Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

The news from General Motors that Saturn certified used cars will be available for sale at Chevrolet Buick and GMC dealers is good news for bad credit car loan consumers.

Affordable certified used cars

Here at Auto Credit Express, it seems that sometimes the planets appear to align themselves in just the right way.

A good example of this is the news from General Motors this morning that GM Certified Used Vehicles announced the addition of Saturn models to their lineup of GM vehicles.

According to the GM press release, “All Saturn model years 2005-2010 are now available for purchase at any of the 3,400 Buick, Chevrolet and GMC GM Certified Used Vehicles dealers across the nation.”

Certified pre owned vehicles

If you’ve read any of our previous articles, you know how we feel about certified used cars – known in the industry as certified pre-owned or CPO vehicles. We believe that, for the most part, certified used cars are a good choice for credit challenged consumers.

Most certified used car programs work this way: if a vehicle meets certain age, mileage and inspection requirements, dealers can use a trade-in vehicle or purchase back a lease turn-in and sell either one with an extended service contract that is very similar to the warranties found on new vehicles – except that the number of miles and years can be extended past the original warranty date to cover additional months and miles the amount of which depends upon the manufacturer and the program.

Because of this built-in warranty coverage and other perks (such as roadside assistance), the dealer can (and usually has to because of the program costs) sell these CPO vehicles at a premium over non-certified used cars.

In the case of GM’s program, this means that every GM Certified Saturn comes with a GM Certified 12-month/12,000-mile (whichever comes first) bumper-to-bumper warranty as well as a fully transferable 100,000-mile/five-year Powertrain limited warranty.

But wait, there’s more

Other perks of the program include a free vehicle history report on your vehicle, 24-hour roadside assistance, a three-day/150-mile customer satisfaction guarantee (GM’s return policy) and a 3-month trial subscription to both the OnStar service and XM Satellite Radio – such a deal!

Affordable vehicles

One other thing that we’re more than a little bit nit-picky with around here is keeping your bad credit auto loan payment affordable and, fortunately, many Saturn vehicles fall into this category.

Although the Sky roadster and Outlook crossover are beyond the budgets of most bad credit buyers, the Astra compact sedan, Aura mid-sized sedan and possibly even the Vue compact crossover are all vehicles that may very well work.

In order to qualify, all vehicles must be six years old or newer and have 75,000 miles or less. In addition, each goes through a 117-point inspection and reconditioning process.

The Bottom Line

Keep in mind that certified pre-owned vehicles are usually more expensive than their non-certified counterparts. The costs of an inspection, the required replacement of warn and defective parts as well as a fairly expensive service contract all add to the price of a CPO vehicle. Before buying one, it makes sense to do some research and compare the selling prices of both CPO and non-CPO vehicles. Ultimately, you will have to decide for yourself if a CPO car is worth the difference in price.

For more information on bad credit car loans and the bad credit auto loan buying process, visit our web site at www.autocreditexpress.com.

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