Looking to purchase an XTS. Found this GM Buyback that the GM dealer told me had interior noises. Headliner was loose, and has been reattached. I asked him to email me the history on the car, but he has not. It is a 90 mile round trip visit, and I would rather make a trip like that to purchase, not look at. Is it possible to get any insight on this XTS? 2G61U5S33D9107720.
XTS Buyback
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2001 Seville STS, 1990 Seville (RIP), 1972 Sedan Deville
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Getting a manufacturer to buy back a vehicle is not easy, even when there are major issues. I highly doubt the car was bought back because of a loose headliner.
Its got to be a real lemon to qualify for a buy-back.
Run away quick!
Run away quick!
I agree mostly, and you do need to get that history before you make a decision; depending on what actually was wrong (things can be fixed). You'll still have the warranty (heck, ask for an extended warranty to allay your fears), and a sizable discount (as you're taking the risk).
2020 XT5 Platinum in Red Horizon Tintcoat and Maple Sugar interior
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878 Posts
Here's my take on it - driving 45 miles each way is not that big of a deal to look at and/or purchase a car. If you would be happy with the color (black) and it's a Platinum with the 20" wheels (a negative IMO) then I would hammer them on price as much as possible since it's a buyback and if the price would be something you could live with then why not go for it? You still get the full factory warranty so if anything goes wrong (they are supposed to fix everything before reselling it) then just drop it off at your local dealer and get the loaner until it is fixed to your satisfaction. How bad could it possibly be anyway? As long as you have the full factory warranty to back you I wouldn't worry about it. I would however look closely at it and make sure you take it out for an extended drive or possibly even an overnighter before making any decisions. But again the price would have to be very attractive.
What trim level is it? Also driving 95 miles round trip is worth a look especially for the money we pay for these vehicles. Like others have said take it on a nice long test drive. 50 Miles or so and see whats up. Again GM should have fixed everything prior to any resell of this vehicle. You can car fax this vehicle since you have the vin.
2013 Platinum
Save yourself the gas and ask the Sales Manager (not a floor salesman) to email a pdf of the Service History before you waste another moment of your valuable time with this car. If they ignore you, pass.
With a buy-back you have to remember at one point the original owner loved the car and later the vehicle became such a PITA that he was able to convince GM to take it off his hands. This is more than enough to make you very wary of such a vehicle, no matter the price. As previously mentioned, GM doesn't buy cars back for loose headliners.
As for warranty protection, the original owner had that too, but a buy-back proves how well that worked out. A car that sits in the shop for weeks with gremlin hunters taking it apart isn't going to do you much good. There's more to a car than a great price. Just like a firearm without reliability, it's absolutely useless. At a minimum, I'd require a free extended warranty.
Good luck and caveat emptor,
CC
With a buy-back you have to remember at one point the original owner loved the car and later the vehicle became such a PITA that he was able to convince GM to take it off his hands. This is more than enough to make you very wary of such a vehicle, no matter the price. As previously mentioned, GM doesn't buy cars back for loose headliners.
As for warranty protection, the original owner had that too, but a buy-back proves how well that worked out. A car that sits in the shop for weeks with gremlin hunters taking it apart isn't going to do you much good. There's more to a car than a great price. Just like a firearm without reliability, it's absolutely useless. At a minimum, I'd require a free extended warranty.
Good luck and caveat emptor,
CC
As ccclarke said, you need to see the GM service history report on this car. But don't ask them to email it to you, go see the car in person and ask for it on the spot. Or ask a neutral third party that works at another GM dealer to pull it up. The reason I suggest that is so it can't be edited to omit anything prior to them sending it. I have a friend learn that a carfax report which was emailed to him was edited to remove an accident when he bought a used car, and he discovered frame damage later.
If everything seems legit with the report and nothing alarming pops up on a long test drive, then hammer them on the price hard and have them make it a certified pre owned which will get you a lot more warrantee. If it's a lemon or problem car they won't certify it. Personally if it were me, there's enough used XTS on the market that I wouldn't even bother with this one. Keep looking...
