Wondering about level of prep when you guys bought your PI

[Whitese]

I bought mine via CMI in Chicago.

All speakers work
Radio works
Blue tooth works
AC is super cold
Heater is hot
remote starter works
I can remotely unlock the rear gate

So not much to complain!

 

[gapcomputer]

check for recalls Check Any VIN - It's Free | Free Vehicle History and VIN Check

 

[edougawa]

Mine was not that good. The center console is lose, most wires were badly trimmed and live wires hanging everywhere. The spare tire well is dirty as hell and the stickers ain't peeled clean. Only fleet key, no remote lock/unlock. Right turn signal works half of the time. No bluetooth.

But yeah, super cool AC and ok warm heater.

 

[Chickensandwich]

I bought mine via CMI in Chicago.

All speakers work
Radio works
Blue tooth works
AC is super cold
Heater is hot
remote starter works
I can remotely unlock the rear gate

So not much to complain!

I just bought mine from there as well. It had a few codes that I cleared and will check later, but it showed up looking nice (little dusty from delivery) but they were pretty helpful and and expedited the whole process. From purchasing to deleivered to my door, 3 days!

 

[VCFP153]

My 2017 had 300 miles on it, so everything worked.

 

[Whitese]

Mine was not that good. The center console is lose, most wires were badly trimmed and live wires hanging everywhere. The spare tire well is dirty as hell and the stickers ain't peeled clean. Only fleet key, no remote lock/unlock. Right turn signal works half of the time. No bluetooth.

But yeah, super cool AC and ok warm heater.

I replaced my turn signal stalk with a new part. Super easy and was “only” 66 bucks

 

[PepeLePIU]

Regarding my PIU when I bought it: the county left in the dual spotlights, the push bar mounts, the white vinyl roof, the console floor plate, steel driveline tunnel, and a few holes here and there in the interior plastic trim and in the roof. While they cut a lot of the wires and left them, they did manage to tuck them away out of sight. But the interior and exterior were/are in incredible shape.

 

[Eric Z]

Regarding my PIU when I bought it: the county left in the dual spotlights, the push bar mounts, the white vinyl roof, the console floor plate, steel driveline tunnel, and a few holes here and there in the interior plastic trim and in the roof. While they cut a lot of the wires and left them, they did manage to tuck them away out of sight. But the interior and exterior were/are in incredible shape.

On those wires that are out of sight... Maybe check to see that they are properly capped off and no longer hot.

 

[PepeLePIU]

On those wires that are out of sight... Maybe check to see that they are properly capped off and no longer hot.

Good point, Eric! (from another Eric)

Thanks.

 

[Volksjager]

I bought my first one from Asia Motors in Chicago. The most recent one I got, I got from CMI. I’ve had a much better experience with CMI and will likely get another one from them when I give this one to my kid when they’re old enough to drive.

 

[Chickensandwich]

I bought my first one from Asia Motors in Chicago. The most recent one I got, I got from CMI. I’ve had a much better experience with CMI and will likely get another one from them when I give this one to my kid when they’re old enough to drive.

I just got mine from CMI. I’m not sure how to explain my experience with them….

 

[Volksjager]

I just got mine from CMI. I’m not sure how to explain my experience with them….

Well, don’t leave us hanging

 

[Chickensandwich]

Well, don’t leave us hanging

The car had some serious front end and engine issues. It was obviously bought, washed, and put up for sale without any kind of inspection whatsoever. That was bad. They did offer to help with the cost of repairs. They put in about 50%, which was nice, but I would have preferred not going to the dealership every week. They had to actually keep my car for 10 days in order to figure out the engine, and that was a Ford dealership. If I buy from them again, the car will be fully inspected before purchase

 

[Volksjager]

The car had some serious front end and engine issues. It was obviously bought, washed, and put up for sale without any kind of inspection whatsoever. That was bad. They did offer to help with the cost of repairs. They put in about 50%, which was nice, but I would have preferred not going to the dealership every week. They had to actually keep my car for 10 days in order to figure out the engine, and that was a Ford dealership. If I buy from them again, the car will be fully inspected before purchase

That’s good to know they offered to help with repairs.

 

[Chickensandwich]

That’s good to know they offered to help with repairs.

