Portland OnSite Used Car Pre-Purchase Inspection Service

Portland's ORIGINAL modern used car inspection company. Since 2006 proper Master ASE Certified Technicians performing real inspections. The most technologically advanced used car inspection anywhere

Automobile Pre Purchase Inspections

Finding a quality used car to buy on craigslist can come with its challenges

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This was being advertised as a clean title.

While Craigslist has plenty of great cars, it’s also full of hidden disasters.

That’s why every one of our inspections comes with thorough upfront research, no surprises. On average, we refund at least one inspection per week because our research alone uncovers issues serious enough that the client decides not to proceed.

Here’s an example: A client asked us to inspect a “Clean Title” 2008 Honda Fit. They gave us the real VIN (not the fake one in the ad). Within minutes we discovered the car wasn’t clean-title at all — it was a rebuilt salvage vehicle. The seller had deliberately swapped VINs in the listing to hide the truth.

Take a look at the proof in the photos below.

Craigslist Ad
Fit

This Honda Fit was being advertised as a clean title car

Always get the car inspected, its cheap insurance to make sure you don’t end up falling for a car like this!

CarMax doesn’t welcome onsite pre-purchase inspections in Portland Oregon

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CarMax is now in the Portland and Vancouver Washington Markets. We hope this will be a good thing for the Portland/Vancouver used car market.

Just as we recommend with any dealership we always recommend you go in well informed. There is much to be found on the internet that suggests CarMax like Carfax (everybody has heard of these companies) invests a lot into marketing and advertising and not all of their claims pertaining to inspections, certifications and guarantees are entirely accurate. You can Google carmax inspection complains. When spending a lot of money on a used vehicle you need to protect yourself and the best way to do so is to have the car independently inspected. We always recommend doing this prior to getting to potentially becoming emotionally attached to the vehicle or before making an offer in case we find issues that the dealer may be willing to address prior to your purchase. CarMax advertises that they perform an in depth 125 point inspection on their vehicles. Looking at their inspection, in our opinion appears to be pretty quick and basic when considering these are modern vehicles.

We’ve been told by many of our customers that CarMax will not allow mechanics to come onto their property to perform the inspection. There is no reasonable excuse for this. Since 2007 we have been welcomed by all of the reputable dealers throughout Portland. Portland dealers typically appreciate the fact they don’t have to have the vehicle leave their lots for an inspection. We’ve been told by many that they will not allow their vehicles to leave, because to often they end up at a competing dealer or shop and receive an in-accurate or potentially biased (trying to up sell products/services) assessment causing confusion to the buyer. We are completely objective and unbiased, we only report the facts and best of all the dealer doesn’t have the liability of having the vehicle leave their lot. CarMax states that all of their vehicles have already been inspected and push their customers to buy the car and then bring it back if they’re not satisfied. They advertise that they will allow the buyer to return the vehicle within 5 days. Typically we recommend having it inspection prior to going through the hassles of buying the car, credit reports, paperwork, time etc. but if this truly their policy, it’s still very important to have it inspected immediately at the beginning of your 5 day window.

We’ve done several inspections on CarMax vehicles that the buyers had us come to them within their 5 day return window. A majority of these vehicles had had accident repairs/paintwork that the buyers were not aware of. This paint/repair work didn’t show up in CarMax’s inspection nor on the Carfax they supplied with the vehicles. This isn’t uncommon with many vehicles we inspect at dealerships, however we were surprised by our initial experience with the quality of CarMax vehicle inspections.

There are several websites and stories about the quality of CarMax’s own inspections including 20/20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1YQkysD15g – 20/20 video
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/carmax.html
http://carconsumers.org/carmax.htm
http://www.truthaboutcarmax.com

There is nothing better than having the peace of mind of having an in-depth, independent unbiased inspection performed on a vehicle you’re strongly considering buying. We come to you and perform the inspection at your home or place of business at your convenience and hopefully give you the confidence or knowledge of pending issues or previous paintwork or accidents that may alter your decision to keep the vehicle or take it back while you’re still within their 5 day return window.

Compare our inspection options

Flood vehicles… Stay far away!

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We had an interesting phone call last week followed by some email conversations with a buyer looking to buy a Salvaged 2010 Cadillac Escalade from a less than reputable dealer here in the Portland market. This particular Escalade was flood damaged. Despite our warnings about the dealer, our past experiences with them and their negative online reviews the buyer was still considering the inspection and purchase.

