Yahoo Autos Toyota CPO program now takes cars up to 10 years or 125,000 miles
How many more exhibits must we admit to the court to prove how good cars have gotten in general, and how unaffordable new cars and newish used cars have gotten? We'd have run through the alphabet at least once, right? Here's another to throw on both piles, which we'll call Exhibit CPO. Before this month, Toyota's Certified Used Vehicles program had Gold Certified as the top tier, covering vehicles no more than six years old with no more than 85,000 miles on the clock. Now there's a new Silver Certified level that includes vehicles up to 10 years old with anywhere from 60,000 miles to 125,000 miles.
We expect that surpassing the six-year age limit automatically kicks a car into the new tier. However, neither Toyota's site nor the TCUV brochure explain the 25,000-overlap between Gold and Silver cars. The result is that cars less than six years old and with less than 85,000 miles can still be pushed into Silver Certification, like a 2020 Sienna XLE with 70,343 miles on sale at a California dealer at the time of writing.
There are five primary differences between Gold and Silver. The former gets a limited comprehensive warranty for a further 12 months or 12,000 miles, the latter gets no comprehensive coverage. The limited powertrain warranty and 24-hour roadside assistance for Gold cover seven years or 100,000 miles, Silver Foxes get another 12 months or 12,000 miles after purchase. The Gold Quality Assurance inspection covers a minimum of 160 points, Silver cars are only checked in a minimum of 136 points. Finally, Gold buyers can get Toyota's new-car financing rates where available; no such luck for Silver buyers.
