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

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How to Avoid Scams When Purchasing a Vehicle

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Be sure to also check out our own more in depth tips page on how to find a quality used car

This information is a cut and paste from Portland’s Police Bureau – http://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/article/187076

Basic information but useful

1.  Check car-fax. Anyone with internet access can go to www.carfax.com and check a vehicle by its VIN number. Carfax charges a small fee but it is well worth it. Check with your local police agency to see if the vehicle is stolen. Remember, if you buy a stolen car, you may not recover your money even if the person that sold it to you is arrested. It is up to you to be sure that the vehicle you are buying is legitimate.

2.  Craigslist, Ebay: Craigslist and Ebay have hints on how to avoid scams. Be aware that most of the sellers on internet auction and classified ad sites are legitimate. However you assume the risk when making a purchase so check the sellers history if you are able to.

3.  Suspicious sellers and cars:  Anyone selling you a car should have a title. If they don’t, walk away from the deal. There are many reasons why a person may not have a title, but there is no reason to buy a car without one. If you buy a car without a title, you will have to go to DMV and apply for a lost or stolen title. By that time you may realize that you have bought a stolen car. Even if it’s not stolen, you will have to prove that you legitimately own the car now.  Avoid that hassle and only buy cars with titles.

4.  Be suspicious of deals too good to be true. There is a reason that the person is selling a car so cheaply, and most of them are not good for the buyer. Look the title over for signs of fraud (erasures, copies, VIN number does not match vehicle, vehicle description does not match vehicle, mileage is inconsistent.) If the vehicle has been totaled and rebuilt the title should note that it is either a salvage vehicle or a reconstructed vehicle. If there are indications that the vehicle has been rebuilt, but there is no flag on the title, be suspicious.

5.  Ask for ID of the seller to prove that the name on the title is the person you are dealing with. If it is a private seller and not a dealer, they should be the person listed on the title. If they are a dealer, they should have a dealer’s license and should have no problem proving that they own the car they are selling. No legitimate seller will have a problem with telling you who they are.

6.  If you are selling a car it’s up to you what you accept for payment.  It’s recommended that you only take cash and cashier’s checks. Call the bank listed on the cashier’s check to check the funds. If you accept a personal check, you assume the risk, even if it appears legitimate.

 

Additional Common-Sense Advice for Buyers from Autotrader.com

Buying a car you find online is a lot like buying a car through a classified ad in the newspaper. In either case, use your best judgment.

Know the car’s market value
Be suspicious of a vehicle priced significantly below market value. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 
Obtain a vehicle history report
A vehicle history report can provide useful information, such as who holds the title to the car and whether the car has been in an accident reported to authorities. You’ll also find out whether the car was ever reported stolen, salvaged or damaged. (We include a History report and often additional information with every inspection) 
Inspect the car

Schedule an inspection with a professional mechanic or an inspection service if the car is not in your area. An early inspection can help you identify problems. However, keep in mind that an inspection isn’t a warranty and won’t guarantee a car is free from defects or that inspectors have identified all existing problems.

 

Confirm contact information
Before you send payment, verify the seller’s street address and phone number- an email address is not enough. ZIP codes, area codes and addresses should match up. Be wary if the seller is located overseas. (BAD ADVICE  – Work with sellers face to face only) 
Use email wisely
Avoid sending sensitive personal or financial information (such as your social security number, credit card number or checking account number) to a seller via email. Remember that email communications are not secure and can be easily forwarded to others.
Get a detailed receipt
Ask the seller for a receipt that states whether the vehicle is being sold with a warranty or “as is.”
Get title to the vehicle
Make sure you know what’s required in your state to transfer title to the vehicle you’re buying.

Be sure to also check out our own more in depth tips page on how to find a quality used car

We now have more pre-purchase inspection choices to better serve Portland & Vancouver used car buyers. Inspections starting at only $129!

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For many years we only had one inspection choice, that is no longer the case. We now have a used car pre-purchase inspection for every vehicle each optimized for the type of vehicle and or what it is you “the buyer” is really interested in having inspected.

Introducing our Platinum – The same industry leading extremely detailed and thorough pre-purchase car inspection you’ve come to expect from PDXinspections. A new Gold/Newer car inspection optimized to save our clients money who are looking at newer low mileage vehicles likely still under warranty and a Bronze/Basic budget inspection to help those looking for reassurance they’re not buying a budget priced lemon.

