vehicles, repairs are reported to be relatively inexpensive. Data from RepairPal suggests that Genesis vehicles cost around $565 per year in maintenance and unplanned repairs — roughly 15% lower than the $652 industry average across brands.

How much does a certified pre-owned Genesis cost?

To get an idea of how much CPO Genesis vehicles cost, we called up five Genesis dealerships across the country and compared used vs. CPO prices online.

Our findings indicate that Genesis dealerships aren’t shy about charging high amounts for certified vehicles. “We typically charge around $2,000 more for CPO,” one dealership sales manager told us, and that was consistent with what we saw elsewhere.

So, while Genesis Certified may be one of the best CPO programs in the industry, it may also be one of the most expensive. We compared our findings to a study from iSeeCars, and the only automaker with a larger average upcharge for CPO status was Mercedes-Benz at $2,017.

Thankfully, a dealership’s CPO upcharge is negotiable. (Learn how to negotiate with dealerships the easy way in step eight of our article on how to buy a used car.)

All things considered, the only real drawback to Genesis’ CPO program is how much dealers are charging for it. But if you can get the upcharge below $1,000 (or even $1,200), the stellar warranty and 10 years of roadside assistance could be worth it.

How to get the most out of Genesis’ CPO warranties

If you end up purchasing a Genesis Certified vehicle, here are some ways you can maximize your benefits:

• Log your Genesis roadside assistance number: Chances are high that you’ll need a tow or a jump-start during your decade of roadside assistance, so go ahead and log the Genesis roadside assistance 24/7 hotline in your phone now.
• Don’t forget to preauthorize your rental car and trip interruption benefits: The warranty’s fine print states that all rental car and trip-related expenses must be preauthorized — you can’t simply bring receipts after the fact for reimbursement.

You might also consider a Genesis extended warranty to stretch your bumper-to-bumper coverage even further.

Do you need an extended warranty for your Genesis?

Although your Genesis CPO warranty offers a generous six years/75,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage, you can lengthen coverage all the way to 10 years/100,000 miles with a Genesis Protection Plan Vehicle Service Contract. The prices we’ve seen for these plans start around $2,500 but quickly rise as your Genesis ages.

Extended warranty prices can vary a lot, so it’s worth shopping around and getting quotes from multiple providers.

In our full breakdown of Genesis extended warranties, we determined that a Genesis extended warranty probably isn’t necessary given the length of the factory warranty, and the longer CPO warranty, which covers you 75% of the way to 100,000 miles, steals even more of that extended warranty’s thunder.

An extended warranty from another provider might be a better value, though. The two warranty companies we got quotes from as part of our previous investigation offered better deals than Genesis on older models, and other warranty companies even offer protection for vehicles with up to 300,000 miles.

» FIND A WARRANTY PROVIDER: Best extended car warranty companies

Bottom line

Genesis Certified is one of the best CPO programs in the industry, offering nearly unrivaled benefits and warranty coverage. The only caveat is that dealers tend to charge a high premium for CPO status, so you may need to shop around and negotiate to find a CPO Genesis with a reasonable upcharge below $1,000.