A CPO vehicle often serves as an entry-point into a particular brand — for those shoppers looking to secure a particular nameplate, without doling out what it takes to buy new.

And this rings particularly true for luxury automakers. Perhaps this trend, as well as OEM investment, played a role in the results of Autotrader’s recent quest to find the best CPO programs, which revealed luxury brands dominate the top 10 best certified programs out there.

According to Autotrader analysts, Porsche topped the list, when the site’s team analyzed CPO programs across the board to see which offer the best combination of amenities for certified shoppers.

“Porsche's certified pre-owned program is easily the best in the industry,” Autotrader Site Editor Brian Moody said. “Like many luxury-car certified pre-owned programs, it offers six years or 100,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage for any vehicle that's still under factory warranty. But if a used car's factory warranty is expired, Porsche will also offer an additional two years or 50,000 miles of coverage — something no other automaker does. They also offer a long list of perks that make a CPO vehicle very compelling.”

Porsche was followed by Lexus and Volvo, respectively, and the only non-luxury nameplates to make the cut were Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi.

When analyzing the different programs, Autotrader primarily took a look at warranty length, whether warranties were transferrable, and which programs had little or no deductible for covered repairs.

“Many brands offer additional perks, like a free service loan vehicle, trip interruption coverage and special financing – we considered those to be a bonus as opposed to a must-have. But these are things that many of the best-of-the-best programs offer,” Moody says.

In ranked order, Autotrader experts say the best CPO programs are:

1. Porsche
2. Lexus
3. Volvo
4. Hyundai
5. Kia
6. Volkswagen
7. Jaguar
8. Land Rover
9. MINI
10. Mitsubishi

In addition to the top ten CPO programs, Autotrader editors selected another ten “honorable mention” programs. In alphabetical order, they include:

• Acura
• Audi
• BMW
• Honda
• Infiniti
• Mazda
• Mercedes-Benz
• Nissan
• Subaru
• Toyota

“These programs are still above average, but are very similar in what they offer, which is why they’re unranked,” Moody explained. “When shopping for a CPO vehicle, it’s important to understand the details of what the program offers, and make sure the benefits offered fit your lifestyle. That will help make the cross shopping much easier.”