We now have more pre-purchase inspection choices to better serve our Vancouver used car buyers starting at only $129 all with our extensive research and a vehicle history report and often service records included!

All of our inspections start with research: vehicle history report(s) and many times service records (when available – same records that are available to companies such as Carfax) are provided immediately after booking when the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) is provided.

Every inspection includes measuring all exterior metal body panels to determine if the vehicle has been repainted and to determine whether it was due to cosmetic or accident repair

Platinum Inspection

  • Our most complete & common inspection for the modern vehicle
  • Hands down the most thorough mobile inspection that exists
  • Extremely detailed and in depth – Redundant tests throughout
  • Modeled after manufacture certified vehicle standards (I.e.150 point CPO) but are far superior

Learn more or book your Platinum inspection

Gold – New Car Inspection

  • Newer vehicle inspection (designed for vehicles that my be still under factory warranty)
  • Only vehicles that are 3 years old or newer with less than 50K miles located in Vancouver Washington are eligible
  • Everything in the Platinum inspection excluding: Interior condition report, accessory testing, lifting the vehicle, and a test drive

Learn more or book your Gold inspection

Bronze – Basic/Budget Inspection

  • Designed for older/high mileage/budget vehicles (typically mid 1980′s to 2000) with mechanical condition taking precedence
  • This is a basic mechanical and safety inspection
  • Our most important tests are completed
  • Cosmetic condition report and accessories tests are not completed

Learn more or book your Bronze inspection

Once you have chosen your inspection just follow the instructions to easily and securely book on that respective page

All of our used car inspection reports are delivered via email and is easily read/printed using your computer, smart phone, iPhone/iPad or any other mobile device capable of reading PDF’s. They are easily read and understood, written in laypersons terms with items of importance highlighted

PDXinspections-ipad-iphone-friendly



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Carfax vs. AutoCheck

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We continually explain to our clients, Carfax is not our preferred vehicle history provider. Have you ever heard of the competing report, AutoCheck by Experian? Yes, Experian, the credit monitoring company.

Every time we hear a Carfax radio or TV ad it reminds us how much this service seems to be really geared towards dealers instead of protecting the buying public in our opinion. Carfax has all of the information but they leave out some rather important details that the competing report doesn’t. I’m sure you’ve heard, “Ask for your Carfax report, Free at thousands of reputable dealers” The truth behind this is that dealers are forced to spend big dollars to have a dealer Carfax account to offer those reports to you. Our owner/lead inspector Josh who actually owned a small used car dealership for 6 years witnessed many dealers buying their inventory at auction not really looking over the cars themselves rather actually purchasing the vehicles that have no accident/damage remarks on the Carfax report alone!

80% of the vehicles we inspect have one or more repainted/repaired panels yet show nothing on a Carfax report. Most dealers know what cars have been repainted or have been in an accident when buying them but they also know 98% of the buyers out there will only ask for a Carfax due to their advertising and not have the car pre-purchase inspected prior to purchase. Carfax does finally now recommend having an independent inspection preformed – Kudos Carfax!

PDXinspections provides each of our clients with an AutoCheck History report at minimum. This report in our opinion is the far superior report with the buyer’s best interest in mind rather than the dealers. The following story from a recent inspection, which explains and shows this very clearly.

We were recently hired to perform an inspection on a low mileage BMW M3. The dealer provided Carfax looked great, the AutoCheck report however told a completely different story. Both reports show the car was sold at auction so we know both providers have that information.

The Carfax simply reads:
07/30/2012 45,151 Auto Auction Pacific Region Listed as a dealer vehicle – Sold at auction

The AutoCheck shows:
05/30/2012 PACIFIC SW REGION 45,151 Auto Auction REPORTED AT AUTO AUCTION
06/15/2012 PACIFIC SW REGION Auto Auction AUCTION ANNOUNCED AS UNIBODY DAMAGE
06/27/2012 PACIFIC SW REGION 45,654 Auto Auction REPORTED AT AUTO AUCTION
07/30/2012 PACIFIC SW REGION 45,151 Auto Auction REPORTED AT AUTO AUCTION AS DEALER VEHICLE
08/01/2012 PACIFIC SW REGION Auto Auction AUCTION ANNOUNCED AS UNIBODY DAMAGE

Now the AutoCheck tells a completely different story doesn’t it? Why does the Carfax leave out the fact it went through the auction for 2 months without selling (red flag 1) and as well the auction actually announcing Frame/Unibody damage (red flag 2)? The Carfax will never show you if the car had a frame damage announcement at auction and won’t show you if it spent a year being bounced between auctions (which does happen).

