Pre Purchase Inspection, Worth it?

Im a car guy, but I don't know everything. I am also buying a vehicle I have never looked at/under/touched before.

Is a pre purchase inspection worth it or no? Will I find the same issues crawling under it myself? Im on the fence.

I think it depends entirely on how much you yourself know. That's impossible to say without spending a lot of time in your life.

I've never had one done. Even as an ASE Master certified + L1 tech who teaches automotive for a living, im not against paying someone more familiar with a particular model to do one, but the overriding factor is that i'm just reckless with my car money, so i haven't.

I am not certified to trained in any way....

Its a big $$ purchase for me, but I just dont know if they will find anything I cant.

I think it depends on the car and the known problems with that model. If it is a C6 corvette I probably wouldn't bother. If it were a Ferrari 355 I would.

It also comes down to how much research have you done, and how much do you know about the history of the car.

Also...do you feel lucky?

I haven't bought a car that I thought was worth paying someone to take a look at. However, if I was laying out some big money (let's say over $15K for sake of argument; I haven't spent that much on a car since 2000) I would probably do it. But I agree, you're correct to be skeptical.

In reply to Devilsolsi:

Its got a brand new motor (3k miles) with receipts to back it up, dealer installed.

BUT I dont know the car, googleing has told me its main failure points, but I think it may be worthwhile to get it on a lift...

I dont want HAVE to feel lucky with this much $$

I think you've answered your own question then. A few hundred bucks is cheap peace of mind. And if it goes terribly south, like a major missed item, you at least have some recourse and the person that did the inspection should have insurance.

In reply to Jeff:

I think your right. Just scheduled one. A shop I have never used though....

PPIs are worth it when you're purchasing rare or exotic cars so you know what you're getting into - otherwise generally a waste of time.

And only useful if the person performing the PPI is even competent - I have had some done by idiots who didn't catch very simple things.

I work for a guy here in Atl. that does Inspections,Can be very Demanding Proscess,He does all sorts of cars and the main Objective is to keep you from Getting Screwed, On an Inexpensive car, May be useless (never) But Higher end Stuff, Positively. Auto Appraisel Group, call them. in the southEast (Atlanta) call Larry Kizer 770-735 6009,In case you want to ask Questions, not Plugging the Biz.They are NATIONWIDE

Mister Fister wrote: PPIs are worth it when you're purchasing rare or exotic cars so you know what you're getting into - otherwise generally a waste of time. And only useful if the person performing the PPI is even competent - I have had some done by idiots who didn't catch very simple things.

This is my fear, someone who doesn't have a clue or give a damn. I took my last car I bought for a PPI at the dealer, waste of time except I got past service records out of it. Oh well, its a drop in the bucket compared to the price.

How did we make it to 12 posts without saying what the car is yet?

I got one done on a Golf GTI with a DSG (which I wound up not buying, too much service due), and I had one done on the WRX I bought because I wanted a compression test done quickly.

The two of them wound up costing me $350 bucks, total. Worth it, too.

It really shouldn't be more than $200 tops so I think it is worth it.

I've also found that, with the VIN, I can go onto the brand specific owners site and typically pull all the dealer service history (done this for Toyotas/Lexus/Acura).

I got one done on the S2000 I purchased and the Honda dealership noted that it needed ~$600 worth of work, which I then negotiated into the purchase price (so it more than paid for itself).

For a couple hundred bucks, may be good peace of mind for a $15k car. But the kind of car is important too. An inspection is probably less useful if you're talking about a 5 year old Accord. If its a lower priced Porsche or older Benz? Skip it at your peril. Also, will you get to see the car before money changes hands, or are you buying sight unseen? If its a fly and drive kind of thing, consider that some shops will only make good by fixing something they missed, and wont pay another shop for it...Not helpful if you live far away.

In reply to Tyler H:

Trying not to jinx this.... Its a 08 F450....

In reply to CobraSpdRH:

Where did you find the service history? Its a ford. I didnt google anything up.

In reply to ManhattanM (fka NY535iManual):

I will not be buying sight unseen, going to look at it tonight.

It doesn't offer me any peace of mind or confidence, but I really like hiring someone to do it. I like having a 2nd pair of eyes.

If I do it all myself, the problem is that I fall in lust with weird stuff too easily, and try to convince myself that a turd is a diamond. 2nd pair of impartial eyes helps me see the turd sometimes.

SVreX wrote: It doesn't offer me any peace of mind or confidence, but I really like hiring someone to do it. I like having a 2nd pair of eyes. If I do it all myself, the problem is that I fall in lust with weird stuff too easily, and try to convince myself that a turd is a diamond. 2nd pair of impartial eyes helps me see the turd sometimes.

That is so true, and being a unicorn fart of a truck (for me) I am definitely in your shoes.

SVreX wrote: It doesn't offer me any peace of mind or confidence, but I really like hiring someone to do it. I like having a 2nd pair of eyes. If I do it all myself, the problem is that I fall in lust with weird stuff too easily, and try to convince myself that a turd is a diamond. 2nd pair of impartial eyes helps me see the turd sometimes.

That has happened to me. I made excuses for the signs of previous accident damage that weren't on the carfax. Within a week much more evidence arouse of how much damage was repaired. By the time I came to terms with it (within a week), the dealer told me to go pound sand.

SVreX wrote: It doesn't offer me any peace of mind or confidence, but I really like hiring someone to do it. I like having a 2nd pair of eyes. If I do it all myself, the problem is that I fall in lust with weird stuff too easily, and try to convince myself that a turd is a diamond. 2nd pair of impartial eyes helps me see the turd sometimes.

Oh man, THIS. I've definitely even LET myself miss problems, only to drag something home and say "Well, that was dumb." The problem is that any trusted friend/wingman I bring along to check out a car is almost always just an enabler... But I guess if I brought SWMBO along I'd never buy anything.

Depends upon the car and your knowledge of it but I gladly took my 996 to TPC before purchase. Great peace of mind

I will never, ever, buy a car sight unseen again. Got truly screwed on the one I did and that was with a PPI at a Porsche indy shop. They ended up missing everything I told them to check too.

Its gotten to the point that I won't buy a car out of state, period now. Even with PPI's, Carfax etc I've flown in to buy the car, having been assured no paintwork/panel damage only to instantly find paintwork/panel damage.

Not worth my time anymore....

java230 wrote: Is a pre purchase inspection worth it or no?

Depends what they find...

I have a friend who does this professionally. He mostly does collecter stuff, where he's found such interesting things as 1. Your "GTO" is really a Lemans GTO rep, and none of the numbers match and 2. The "non-runner" that you are about to buy from a frustrated owner has a kill switch which he apparently hasn't found yet.

While you may not find anything yuge like that, an inspection may well tell you if major components have been replaced or if there is apparent accident damage. It may also clue you in as to how much maintenance has been differed. I don't normally spend for daily drivers, but most of my daily drivers have "OBO" in the price, and I buy them assuming some needed work will be discovered post purchase. On a "big" purchase, I only skip the PPI if I'm VERY impressed with the owner's service history/records and comfortable with my own "inspection" of the vehicle.

I usually do. There's only so much I can see crawling underneath. Most recent vehicle I bought I did not however because the PO had really good documentation of work so I knew what I was getting myself into.