If everything seems legit with the report and nothing alarming pops up on a long test drive, then hammer them on the price hard and have them make it a certified pre owned which will get you a lot more warrantee. If it's a lemon or problem car they won't certify it. Personally if it were me, there's enough used XTS on the market that I wouldn't even bother with this one. Keep looking...
Thank you, I appreciate the advice
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Thank you, I appreciate the advice
I have two friends who were able to have there cars bought back by the cars manufacturers. Both cases were in California which has stronger "Lemon Laws" than many other states. In both cases the problems with the cars were in the electronic systems and had had numerous attempts by the dealerships and GM to correct the problems to no avail.
To be honest, I would never buy a car that had been bought back by the manufacturer no matter how cheap it might be. Chances are that the problems still exist and will plague the car for its' lifetime. Since I don't buy an expensive "luxury" car to have to put up with any problems, or its' unresolved status as a lemon, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole!
To be honest, I would never buy a car that had been bought back by the manufacturer no matter how cheap it might be. Chances are that the problems still exist and will plague the car for its' lifetime. Since I don't buy an expensive "luxury" car to have to put up with any problems, or its' unresolved status as a lemon, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole!
My ATS was bought back for alignment.
you ever google the vin to see where it may be or have been?
Agreed, if it was bought back, I'm betting there was more wrong than a simple alignment.
Please let us know what the VIN tells you. I hope we are wrong, but think you will be surprised.
I didn't want to put them on blast to be honest. The buy back process is a real pain in the @$$. I just got my XTS a month ago, so it might be too soon to do any of that. Lets put it like this, it took from August to the end of January for this process. The car was taken in 5 times for an alignment. The dealership I bought it from kept saying its fine, then said I have to change tires as I no longer had the factory ones on. Then I took it to another dealership, they adjusted teh steering, that seemed to work for 3 days then it went back to normal, they took it again, and it was worse. They didn't tell me but they inflated my car to
35 40
40 35
I can see why. Its suppose to be
35 35
40 40
the car pulled to the right. They didn't tell me thats what they did, as a matter a fact they reprogrammed the tpms sensors so I wouldn't know. How do I know this? A friend of mine runs a tire shop, not a mom and pop one, a corporate one.
After hours of phone calls to their BS 800 number (google GM No lemon first website) which I don't even know why it exists as they didn't do ANYTHING but give me the run around, its when I told the service manager, I want them to buy the car back thats when things got rolling. I got a lawyer who advised me to take it in as many times till they don't know what to do with it. Which I did... CA Lemon law says on the 4th repair they are suppose to change replace the car, its a lemon. It also says that they can charge you use for the car by the milage for the first time it was in for that problem (3k miles). They charged me for 7k miles. Its basically 7k/120000 * paid price of car = use. So they charged me 2700 for use on the car.
I did bring this up to them and the lady who was helping me said I need to talk to the previous department, so I call them back, and they are like, we aren't ruling this as a defect in the vehicle, we are ruling this as a CUSTOMER SATISFACTION trade. Ok so its like 1200 difference. Do I really wanna call the lawyer and step backwards? I did it... I just said screw it.
I will gladly look up the VIN if you guys are curious. To be honest I didn't want to post this, I feel bad about it. I am happy they finally came through, after that, all the figures and ends added up right, they didn't do anything to screw me over. But it was a real pain, I even downloaded an app to record my phone calls to them. When they tell me "This call will be monitored or recorded", I would reply "Ditto" and then there would be this long awkward pause on their end like, is this guy serious? That car was babied and pampered to death, just like my XTS, I feel bad if they don't actually figure out why the car is pulling to the right if they sell it to somebody. This was a 14 ATS Performance V6. I kept all service records, I was ready to take this to no lemon court, my lawyer told me I had a pretty good case.
I was extremely patient, and cordial to them as well, I never once went off or raised my voice, people around me (when I would be on the phone) would be like, dude you're being really cool. Told my mom about it, and she was like, you should let me deal with them, I would go off on them. Believe me she would, she would rip them 3 new @$$ holes before they realized it. But I am too nice of a person.
Either way, yea its a Platinum, thats nice, really is... But do you want the same issues? Unless they can guarantee it was fixed, and offer you some sort of extended coverage or return policy.
If you really want all the details feel free to ask.
You could ask a GM dealer service manager for the information
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