Dealer charging for PCM/TCM updates?

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2019 CX-5 Touring FWD
Hopefully a quick question - in order to buy out my 2019 CX-5 lease, Mazda is having me do a CPO inspection. And in order to get it Mazda CPO certified officially ($95, which comes with an additional year of the manufacturer warranty), the dealer is saying that my TCM & PCM need to be updated to the current versions. They’re trying to charge me $189 per update ($378 + tax). Is that right? I thought software updates were covered under warranty. At the very least, I could do the PCM update myself & save $189. Just wanted to check with the forum before paying. Thank you…
 
first - cpo is optional. Nobody is forcing you to do it. Its your choice.
second- yes, dealer can ask for payment but they ask in a weird way.

The right way is - CPO-ing costs X amount $ and thats it. You pay and you get it. They do whatever they need to do or check in a day.

about ppwertrain software updates- they are only covered aka "free" if you have the specific issue that a specific update fixes.

by the way 95$ for cpo is a bargain. When I checked local dealers at lease end time
they were asking in the 600-900$ range for making it CPO on the car. :)
 
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Appreciate the response. Well, it’s $189 to get the car inspected, $95 for the CPO certification, and $378 (TCM + PCM updates @ $189/ea), so I’m in that $600-$900 range, unfortunately. And that’s to make it CPO for one extra year of factory warranty. And their 160-point inspection was basically what was done on my 10K-mile service last week. Dealerships really know how to get ya.

Now, if I want to go years 5-7 or 100K miles, they want an extra $2995 for their extended warranty program. That, I think I’ll be passing on. Simply waiting on a new car to become available (hybrid) in about a year, so I’ll hopefully flip my 2019 CX-5 for something else within that time.

Thanks again the feedback….
 
Has your CX-5 been so bad that you need an extended warranty? Mine hasn't. It did need a blower fan under warranty.

Check car values closely. It is rare that a leased car is worth what is owed on it. You might well be able to turn it in and buy new cheaper. I got in that shape on a Tundra and won't lease again. The current high demand market skew the calcs.

Can you extend the lease?

Also, I'd check with another dealer and search online for a better deal on a Mazda extended warranty. $3k is crazy. But I never buy one, I buy a car that doesn't need it.
 
What’s new about the TCM & PCM updates? Are they recommending it or requiring it?

I have a 2019 and haven’t had either of them updated. Can’t imagine I’m missing something.
 
Appreciate the response. Well, it’s $189 to get the car inspected, $95 for the CPO certification, and $378 (TCM + PCM updates @ $189/ea), so I’m in that $600-$900 range, unfortunately. And that’s to make it CPO for one extra year of factory warranty. And their 160-point inspection was basically what was done on my 10K-mile service last week. Dealerships really know how to get ya.

Now, if I want to go years 5-7 or 100K miles, they want an extra $2995 for their extended warranty program. That, I think I’ll be passing on. Simply waiting on a new car to become available (hybrid) in about a year, so I’ll hopefully flip my 2019 CX-5 for something else within that time.

Thanks again the feedback….
makes sense. Check the other dealers in the area may be somebody would offer it cheaper.
I am speculating they charge $189 per hour?

The time to update the Pcm is more or less 15 mins with starting the laptop and the TCM takes a bit longer with the tranny calibration
say 25-30 minutes with coffee breaks.
But all in all in 1 hour time they can be done with
both. Add 1 more hour for inspection.
It is actually good to update the powertrain with the latest.
Although if you are changing the car in 1 year, honestly I dont think you even need the Cpo.
 
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Skip it all. Buy out lease. Sell car. Profit$$ Buy/lease new.

Oh and the dealer is trying to scam you on the software updates. That is not your problem AND they are covered under factory warranty and updated FREE if there is a TSB. If there is an update available that solves issues, they are obligated to do so for free. Sleazy stealership
 
One of our daughters just went through something like this. Her dealer was insisting that she buy it out from them. I looked into it and saw that she could just pay the leasing company in cash, or get a third party loan for the buyout price. The dealer wanted to CPO it and increase the price by $2k. She listened to me and got a loan from her CU and never involved the dealer.
 