Despite this information being provided upfront, the buyer did elect to still have us go check out the car and we quickly found the vehicle was involved in a rather hard rear end accident resulting in the lower trunk unibody/frame being replaced along with a rear bumper, and paintwork throughout the vehicle easily noticed once looking for it.

The truth is we see this kind of thing all of the time and on average cancel and refund several inspections a week alone based on our initial research including these reports. We don’t enjoy inspecting bad vehicles and know our customers will continue their searches better informed and in the end coming back to us with a better vehicle to inspect.

We will always continue to do in what we believe is best for the buying public and continue providing in what we consider the better report.

Compare-Vehicle-History-Reports
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You get what you pay for! A great car buying metaphor.

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You get what you pay for… Nothing is truer than this statement when it comes to buying a used vehicle.

I previously owned a small dealership mostly locating vehicles for people who didn’t want the hassles of sourcing their own vehicles. I purchased most of my vehicles at the same place the big franchised and smaller dealers do, the auction. There are literally a 100,000 cars auctioned across the world weekly. At each one of these auctions there will be 500-1000 dealers or buyers agents buying vehicles for their dealerships or for their clients (in the buyer’s agent case). If a vehicle is in poorer shape the price it sells for will obviously be less, on the other hand if a vehicle is in top shape meaning, no accidents or previous paintwork the price will reflect that.

I would only consider vehicles that have had no body or paint work. This made my searches incredibly difficult as 75% percent of the vehicles I would look at had one or more repainted panels. 75% is pretty much what I see while out inspecting vehicles at dealerships as well. Paintwork isn’t always a negative thing when considering a ten year old vehicle, however in my opinion is pretty inexcusable on a $30K+ luxury vehicle or a vehicle which is only a couple years old.

Some dealers sell cars on only flashy looks alone. They sometimes do no more than spend money on a fancy detail and cosmetic re-spray work and completely ignore the more expensive mechanical/maintenance work. Have you ever heard the term “Lipstick on a pig”? Most of the vehicles I would purchase from auction would need brakes or tires right off the bat. Many people decide its time for a new vehicle when their vehicles start needing great sums of service work knowing months in advance they would be doing so. Of course they don’t take care of necessary services it might need prior to doing so. As quality used vehicle values continue to rise and dealers look to cut costs, I’m seeing more and more dealers cutting costs when it comes to the reconditioning of their used cars trying to maximize profit. This means for some of the poorer quality dealers many of the vehicles sitting on their lots need crucial safety items, which typically end up being some of the most expensive services like brakes and tires. I would estimate 80% of the vehicles we inspect at some of the smaller independent dealers need at least $500+ in tires and/or brakes not even considering some of the issues we might come across in the rest of our inspection. The cost of the inspection is so minimal and almost always less than the cost of some of the needed maintenance, mechanical/electrical issues, or devaluation for paintwork or accidents in which we find and report.

Just be aware and remember to always have used cars inspected by a confident/trained/independent certified technician before purchasing it. Tires, brakes and other necessary services will quickly add up and will always be more than the inspection itself not to mention the confidence of knowing you’re not going to end up with a lemon. Know what you’re buying, research the dealer by checking reviews, have it inspected and buyer beware!

Tire wear

Cooling system leaks, we’ll find them but would other inspections?

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As your engine warms up, the pressure in the cooling system increases. It isn’t uncommon to have a cooling system only leak when the engine is hot. We pressure test cooling systems when appropriate to verify there are no cooling system leaks cold or hot.

Here’s one that would have may been overlooked by most independent/dealer used vehicle inspections as they don’t typically pressurize the cooling systems as part of their standard inspections.

Cooling system leak on a Jeep Wrangler