Anything you always look for when checking out a used car?

[turtlemonvh]

I’m working on starting a company focusing on providing quality vehicle inspections.

Topic

[mckrishes]

Quoted From 3SheetsDiesel:

turtlemonvh,

The main reason I don’t like doing “pre-purchase” inspections comes down to money in all honesty. I know that looking a car over thoroughly, like the customer would want is going to take time. The way my company pays it’s flat-rate employees, an inspection like that will pay, at best, 3/10ths of an hour. That’s 18 minutes, and as thourough as I need to be, it’ll take more like 45 minutes to complete. That’s not counting the time spent waiting for the service manager to track down prices for stuff, contact the customer, bring the customer into the shop if they want to see what’s going on with their car, etc. During that whole process, I’m standing around not making money, when I could be working on some other car. I also know that I’m most likely not going to make any money beyond that original 3/10ths because it’s not actually the customer’s car when it comes to me. They haven’t actually bought it yet, and if they’re handed a huge shopping list of stuff that’s wrong with the car, they’re most likely not going to buy it anyway.

When I’m checking for leaks, all I do is look for signs of wetness, be it fluid puddles, or just dampness below the thing that I’m looking at. I’ll also look for engines that have been steam-cleaned witha wary eye. Possibly, the seller wanted to make the car look as show-room fresh as possible in hopes of getting more money for it. Equally possibly, they wanted to hide some nasty fluid leaks. I tend to expect the worst from people, but that’s just my nature. I don’t really have a checklist that I go through when I do inspections, but I’ve been in this field so long that I more or less know what to look for.

Pre-purchase inspections wouldn’t bother me in the slightest if I got paid on the clock, but unfortunately I don’t. The place I work, as is true for most automotive shops, pays flat rate, which I believe Eric talked about on his ETCG1 channel. To use that same 3/10ths that I mentioned, for me, that’s $6.48 before taxes come out. I think I’m worth more than $6.50 an hour, but if the car ties up my lift for an hour, and all I got paid was those original 3/10ths…

I know it probably sounds like a lot of whining from me, but when you have to rely on getting cars back off that lift in a timely fashion to continue having a roof over your head, food on the table and gasoline in the tank, I’m sorry but $6.50/hour isn’t going to cover that. If it would cover my expenses, I’d have a job saying “Y’all want fies with that?” which would pay the same, but have shorter hours and less stress.

So if i get an inspection at a shop, is the mechanic less motivated and rushed to get the inspection done because they are not getting paid well? If so, how can one go about getting a complete and proper inspection from a trustworthy mechanic?

[TexasCoder]

Quoted From mckrishes:

So if i get an inspection at a shop, is the mechanic less motivated and rushed to get the inspection done because they are not getting paid well? If so, how can one go about getting a complete and proper inspection from a trustworthy mechanic?

That poses a great question! In the past, I have been fortunate enough to buy used cars that were not so trouble prone.

I think your best bet would be to go with a company that specializes in inspections, like what the Author of this post is doing, or if you know a mechanic you trust, tip them! Before I started working on my own cars, I would always be the guy in the bay chatting with the mechanic, offering to get water or coffee, heck even offering to fetch tools. At least until I was run out by the shop gestapo 🙂

In all seriousness, if you find a mechanic you like and trust, befriend them, tip them when you can (I would typically give 20 bucks or more if I could, over the cost of the repair, or if I knew the mechanic well enough, a case of his favorite beverage), and treat them with respect, and 9 out of 10 times you will get the same respect in return.

Heck, to this day, a mechanic I met over 20 years ago, while I was in high school, still chats with me every now and then. I have been to his daughter’s wedding and even helped out over the years as he was computer shopping.

[1939p7]

If your going to look for a used car/truck/suv your better off dealing with a owner… stay away from the dealers too many tricks up their sleeves .. just saying

[Author]

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