Sure, but they were serious issues that should have been caught. The car never should have been sold like it was

 

[PepeLePIU]

I think that's one of the not-widely-known truths about picking up these fleet vehicles: the local fleet services folks have very different standards, from what I've seen, about how well they decommission the car. Snohomish County (where my car last lived) took out all but the spotlights and white vinyl roof, reinstalled the original vinyl 2nd row seating, and even topped up all the fluid levels before turning it over. My mechanic was gushing about how the car was in great shape. But it sounds like that's pretty unusual, and that most Fleet Services departments just strip out the radios and lightbars, leave live wires hanging, and prisoner partitions and plastic seats installed.

 

[Chickensandwich]

I think that's one of the not-widely-known truths about picking up these fleet vehicles: the local fleet services folks have very different standards, from what I've seen, about how well they decommission the car. Snohomish County (where my car last lived) took out all but the spotlights and white vinyl roof, reinstalled the original vinyl 2nd row seating, and even topped up all the fluid levels before turning it over. My mechanic was gushing about how the car was in great shape. But it sounds like that's pretty unusual, and that most Fleet Services departments just strip out the radios and lightbars, leave live wires hanging, and prisoner partitions and plastic seats installed.

I think this car was sold off because of the engine issues. Being an ecoboost, their local mechanic most likely didn’t have thr knowledge to fix it. I mean, it took the Ford dealership 10 days to track down and fix it. It’s running like a champ now. The car interior was nice, no wires hanging around but there were mounting pieces left in place which kind of blend in with the interior. The only thing I wish they would have done was remove the antenna and antenna mount on the roof. I don’t want to take the headliner down just to remove the antenna mount. Being black, it all blends in so it’s not a horrible thing.

I will admit that if all the ex-police cars I’ve owned, I never thought that I’d buy an explorer, they were just ugly. Having owned one for a few months, it’s now my favorite. That probably has a little to do with the ecoboost engine, but overall, it’s very roomy, very nice storage area, easy to get in and out of…just an awesome truck. I wish I had a civilian model with all the comforts now, but looking at prices, I’m happy with mine.

 

[Volksjager]

I think this car was sold off because of the engine issues. Being an ecoboost, their local mechanic most likely didn’t have thr knowledge to fix it. I mean, it took the Ford dealership 10 days to track down and fix it. It’s running like a champ now. The car interior was nice, no wires hanging around but there were mounting pieces left in place which kind of blend in with the interior. The only thing I wish they would have done was remove the antenna and antenna mount on the roof. I don’t want to take the headliner down just to remove the antenna mount. Being black, it all blends in so it’s not a horrible thing.

I will admit that if all the ex-police cars I’ve owned, I never thought that I’d buy an explorer, they were just ugly. Having owned one for a few months, it’s now my favorite. That probably has a little to do with the ecoboost engine, but overall, it’s very roomy, very nice storage area, easy to get in and out of…just an awesome truck. I wish I had a civilian model with all the comforts now, but looking at prices, I’m happy with mine.

What year is yours and what was wrong with it?

when I picked mine up from CMI it would stutter at WOT and flash the check engine light. After putting in 93 it stopped. In the glove box it had the service records for work done at a Ford dealer. One of the records was for what I was experiencing and it was just done 5k miles before I bought it. It says they had replaced the injectors and fuel pump. Haven’t had an issues since the first few hours but I do have an appointment with the dealer just in case.

 

[Chickensandwich]

What year is yours and what was wrong with it?

when I picked mine up from CMI it would stutter at WOT and flash the check engine light. After putting in 93 it stopped. In the glove box it had the service records for work done at a Ford dealer. One of the records was for what I was experiencing and it was just done 5k miles before I bought it. It says they had replaced the injectors and fuel pump. Haven’t had an issues since the first few hours but I do have an appointment with the dealer just in case.

Bad injector, plugs, a couple of the tubes that led to the turbos were leaking. The engine inside of the engine was caked with carbon so they did some kind of foaming internal engine clean. The front ball joints and control arms are literally crushed. They had to cut them out. Also some rear bushing was bad. I love the car but I think CMI should Hire a real mechanic and/or take these to a Ford dealership to get checked. I’m at roughly $4500 in repairs.

 

[Chickensandwich]

What year is yours and what was wrong with it?

when I picked mine up from CMI it would stutter at WOT and flash the check engine light. After putting in 93 it stopped. In the glove box it had the service records for work done at a Ford dealer. One of the records was for what I was experiencing and it was just done 5k miles before I bought it. It says they had replaced the injectors and fuel pump. Haven’t had an issues since the first few hours but I do have an appointment with the dealer just in case.

Let me put it like this, if I knew all this was wrong, I probably would have still bought, but at a $4500 discount. The hood lip paint was bubbling too. Ford replaced that for free under some kind of manufacture recall deal.