^^ exactly. You don't need to go to that dealer or any dealer at all if not turning it in. The market though right now is such that you have about a 35% + gain in value over your residual if you buy it and sell it. Pocket the equity and lease new or buy new. you CAN get a decent deal now on a new vehicle purchase. Quality late model used cars that are a couple years old are actually commanding near original MSRP prices when they were new and dealers will beg, and steal to get their hands on them.
 
Yeah, all good points - which is why it would have been a good idea for me to come to this site before going to the dealer (that’s one me, for sure). And the reason for the CPO/extended warranty consideration is that we almost got burned on my wife’s two-year-old/used Volvo S60 when we bought it a while back. Dealer offered a 8-yr/100K extended warranty on the vehicle (which only had 20K miles on it) for $2,000 - and due to the various issues with the car, that extended warranty more than covered us within the first year alone.

Then again, our 2019 CX-5 is no 2015 Volvo. We’ve had a few issues with the CX-5 (battery died within first year, some electrical quirks, etc.), but not worth spending another $3,000 to worry about. At this point, we’ll take the $600 CPO, which gives us at least another year of extended factory warranty, and then hopefully sell the car in a year or so once our 2022 Lexus NX 350h is ready (we’re currently wait-listed a year out at the moment - hence why we’re buying the CX-5 for a year of vehicle coverage).

I probably would have kept the CX-5 longer, but I just never could get comfortable with the seats (like I could in my wife’s S60). Otherwise, I liked the vehicle. But my wife wants something fancier anyway, and we’re looking to sell both the CX-5 & her S60 within the next year while the used car prices are so high, and then go down to one, nice, new car. We’ve toyed with the idea of getting an electric SUV, but will probably wait a few more years until the technology & battery range improve a bit (my wife has family that live a long drive away.

So, lesson learned with the lease buyout experience. My wife, again after our Volvo experience, wanted the security of an extended warranty. The $600 CPO option is a suitable enough compromise (happy wife = happy life). At least witnessing the dealer markups with the CPO convinced my wife to pass on the $3,000 extended warranty package.

And lastly, while expensive, I would have been fine enough if the dealer had charged us $189 for the inspection, $189 for both software updates (the transmission one is worth it), and then $70 for the CPO certificate/paperwork. That’s reasonable. It’s the additional $189 for the PCM update that really bugged me - and then wouldn’t even let me update it myself like I’ve done before. Then again, if they hadn’t gone the markup route, we might have dropped $3,000 on the extended warranty, so really they were penny wise/pound foolish.

Oh, and the sales rep told me that by getting the $3,000 extended warranty package, it would basically pay for itself by helping us get a lower interest rate on our used car loan. Yet, none of the banks that I vetted even considered that factor. So, no real “savings” there, either. Again, lesson learned: dealership = stealership in many cases.
 
"Oh, and the sales rep told me that by getting the $3,000 extended warranty package, it would basically pay for itself by helping us get a lower interest rate on our used car loan. Yet, none of the banks that I vetted even considered that factor. So, no real “savings” there, either. Again, lesson learned: dealership = stealership in many cases"

That is illegal and a MAJOR flag to RUN away from that dealership. Banks DONT give a lower rate based on what products you buy. That's a classic and pure garbage lies salespitch. I hate to say it but you have sucker written on your face to them. Classic scum tactics to uneducated(vehicle wise), unsuspecting people. It seems you are not interested in listening to the suggestions here. Your wife wants something fancier? Omg
 
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Sorry, took me a minute for everything to sink in with the numbers. I realized this morning that the $600 that I paid yesterday was for the “right” to purchase then the additional $995 one-year extra factory warranty. I mistakenly thought the $600 covered the CPO…not so much.

So, yes, cutting my losses at this point and simply going through the bank to buy out the lease, as suggested here. Won’t be going back to the dealer at all anymore. Thanks again to everyone for helping us save some money….
 
