[polar993]

I have been in the market for a pre-owned 720s for a few months. I've been searching Cargurus, Cars.com, Autotrader, McLarenLife, eBay, etc. and I've narrowed my search down to two cars.

My first choice based on price, specs, and color combo is a 2019 720s Performance with less than 4,000 miles. It's a 3 owner car, so I would potentially be the third owner. It is being offered by a McLaren dealer in Texas and their advertisement didn't indicate that it would be a CPO car. They just took the car in on trade and it finally went through the service center. The salesman just informed me that due to some "missed maintenance" McLaren will not CPO this car. It's a McLaren Corporate decision, not the dealer's choice. I told the dealer I'm willing to pay more for the car to get the 1 year CPO warranty, and I would actually extend that to 2 years for more peace of mind.

Unfortunately, McLaren will not CPO this car despite the low mileage and the fact that the original factory warranty is still in effect....due to expire later this month. This means the car can never be covered under a McLaren warranty. I'm not sure if that also means it cannot be covered by a 3rd party warranty provider, but it may seem so.

The car has never been tuned and is a full OEM spec. No aftermarket parts whatsoever. I have requested the service records, as this decision by McLaren to blacklist this car is very strange.

This is an obvious red flag....I assume, or have any of you seen McLaren take this position before on other cars that may have simply missed a scheduled oil change, etc.?

Should I absolutely pass on this car? It has a clean Carfax, low mileage, and a great spec. Price isn't too low....at least not yet. The dealership may reprice it now knowing it cannot be covered under any McLaren warranty.

Appreciate your thoughts.

 

[restosud]

Fishy….. if inspected and brought up to Mac standards, no reason to not cpo. Unless , crashed, tuned,modded,etc…..

 

[invisiblewave]

I have been in the market for a pre-owned 720s for a few months. I've been searching Cargurus, Cars.com, Autotrader, McLarenLife, eBay, etc. and I've narrowed my search down to two cars.

My first choice based on price, specs, and color combo is a 2019 720s Performance with less than 4,000 miles. It's a 3 owner car, so I would potentially be the third owner. It is being offered by a McLaren dealer in Texas and their advertisement didn't indicate that it would be a CPO car. They just took the car in on trade and it finally went through the service center. The salesman just informed me that due to some "missed maintenance" McLaren will not CPO this car. It's a McLaren Corporate decision, not the dealer's choice. I told the dealer I'm willing to pay more for the car to get the 1 year CPO warranty, and I would actually extend that to 2 years for more peace of mind.

Unfortunately, McLaren will not CPO this car despite the low mileage and the fact that the original factory warranty is still in effect....due to expire later this month. This means the car can never be covered under a McLaren warranty. I'm not sure if that also means it cannot be covered by a 3rd party warranty provider, but it may seem so.

The car has never been tuned and is a full OEM spec. No aftermarket parts whatsoever. I have requested the service records, as this decision by McLaren to blacklist this car is very strange.

This is an obvious red flag....I assume, or have any of you seen McLaren take this position before on other cars that may have simply missed a scheduled oil change, etc.?

Should I absolutely pass on this car? It has a clean Carfax, low mileage, and a great spec. Price isn't too low....at least not yet. The dealership may reprice it now knowing it cannot be covered under any McLaren warranty.

Appreciate your thoughts.

Mine fell into this category, despite the dealer selling it as a CPO car. There was an issue with the dealer that carried out the second service, they failed to upload the service record when they did it, then the dealership changed hands and the records were lost, so even though the service had been done (and was actually on the Car Fax!), McLaren were telling me that the warranty was invalid. Their corporate customer service department then spent some considerable time trying to track down any records, and eventually located some sort of workshop record that they were willing to accept as proof of the service being completed, and they sent me a hardcopy, signed letter to the effect that this was acceptable and the warranty was valid. I've had warranty work approved since then too.

 

[invisiblewave]

Fishy….. if inspected and brought up to Mac standards, no reason to not cpo. Unless , crashed, tuned,modded,etc…..

Doesn't matter. If there's no record of the oil change for one of the years when it was due, they won't warranty the car.

 

[swift93]

There are plenty of low mileage cars around the country that qualify for CPO and extended warranty. If there is a problem with the records it will follow the car forever. These are expensive cars and it should meet all your requirements...especially the ability to have a warranty.

 

[sblvro]

Fishy….. if inspected and brought up to Mac standards, no reason to not cpo. Unless , crashed, tuned,modded,etc…..

this

 

[invisiblewave]

There are plenty of low mileage cars around the country that qualify for CPO and extended warranty. If there is a problem with the records it will follow the car forever. These are expensive cars and it should meet all your requirements...especially the ability to have a warranty.

I agree. This is something you're going to have to explain whenever you sell it, so either buy it with the commensurate discount for it being a car with incomplete service records, or buy another car.

 

[worldattorney]

There are plenty of low mileage cars around the country that qualify for CPO and extended warranty. If there is a problem with the records it will follow the car forever. These are expensive cars and it should meet all your requirements...especially the ability to have a warranty.