When most people think about flood vehicles, I think they think about the cosmetic factor of the interiors getting wet and then dried out. What most don’t realize is that a modern vehicle is a rolling network of very expensive modules (computers). In an Escalades case there are over 30 of these modules everywhere from under each seat, each door and in places you wouldn’t even imagine. Although the seller may tell you it was “minor” and it may even look and smell fine this is a ridiculously risky purchase. In this case a $30K purchase. All may appear be ok today but the types of failures, issues and abnormalities you may experience in the future will not only be extremely expensive, but very difficult for any technician to correctly diagnose. Something like a seat module acting up could completely take down the vehicles network or cause the engine to stall, ABS to activate while driving on the highway, render the airbags useless, window to roll down when you hit the horn, etc… After explaining this, the buyer emailed back to ask if GM would warranty it. Most don’t think about this but the answer is absolutely not. A manufactures warranty is in place to cover “manufacturing defects” not acts of nature, accidents, modifications, etc. Edmunds did a great write up on what voids a manufactures warranty – http://www.edmunds.com/auto-warranty/what-voids-your-vehicles-warranty.html

Again, don’t fall the attractive price, it’s just not worth the risk. Sometime in the future when you’re done pulling your hair out, throwing money at it and want to get rid of the vehicle, you’re going to lose out on the resell value even worse than you feel you gained on the initial purchase price.

Stick with clean title vehicles, go in cautiously and be sure to have them inspected!

flood escalade

2013 used car inspection company reflection

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8 years in business now and 2013 was our biggest year yet.

Many exciting changes including:

  • Launched new innovative inspections options to better serve and help save our clients money
  • Invested in many new diagnostic and inspection tools
  • Designed and launched a completely new inspection software which gives us the fastest possible way for us to deliver a complete report via PDF to your inbox immediately after finishing our inspection
  • Completely redesigned and launched a new website

We continue to grow year over year and want to thank all of those who make it all possible. We promise to deliver the same great experience for 2014 and look forward to starting out strong! As always, expect even bigger things in 2014 and thank you for all of your support!

Happy New Year from PDXinspections

Don’t forget to winterize your vehicles

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It’s in the 20’s and we’re still out performing used car inspections. One of the most common things we see when the cold weather strikes is frozen windshield washers. Many people are not aware that there is a special blend of winter grade washer fluid that is supposed to prevent your washer fluid from freezing. Most might see this as more as a nuisance, not being able to clear/clean your windshield but this often leads to very expensive repairs down the road.

Your engine coolant when factory filled has a freeze point of -35 degrees. The risk of coolant freezing in an engine can be catastrophic as it can crack the engine block when the ice expands inside.  The same applies and is very common when it comes to the washer system. There are many small expensive plastic components than very easily and commonly crack in the washer system after only 1 good freeze:

  • The washer tank
  • Washer pump(s) 2 in vehicles with rear wipers (wagons and SUV’s)
  • Low level switch assembly
  • Lines and jets.

In every inspection we not only test and report the engine coolant condition and freeze point, but we also check the integrity of the entire washer system from operation to freeze point of the fluid. 98% of the time we see freeze points of only +32 degrees. A simple fix for the winter involves running the old fluid through the system and refilling with the proper winter grade fluid found at most home improvement and auto parts stores. Most of these winter blend formulas also have the added benefit of being deicers as well!

Just another thing to think about when looking at your next vehicle or on your existing vehicles. Stay warm!

ice on wipers

Buying a used car in Portland Oregon

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Used car buying tips specifically for Portland, Oregon & Vancouver, Washington metro areas

What you should know:

This information is absolutely invaluable for those who are just starting their used car buying adventure in Portland, Oregon. The information below is more of a recap of the more in depth information we’ve provided on our “PDXinspections Tips for Shopping and Buying a Quality Used Car” page.

Planning the purchase

If you’re going to be financing the vehicle and working with a dealer, try to get pre-approved through a credit union of your choosing prior to starting your search. If you’re not a member of a local credit union start there. Many offer rates as low as 0.99% on used cars up to 3-4 years old. Most will typically pre-approve you and provide you 60 days to shop. Credit unions are not only much easier to not only work with, they offer lower rates, better customer service, they’re more apt to actually approve you and usually makes for a very easy transaction once you find the right car.

Know the seller

There are a lot of used car dealers to choose from. It’s typically better to start with the larger franchised dealers if you want/need to purchase from a dealer. We believe you get more car for less money if you are patient and invest the time to find a real private party owner selling their own vehicle. Be cautious and perform in depth research any dealer you’re considering working with, especially when considering a vehicle from a smaller independent dealer. You will quickly find out what dealers care about customer service/sell quality vehicles (they go hand in hand) and which are all about making money and have no problem selling clunkers.

  • Yelp – Be sure to check out the “Not recommended/filtered reviews” as well. Watch out for dealers who have 1 star reviews followed by 5 star reviews
  • Google “Company name + reviews”
  • Yahoo
  • BBB – We have mixed feelings about the better business bureau and would suggest sticking to “real people reviews” rather than a company in the business to solicit business participation in their “accreditation”.