^^ exactly. You don't need to go to that dealer or any dealer at all if not turning it in. The market though right now is such that you have about a 35% + gain in value over your residual if you buy it and sell it. Pocket the equity and lease new or buy new. you CAN get a decent deal now on a new vehicle purchase. Quality late model used cars that are a couple years old are actually commanding near original MSRP prices when they were new and dealers will beg, and steal to get their hands on them.
Well on Honda/Acura vehicles you have few choices if you have a leased vehicle:
buy it at the buyout price, probably for a lot less than it’s value if you have had the vehicle a couple of years
sell it back to Honda/acura pocket the profit to do with what you wish
keep paying lease payments
i believe a few other manufacturers have the same requirements.
 
Well on Honda/Acura vehicles you have few choices if you have a leased vehicle:
buy it at the buyout price, probably for a lot less than it’s value if you have had the vehicle a couple of years
sell it back to Honda/acura pocket the profit to do with what you wish
keep paying lease payments
i believe a few other manufacturers have the same requirements.
No manufacture lease that I know of, offers you a path to "sell" it back. The price (residual) is set at the beginning of the term.
 
Wow, there was so much wrong with what went down at that dealer that it hurts my head.
Btw, probably the worst thing to do in this overheated car market is to buy out a 3 year old lease. Every one of my customers with a 2019 lease has had about $6-$8k of equity when trading it in. Yes, equity in a lease....that's not supposed to happen. Even accounting for the lack of dealer discounts, you can get a 2022 CX5 Preferred for about $26k (pre-TTL) if you trade in a 3 year old leased CX5 that's not over on miles. Now, the market has started to soften a little so trade #'s might not be that strong currently and in every market
 
Hopefully a quick question - in order to buy out my 2019 CX-5 lease, Mazda is having me do a CPO inspection. And in order to get it Mazda CPO certified officially ($95, which comes with an additional year of the manufacturer warranty), the dealer is saying that my TCM & PCM need to be updated to the current versions. They’re trying to charge me $189 per update ($378 + tax). Is that right? I thought software updates were covered under warranty. At the very least, I could do the PCM update myself & save $189. Just wanted to check with the forum before paying. Thank you…
Nowhere have I ever seen that a software update is mandatory. It's the owners choice and decision. Many of us are still running on the version that came with the car when it was new, regardless of year of manufacture. Personally, I upgraded mine in year two (2019) due to the backup camera not always working. I haven't touched it since, and have no intention of upgrading it any time soon. It works fine. Your dealer is looking for every opportunity for profit from you. Man I hate that. No wonder dealers get such a bad reputation.
 
No manufacture lease that I know of, offers you a path to "sell" it back. The price (residual) is set at the beginning of the term.
Not sell back to to the manufacturer, rather to the dealer. At the end of a lease you can go to the dealer, buy the vehicle out at the price stated in the lease contract, and trade it right back to the dealer on a new car if one so chooses in one fell swoop. There have been instances of such reported in the "What did you pay for your CX-5" thread.

The vehicle in question is a 2019, with the lease written before used car prices went through the roof, while the buyout price was set under the old normal calculations of depreciation and residual value.

Buying out a 2019 at the end of 3 year lease (I'm tempted to say regardless of make or model if the mileage is decent) is a rare case of free money to the tune of several thousand dollars if you trade it or pay for it and then sell it.
 
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Buying out a 2019 at the end of 3 year lease (I'm tempted to say regardless of make or model if the mileage is decent) is a rare case of free money to the tune of several thousand dollars if you trade it or pay for it and then sell it.
Oh, yes. I told our daughter to buy her Hyundai at the end of the lease, because it was worth $5k more than the residual. I'll bet dealers are making a killing off the unknowing.
 
Wow, there was so much wrong with what went down at that dealer that it hurts my head.
Btw, probably the worst thing to do in this overheated car market is to buy out a 3 year old lease. Every one of my customers with a 2019 lease has had about $6-$8k of equity when trading it in. Yes, equity in a lease....that's not supposed to happen. Even accounting for the lack of dealer discounts, you can get a 2022 CX5 Preferred for about $26k (pre-TTL) if you trade in a 3 year old leased CX5 that's not over on miles. Now, the market has started to soften a little so trade #'s might not be that strong currently and in every market

Wouldn't that be a reason to buy out the lease?
Buy it out, trade it in, profit on the $6-8k equity.
 
Sorry you got burned. I would have just bought it out with no extra fees. I wish I had waited on my '19 as I think I could have done better this year than I did last May.
 
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