Benefits Of A Pre-Purchase Auto Inspection

Everyone knows that feeling when you are buying a new or used car – not quite sure you are getting "all" the vehicle they say it is. You might even be wondering why the price is too high or too low compared to the Kelly Blue Book value or the NADA value. Through our business experience, we have seen that the buyer always asks the dealer the same questions. The sales force is trained and prepared for exactly that – all the questions. Your best bet is to do your own research on the vehicle’s history and hire an experienced certified inspector to perform an evaluation of the vehicle.

The dealer might tell you "it was a trade-in” or “we are selective with what we sell”; however, most dealership inventories come from auction. Checking the vehicle history report will reveal, in most cases, when/if the car was taken through auction. Auction cars are not always bad cars, nonetheless. They have that reputation from the early years in the car industry. Pioneer car dealers used to take the "bad cars" to auction to get them off their hands. In modern days, many off-leases, rentals, fleet vehicles, and off-brand (Toyota dealer taking a Ford trade-in) end up at auction across the United States.

When dealers buy cars from auction they intend to sell, they take many things into consideration. Note the last one on our list. It is the one most people are unaware of:

- Title Declaration - Clear, Salvage, or Non-Rebuildable

- Make, Model, and Year

- Mileage

- Trim Level

- Cost to Repair Damages to Vehicle

So, you might wonder what kinds of things they might repair. We can tell you from our years of experience in the car business, the question should be what kind of things they don't repair. We have been amazed at the kind of things we have seen disappear from the surface of many used cars. Most of the time, they are nothing more than a quick temporary fix. Dealerships pride themselves in their high level of customer satisfaction and service, but at the end of a deal, it boils down to money!! A dealership's staff has pay structure set directly behind the amount of profit they turn (the cheaper the fix, the higher the profit margin.) The more they make off the customer, the more the staff will make.

It is in the interest of the salesman to tell you whatever you need to hear to make the car deal come together. This could be the history of the vehicle or the condition of the vehicle. This is where the car salesman excels. The longer the salesman’s experience, the more refined they become in their sales antics. It is amazing the kind of things we find when we inspect a vehicle. Sometimes they check out totally fine, but other times we point out the shortcomings of the vehicle to our customer and let them make the decision. We let the customer make the choice on what they think about the vehicle, all the while presenting the facts. This is the premise in why we started our company – to help consumers all across the nation know exactly what they are investing in. If you are purchasing a vehicle sight unseen, a used car inspection is such a minuscule investment considering all the stories and issues that we have found that were not specified to many of our customers. It happens more than you know, trust us on that!

“The Truth is Our Source; Integrity is What We Stand By.”
-Auto Inspex