If you're planning on modding it at all it becomes a non-issue....also if you don't mind your resale value taking a 5-15% hit then no issue, but given the inventory now is everywhere, you can find what you want and a decent deal so why stress?

 

[polar993]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. It does seem a bit fishy, but then again it could be as simple as a missed annual service and McLaren doesn't seem to want to accept the "risk".

At this point, unless the dealer is willing to offer the car at a substantially discounted price, I'm going to pass. I'm not planning on tuning the car or doing any mods that would void a warranty, so I think for my peace of mind I should find a car with a CPO or valid extended warranty.

If any of you know or come across a 2019 or 2020 720s Performance in either Black or Grey with an all black alcantara/leather interior (no orange, yellow or red accent trim....contrast stitching okay), with under 10k miles, please shoot me a message. First choice is a Coupe but would definitely consider a Spider as well. Believe it or not there aren't a lot of cars out there that fall into this search category.

There was a great low mileage Storm Grey Spider being offered by Ogara in San Diego that I unfortunately missed out on. The search continues.

 

[carlolsen]

If you are looking for a deal, I would go for something with a few more miles on it but well documented history. At about 5000 miles most of the silly little issues should have been worked out by the previous owner, and by 10K you are in the golden zone. Or at least that's my experience on my 2019 720s.

 

[Gary Samad]

If you plan to really drive it, don't worry about low mileage. My 570s has over 20k miles now and is out of warranty, and I didn't even bother buying the extended warranty because I feel like all the niggling problems were already taken care of.

So if you plan to put some miles on it, I think the "can't be CPO'd" problem becomes meaningless eventually. And if you do pay for the extended warranty and don't drive the car, what's the point of the expensive extended warranty anyway?

 

[Detroit Bill]

I have a 2019 720s performance and I ponied up for a 2-year extended warranty through the dealer. At this moment in time, I think I want to keep the car for a while. I am not worried about a small issue I am worried about an engine or transmission. Paying $50k+ for a repair would ruin my day. Either way it's a gamble.

Finding the exact spec you want in an acceptable car may be a challenge, good luck.

Bill

 

[Gqa]

Get the extended warranty unless you have a good Indy shop. Mclaren charges a lot for repairs. The cracked exhaust manifold on one side would've cost me over $10k!

 

[Gary Samad]

Get the extended warranty unless you have a good Indy shop. Mclaren charges a lot for repairs. The cracked exhaust manifold on one side would've cost me over $10k!

I agree. Part of my willingness to forgo the warranty is we have a quality independent Mac mechanic here in San Diego to complement the dealer. Join the San Diego McLaren Club and you even get a discount at both the indy and the dealer!

 

[polar993]

I ended up passing on the 2019 that couldn’t be CPO’d. Too much risk for me.

I ended up buying a 2020 720s Coupe that only has 1,100 miles. It has a clean service history and Carfax. The original warranty is good until June of 2024, so I’ll be covered for a while.

The car is super clean and has almost all the options I wanted. I would have liked more exterior carbon and heated seats, but otherwise it’s well optioned.

I will be getting the car transported out to me in a few weeks. I’m very excited to own my first McLaren! Now time to think about a few mods….lowering springs and exhaust to start.

 

[restosud]

I ended up passing on the 2019 that couldn’t be CPO’d. Too much risk for me.

I ended up buying a 2020 720s Coupe that only has 1,100 miles. It has a clean service history and Carfax. The original warranty is good until June of 2024, so I’ll be covered for a while.

The car is super clean and has almost all the options I wanted. I would have liked more exterior carbon and heated seats, but otherwise it’s well optioned.

I will be getting the car transported out to me in a few weeks. I’m very excited to own my first McLaren! Now time to think about a few mods….lowering springs and exhaust to start.

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Don’t mod it all if you like the warranty!!!

 

[polar993]

Don’t mod it all if you like the warranty!!!

A cat back exhaust will void the warranty? Never heard of that.

Lowering springs may void some components of the suspension warranty, but shouldn’t void the entire suspension.

If any of you have experience contrary to what I just stated, please LMK.

 

[mkraft3003]

A cat back exhaust will void the warranty? Never heard of that.

Lowering springs may void some components of the suspension warranty, but shouldn’t void the entire suspension.

If any of you have experience contrary to what I just stated, please LMK.

Just do a quick search as there are a ton of threads discussing this. maybe search for “PSA” as that was a heavily discussed thread.

 

[restosud]

A cat back exhaust will void the warranty? Never heard of that.

Lowering springs may void some components of the suspension warranty, but shouldn’t void the entire suspension.

If any of you have experience contrary to what I just stated, please LMK.

mac is poor and will find any excuse to weasel their way out of a warranty claim. sure, hire an attorney to discuss magnuson and spend 10k arguing a 10k repair? makes sense....
but do what you will but do let us know if and when you have a claim!

 

[b2finity]

Definitely don’t touch the car with mods if you care about warranty.