2.7: Pre-Purchase Inspections

As I’ve alluded to several times, if you are planning on adding a used car to your collection, you seriously need to consider a pre-purchase inspection (PPI). You’ll want to arrange one with a shop that specializes in the type of car you’re buying and make sure in advance they have a specific PPI for your make and model. The cost will be yours to bear, and the amount you’ll pay will depend on the type of car you’re looking at, where you are geographically, and the shop’s general rate. Unfortunately a pre-purchase inspection can mean different things to different shops — some will consider it just a visual inspection of the car and confirmation that safety devices work properly, others will consider it detailed look at the mechanical shape of the car, looking for rust, leaks, and other potential areas of failure that will need to be addressed.

It’s nice to get a good look under any care you’re thinking about buying.

The general things that you’ll want inspected during a PPI include:

• General functioning of the car’s systems. Do the windows go up and down smoothly? Does the air conditioning work and blow cold? What about the heaters? Do all of the electric components turn on and off as expected? Do all lights and blinkers light and blink? Do the speakers sound right? Do all the doors, trunk, and hood close and latch properly?
• How is the wear level of consumables? How much tire do you have left and are all four worn evenly or is there evidence of alignment issues? What about brake pads? Have air and oil filters been replaced recently? Does the oil look like it’s in good shape on visual inspection? What about the windshield wipers? Are the wheels straight and the rims in good shape or is there evidence of damage or cracking?
• What about the car’s body and frame? One thing you really want to avoid if you can is a car that has been in an accident, especially if that accident has not been disclosed. A good inspection can uncover evidence of unexpected paint or frame damage, improper gaps between body panels, or otherwise sloppy repair work. A good inspection will also likely find evidence of flood or fire damage that should, but is not always, reported on the car’s title;
• Does the engine run as expected? This is the biggie with used cars since an engine rebuild can be expensive and time consuming. There is a lot that goes into a good engine inspection — too much to list really — but the general idea is to have your mechanic look for evidence that the engine has been well maintained by the current and previous owners. Oil has been changed, gaskets and seals are in good shape, as are belts and hoses, the engine starts and idles as expected, and that the system isn’t leaking fluids any more than expected;
• Does the car drive and handle as expected? You’d likely notice yourself during a test drive if there was something dramatically wrong with a car you were looking at, but an experienced mechanic should be able to add value here as well. Some cars handle oddly, but that’s just how they are, and a mechanic who has worked on those cars will know that. It’s worth taking the car for a drive both at speed and on more winding roads to make sure there aren’t unexpected noises or issues with the car’s suspension and handling;
• For older engines, does the engine make and hold enough pressure? This really depends on the type of car you’re looking at, but older cars often need compression and leakdown tests to make sure their engines are still operating efficiently. If the engine can’t make enough pressure or contain the pressure it creates, something is wrong. This is where finding an experienced mechanic will help tremendously since if cars can fail compression and leakdown tests for a variety of reasons, some of which can be very expensive to fix, others less so;
• For more modern cars, what codes are stored that could be indicative of problems? Most modern cars have incredibly complex computers that keep track of, well, more or less everything. Often this information can be accessed via a code reader, and in skilled hands, the resulting codes can tell you a lot about the car. One red-flag during inspections is recently cleared codes, an indication that the seller knows there are issues with the car and is attempting to hide them;
• Is there any evidence of outright fraud? Unfortunately this happens, and a good mechanic can help you determine if there evidence of vehicle identification number (VIN) tampering, odometer fraud, salvage title, or a lapse in registration and use that the seller either didn’t disclose or is attempting to hide. This should be rare but if you miss evidence of fraud and complete the transaction, the fraud becomes your problem.

The fundamental questions you’re trying to answer with a pre-purchase inspection are “what will I have to deal with if I buy this car” and “how good a job have previous owners done taking care of this car?” The former is obvious — every potential issue your mechanic uncovers during the inspection is either an opportunity to negotiate on price or a something you’ll have to deal with if you buy the car. It’s not to say that an inspection that finds issues is definitely a problem; rather if the issues are minor then you have a nice punch-list to start working on to bring the car up to proper collectable condition. The latter question is somewhat less obvious, how well cared for has a car been prior to being offered for sale. Especially in situations where you’re looking at a car at a live auction or at a dealership, sometimes a hard life has been disguised under a good detail job and some wax. In these cases it’s tough since while buying a car that “cleans up nicely” is a good thing, you don’t want to end up all cleaned up with nowhere to go … because the engine won’t run.

