I have found a fairly good deal on a 2017 BMW Alpina, fully loaded, that was a manufacturer buy back. The reason for the buy back is that the time it took to obtain a sensor lapsed over the allowed time frame in the state of California. The car has a clean bill of health, has been certified inspected by a BMW dealer and has a letter from the state of California stating the reason behind the buy back.
Because of the buy back it is now registered as a lemon. My question is should one purchase a buy back vehicle? If so, how much negotiation do you have because it was a buy back and is registered as a lemon?
The dealership wants 56k for a 2017 BMW Alpina fully loaded with 40k miles on it. How much negotiation do I have? I know, from research, you should only buy these vehicles if you plan on keeping them because when you buy something that is listed as a lemon you essentially can never sell it or trade it in to a dealership. Just trying to figure out what a fair price is on a car like this.
This doesn’t make sense. In California for lemon law a problem has to occur within 18 months or 18k miles. This car is probably 3.5+ years old and has 40k miles. Has it been sitting for 2 years at the dealership? If so, you can probably drive a pretty hard barging.
You certainly can’t lemon a car for a minor defect that shows up after 18k/18 months in CA. Major issues perhaps. All the more reason to run even further away from this.
In a hot used car market I wouldn’t consider a lemon as the value of all cars good and bad rises. The title brand is forever (except FL-but carfax autocheck will always show it) Many lenders won’t finance a lemon title. If you’re looking to buy and drive it into the ground, maybe, but it had better be cheap.
No I haven’t. I have been involved in many CA lemon law buybacks, but all started before 18k and none involved large, non-standard amounts back.
Saying that it was an issue significant enough to justify lemon action beyond the standard term and paid out way more than the standard amount just says to me that the issue must have been abnormally large, even for a lemon claim. That makes this far less desirable, not more.
Thanks for discussing this guys, Here is the statement from the dealership.
But this might all be a moot point if my credit union won’t finance a buy-back.
“CarFax has Certified a NO ACCIDENTS however the TITLE IS MANUFACTURER BUY BACK due to a repair time that took longer than federal law allows for the CamShaft Position Sensor Repair/Replacement. We have the paperwork from the State of California showing the Buy Back repair was that sensor!!! We also have a receipt showing a full inspection by BMW of Murray has just been performed and there are no outstanding issues the car was given a clean bill of health!!!”
One of the lemon cases I’ve been through was for a buy back due to camshaft position sensor issues on an fca product. I can produce a lot of receipts from dealers showing a full inspection and a clean bill of health. They all are from before the vehicle problems came back over and over.
I wouldn’t touch this with a 10 foot pole unless youre paying cash and are planning to drop a new engine in.
This car sounds like a great opportunity for a high net-worth owner of a German auto repair shop (Fritz’ Bavarian Autowerks).
As you ponder this endless project over tonight’s schnitzel, if what I said above doesn’t describe you perfectly: run far and fast from this $56k unwarrantable
