If you ever wondering what they are supposed to do....this is a tech checklist that should have been included with the car and also there is a copy that is supposed to be attached to the work order that they could make a copy of.
http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Conte...ification.aspx
Go to the pdf and view it. If anything fails in there eg tire tread below 3mm etc they have to correct it IMMEDIATELY before the car can be sold. Its not optional. If not the car CANNOT be CPO'd. However the dealership can correct SOME of these issues and sell the car. Eg: Tires are worn replaced with new units therefore vehicle may be sold.
So you fully understand how this process works, dealership purchases vehicles from auction, other dealers, lease trade ins (refered to as LTI on paperwork) or customer buybacks.
Once Purchased the sales department receives the vehicles from wherever they came from and measures paint to check for repainting to cover body
damage.
From their there is a tech that is paid usually 1.5-3 hours for a CPO inspection. All his responsibilities are for strictly CPO and they are paid to find work so they are usually well paid and extremely observant and report ANYTHING they can find wrong. They will also use paperwork provided from a service advisor including DCS history and a keyread to find any previous work or required maintenance for the vehicle.
If they find work (they always do) they go to the sales dept and sell the work. Sales looks at the cost of the vehicle vs what they can make with repairs and decided whether to continue CPO or repair the items on the list....or at least thats how its supposed to work. Most dealers repair about 3/4 of the work and decline some body stuff like minor scratches on lower portions etc. The other dealers do shady things like instead of replacing messed up rims they refinish them, or instead of replacing tires at 3mm they install tires with 4mm or tell the tech they made a mistake and they are 4mm. The tech then performs work fills out the paperwork, and BOOM the car is CPO'd.
The thing you should know about the sales department is they are about 1 thing. MONEY. Their bosses tell them to sell the car at all costs. Most of the time they are grimy as fuck which is why I buy new and never buy used. The one used 328 I bought (CPO'd) I had my own guys do and I wrote it up myself. They declined alot and wouldn't listen until I threaten to go to my boss which ironically I did anyways because it was horseshit. One of my worst car buying experiences in my life and it was AS AN EMPLOYEE.
They do not give a shit about anything else besides selling cars. I have worked at 4 different dealerships and its mostly been the same. I was lucky that 2 of the dealers I worked at were honest.
Morale of all this is: Be careful who you buy from, and the bigger the dealership the more inclined they will be to CPO the vehicle correctly. They are the ones with the most money to burn on vehicles. They don't make money if they come back and they know it.