When I get my inspection back the first question I always ask the mechanic is “would you buy this car with your own money?” Mechanics are always car people, and most mechanics are pretty pragmatic about cars since they know what it takes to repair and maintain them. Assuming you trust your mechanic to be honest with you, their willingness to buy the car can be telling, knowing if they’d assume the risk based on what they saw is helpful. If the answer is “no”, or even if they hesitate and qualify their answers, ask them why, broadly speaking, and be sure to listen to their answer. This can be difficult, I will warn you, because sometimes you can really want a car and not want to hear reasons to not buy it. This is the exact situation that a pre-purchase inspection is most valuable for, to be the voice of reason and prevent you from making what will ultimately be a bad purchase decision.

Beyond this anecdote your mechanic should provide you with a fairly detailed report about each of the systems they checked and what they found, often times indicating a “passed”, “concern”, or “fail” grade for each area inspected. There isn’t a specific number or combination of “concern” or “fail” grades that means you should be walking away from a car, per se, but the more you end up with the more likely the car will spend less time with you on the road and more time in your mechanic’s garage, costing you money.

Assuming you have paid for the PPI yourself you may or may not want to share these results with the seller, it’s sort of up to you. Assuming you really want the car but are looking at costly repairs or maintenance issues, sometimes sharing the results with the seller will motivate them to work with you on price. A savvy seller will realize that the same issues will come up with future prospective buyers and that it’s easier to work with you, a motivated buyer who has already indicated sincere interest by paying for the inspection. They may not agree with your mechanic’s assessment of repair costs and want to provide their own estimates for basis of price negotiation, or they may not want to budge on price at all, but by sharing a PPI from a reputable shop you will be at least demonstrating that you are interested in the car as long as it makes financial sense. I personally have always shared the PPI results with sellers in an effort to be transparent about what I would be signing up for if I were to complete the transaction, usually with good results.

If you’re going to simply walk away from the car based on what the inspection found it’s really up to you whether you share the results. Some see doing so as a courtesy — maybe the seller doesn’t realize the car has issues that need to be addressed — but I have talked to enough car collectors who feel like a failed PPI means the car was misrepresented and thusly don’t feel the need to do the seller any favors. My recommendation is to do what you think is best considering the seller, their connection to your personal car community, and the likelihood that you might run into them again down the road.

Cars at Dealerships

I’ll be honest when it comes to inspections, I don’t always get one when I am buying a car from a dealership. Broadly speaking, the more reputable the dealership, the more likely I am to pass on the inspection and accept their representations about the quality and condition of the car, especially when the car is being sold certified pre-owned (CPO) or is still under a factory warranty. You may be thinking I’m crazy for contradicting most of what I have said regarding buying a used car already, but for me it goes back to this: Most dealerships really do care about their reputations. Especially brand dealerships that know they are far more to lose by misrepresenting a car’s condition than they are just shuffling it off to auction. Also, in my experience, larger dealerships will have far better access to warranties and are far more likely to be able to sell cars as “certified” which can mitigate an awful lot of the problems you’re looking for when you’re getting a PPI.

Smaller dealerships … are a mixed bag. While I would never buy a car from a smaller dealership without going through the “eyes on” process I described earlier, whether I require a pre-purchase inspection sort of depends on the dealer. Most of the time I am going to ask for a PPI unless they are able to offer a warranty provided by a reputable company that my local dealership for the make has worked with and recommends. I will also ask for a PPI if they don’t have a pretty solid history for the car or if the car’s CARFAX report looks unusual in any way. And sometimes it just comes down to the conversation with the dealer.