In Portland there are a lot of private party sellers advertising vehicles that are not actually registered to them. Unlicensed dealers are known as curbers and these can quickly become a nightmare transactions between problem cars and issues for you when you go to register/title the vehicle in your name. These sellers are easy to spot, look for a combination of the following:

  • Look for missing license plates in pictures – Why would the owner not have plates on the car?
  • If the phone number is provided – is it masked: 5 oh three 78 nine zero 1 6 8 or 5o3-789-OI68? This could be a good clue they’re doing this to prevent you from simply googling the number to see all of the other vehicles they are selling or have possibly sold in the past.
  • Google “the phone number + for sale” prior to contacting that seller. See other vehicles come up? You likely found a curber.
  • Read through the ad. Do they specifically say “my” car or do they explain it like it’s just another car they’re selling. Is there a lot of information about the car stating its history, repairs, etc or is the ad very basic?

An often-overlooked tip. Look at the license plates in the ads or ask the dealer about the registration if they have dealer vanity plates on the cars. Oregon doesn’t have a tax on their vehicle purchases but the licensing and registration fees can be quite expensive. For example:

  • A vehicle with current Oregon plates will only require a quick trip to the DMV and cost you $77 dollars to title in your name. You don’t have to pay for registration until the tags expire.
  • A vehicle without plates or expired tags will require a separate trip the Oregon DEQ first, it must pass DEQ, followed by a trip the DMV with fees that could be upwards of $350. Remember, a private party seller selling a vehicle without license plates is very often an unlicensed dealer. If theres a picture of a temporary plate in the back window you should ask yourself why? Why would someone who just bought a car being trying to already sell it?

Knowing the market and its value

Use Kelly Blue Book to check the value of the vehicle to get an estimate on what it’s worth. Knowing this information prior to your calling will help you get an idea how negotiable the seller is. You’ll probably notice many vehicles such as popular “in demand” Honda’s and Toyota’s don’t typically follow KBB’s values, so be sure to figure out what the true market value is before getting frustrated by everyone asking too much for their vehicles. Again KBB values are pointless if none of the vehicles online are listed anywhere close to those values. Our advice is to put craigslist to work for you by changing the way you look and compare vehicles. Search by title only and be specific like this:

  • Leave the search bar blank
  • Search by year (plus one and negative one) if you’re trying to price 2006’s enter 2005 to 2007 for example (assuming its the same generation)
  • Enter the Make and Model ie. Honda Civic
  • Check the title status box and click clean only – You can’t compare clean title vehicles to salvage title vehicles!
  • Click “Search”
  • Sort by price low to high by clicking the  $$$ (Small to big blue link)
  • Look at the average pricing and look at the lower priced vehicles, check them out and find roughly where the clean title vehicles start and then go back and adjust the minimum and maximum values to exclude the salvage vehicles and those that are clearly overpriced or out of your budget. Finally hit search again.
  • You should see something like this: 2006-2008 Honda Civic Search in Portland
  • Now re-search, adjusting the year up and down and see what others are listed for.

Your initial viewing

When you go to look at the car. Start it up and pay close attention to all of the warning lights in the dash. They should all light up and then disappear within about 10 seconds. If any of the Airbag, SRS, ABS, Check engine, Service engine or similar lights remain illuminated, ask the seller to fix and provide receipts of service prior to further considering the vehicle. If they aren’t interested in doing this then why would you waste your time? It always amazes us how many vehicles we show up with lights on such as the airbag light on, especially at dealerships! This could be a $100 fix or it could be a $1000+ fix, why not eliminate this issue prior to spending your inspection money on a vehicle that the seller isn’t going to be willing to fix or negotiate into the price. Many times people are selling their cars once they get an estimate on what it costs to actually fix. Don’t fall for stories, it’s not typically as minor as they may portray otherwise they likely would have fixed it.

The all important pre-puchase inspection

There are a lot of people claiming to perform mobile onsite used car inspections. Would you find your next doctor on craigslist? Only trust real established businesses who employs real properly certified master technicians, who perform all the necessary tests and inspect the entire vehicle, who have established real customer feedback, and most importantly a completely unbiased company without any hidden agendas or performing any other automotive work. We speak from experience as someone who has performed dealer used vehicle inspections, no other automotive business anywhere gives you all of the information needed between our upfront research, history report(s) provided, class leading customer service and our in depth inspection itself. PDXinspections.com

The information above should help point you to the right car more quickly with fewer frustrations.
Please be sure to read through our more in depth page “PDXinspections Tips for Shopping and Buying a Quality Used Car”

 

 Prius Fleet