Onami

I wondered why dealers are advertising used cars as unfit or certified for a fee. I guess OMVIC changed the rules: ‘Ads for vehicles being sold as unfit (for example, has not passed a safety inspection), will not include the cost for safety certification. However, the ad must clearly state “this vehicle is not driveable and not certified.”

If a dealer intends to offer safety certification, the cost must be disclosed and the ad must state “certification is available for $XXX.” This charge cannot be mandatory. All other fees the dealer intends to charge (for example, admin fee, etc.) must be included.”

rensoyka

any time I bought what amounts to a beater in the past few years has been "certified". what this usually means is the car sitting in the lot can be taken for a quick test drive but doesn't have the papers yet, they won't do that until they get a firm offer and deposit, then the "safety" is already part of the price. that usually means that they already know that the car is in good shape and won't take much to fix.
one time I put down an offer and the dealer found out that when they got the vehicle up on the lift the cost to fix it was so high that they would lose money on the deal (it had been a trade-in). they quickly rescinded the offer and I got my deposit back. that car was back on the lot later as "uncertified". of course they would offer to "certify" the car at a set cost which would include parts, probably at least $5k. I'm thinking that if the price to certify is in the ad then they already know what it will cost in parts and labour but won't do it without a deposit.

Onami

I don’t disagree with you. What appears to have changed is that they must list the cost to certify the vehicle in any advertising now. I don’t believe that was the case in the past. I just started noticing this last Summer, if I recall correctly.