Case in point, while I was writing The Car Collector’s Handbook I had been looking for that 1973 Porsche 2.7 RS replica I mentioned earlier. I found what looked like a good example in Atlanta, Georgia with a smaller dealership called Merit Partners who were selling a 1972 Porsche 911T that had been “forward dated” to the exact spec of the 1973 RS. I put an inquiry in via their web site and was called fairly quickly by one of their salesmen. He represented that the car was in amazing shape and that they had tons of records about the car’s rebuild in the UK a few years earlier. He also represented, and this was important, that the car had recently been serviced for an oil leak which was repaired, but during the repair process it was found that something was wrong with the car’s nose bearing and that, as a result, the entire engine would need to be rebuilt.

Initially, despite the car being very nicely assembled using difficult to find original parts, I thanked the salesman for his candor and decided to walk away from the car. But, upon thinking about it for just a bit, I decided to call a local mechanic who had a great reputation for working on old Porsche and explained the situation. He gave me a “worst case” estimate for the cost of an engine rebuild — basically what I would be looking at if the engine block had was cracked — which was a lot but not an unimaginably high amount. I took that back to Merit and basically said I was willing to pay asking price for the car less the worst case cost for a rebuild provided it passed a visual inspection. I didn’t require a PPI in this case because, honestly, the car would fail and I already knew I was signing up for an engine rebuild. The car passed the visual inspection and was shipped to my mechanic who found that the car had been fairly accurately represented so at some point I’ll be driving a very accurately assembled replica of the iconic 1973 Porsche Carrera RS around the streets of Portland.

Finding an Inspector

One challenge that comes up when you’re looking to get a PPI done is finding a shop willing and able to do the work on your timeline. This is less of a problem if you’re an experienced collector and the car you’re looking at is local since you’ll likely be able to leverage existing relationships or get introductions as needed but it can be a real challenge when you’re buying remotely. The key challenge for a remote transaction and pre-purchase inspection is that the seller will likely want to steer you to a particular shop. While not necessarily a bad thing — a shop that has been working on the car for years they will be familiar with the car — you always have to wonder whether the shop is going to be 100% honest with you. They certainly should be since you’re the one paying for the inspection, but I’ll be honest, I have definitely been in situations where it was clear the “recommended” shop was doing the seller as much or more of a favor as they were me. Here is my best advice for finding a shop to do a pre-purchase inspection:

1. If you’re looking locally, ask a mechanic you know and trust. Unless you are brand new to car collecting or have only ever bought brand new cars you likely already have a mechanic that you’ve worked with. Even if you haven’t, you probably have had to have some work done on your daily driver, and so your best bet is to ask them who they would trust and recommend looking at the make and model you’re thinking about buying. Now, if your Volvo shop says “oh, hey, car’s a car I can look at the 1965 Ford Mustang for you” … that’s probably not the answer you’re looking for, so press them to see if they know anyone locally who would have a reasonable amount of detailed knowledge about the car in question;
2. If your local mechanic can’t help, start asking your friends. Again, if you’re like me, you probably know as many “car people” as you do “regular people” and so that first group might have the information you need. Ideally someone you know personally will recommend a shop they have worked with in the past and had a good experience with, but even if you get the information second hand it won’t hurt. If they’re local you’ll have a chance to talk with them before you commit to the inspection or possibly even swing by their shop to see for yourself if they are familiar with your target acquisition — usually they will either have a garage full of them, or they won’t;
3. If you’re not looking locally, start by searching on the Internet for a mechanic that specializes in the make of car you’re looking at. This probably seems obvious but when you start to Google you’ll find lots of mechanics who will do pre-purchase inspections but that may not have the experience with the car you’re looking at … but the experience is what you need. Your ideal mechanic will have worked on the car you’re looking at a lot and so will know the odd little things that fail on that specific model. You can always start at a dealership but don’t be super surprised if they won’t do the inspection due to either liability reasons or because their mechanics are too busy. That said, if the dealership can’t or won’t help, ask them who they recommend since they will know the local landscape;
4. Look for a regional online group for your make and model and ask there. In this age of social media it’s actually really unlikely that there wouldn’t be a regional group that has a shared passion for the car you’re looking at, either on Facebook or some other platform. If you can find one, join that group and ask in all transparency for help finding a shop that can do a PPI on the make and model. You may want stay somewhat vague about the exact car so that other group members don’t swoop in and buy the car from under you, but that’s sort of up to you;
5. If there isn’t a regional group for your car, look for a national group. Some cars are rare or strange enough that you won’t find a regional group but there will be a national chapter and it can’t hurt to ask there. You may get crickets back, but you may get lucky and find someone who lives near the car you’re looking at and is happy to make a recommendation;
6. If all else fails, look at national inspection services. As you’d imagine there are national companies who arrange pre-purchase inspections, much like transport brokers. Alliance Inspection Management and Automobile Inspections are two examples but Google will find you more no doubt. I personally have never used these services, and I would worry a little bit about using them because of the caveats they offer in their frequently asked questions document — we don’t put cars on a lift, we don’t connect the car to a computer, we cannot check cylinder compression, etc. — but don’t get me wrong, even a cursory inspection is better than no inspection at all.

The biggest thing you’re looking for is a mechanic who knows the make and model and who can represent your interests in buying the car. While you don’t have to assume that the seller is lying to you or actively misrepresenting the car, at least with older collectable cars, it’s far safer to assume that there is something wrong than not, and finding that information out before you complete the transaction is ideal. There are few things in life that are less fun than having to argue with someone that already has your money about something you should have caught ahead of time.

Finally, as you might imagine, I have a story about pre-purchase inspections. Years ago I bought, sort of on a whim, a 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo Spider. If you’ve never driven a Lamborghini, the most important thing to know is that in older cars the E-gear transmission … is lacking. Yes, Lamborghini are beautiful. Yes, they make great sounds. And yes, they attract attention like few other cars you can reasonably buy … but if you’re looking for a car that’s fun to actually drive, an automatic transmission Lamborghini isn’t it. To that end, about a year after I bought the Gallardo I wanted to get rid of it, badly, and found what seemed like the perfect replacement, an early Lamborghini Murcielago with a manual transmission. It was a nice color and this was before manual transmissions in Italian cars became all the rage so was very reasonably priced.

The selling dealer offered me a fair trade for my Gallardo — which honestly wouldn’t have mattered since I really hated driving that car — but since they were a smaller shop with a somewhat dicey reputation I said I needed a PPI. “No problem, there is a shop across the street who can do that,” the dealer told me. I had already called the closest Lamborghini dealership and they said they weren’t doing PPI on older cars because they were busy and there were liability issues — this should have been a red flag for me, I’ll be honest — so I took the dealer up on the offer to introduce me to the mechanic across the street. Turns out the mechanic across the street had worked for the dealer and still maintained a very close relationship with him. So close that it turned out that the mechanic missed an awful lot of important information about the car that would have definitely influenced my decision to buy the car. Of course, since I had not read The Car Collector’s Handbook I was only thinking about how great the Murcielago looked and the fact that I was getting it for a very small amount of actual cash … not about whether the mechanic actually had my best interests in mind.

He didn’t.

Shortly after I got the car home, like many older Murcielago it turns out, I started getting engine lights turning up from time to time. Despite being hugely afraid of the costs of maintaining a Lamborghini, I took the car to my mechanic who had enough experience with the car to know what to look for, and what he found was a car in need of some attention. Nothing hugely problematic when considered in isolation, but considered broadly the car had lived a hard life before I bought it, and that is definitely something the PPI should have caught.

I did take this up with the mechanic who did the inspection and, as expected, his response was more or less “well, we can’t catch everything and maybe that happened after you bought the car yadda yadda yadda.” Having some experience pursuing litigation in my professional career I was tempted to ask my lawyer to give this mechanic a call, but at the end of the day I realized the mistake was mine: I went down the easy path with respect to the inspection, not the best path, and since the deal was done the car was mine to maintain. Fortunately my mechanic was able to sort the immediate issues and help me get ahead of some of the other things that go wrong with hand-built Italian sports cars after they have been on the road for fifteen years, and now I have a beautiful, well-sorted manual transmission Lamborghini that is incalculably more fun to own and drive than that E-gear Gallardo … a car I definitely should have spent more time considering.