Vehicle inspections: cost and worth it?

gaiscioch

I know the AA will inspect a vehicle before you buy it. The cost of this in July 2014 is "from €199" The "from" part doesn't sound good.

Is it worth getting this done if I'm getting it from a garage? Is there any other company which does this at a more competitive price?

hof1982

I'm in the process of buying myself at the minute and I have used motorcheck. The inspection has not been done yet but if it is of the same standard as the history check I already received then it will be more than adequate. Cost is €199 including the history check. Is it worth it? From my point of view definitely as I'm buying private. In you situation I guess it depends how much piece of mind you want and how reputable the dealer is.

I bought a car last week in Limerick (I'm from Drogheda, so practically opposite side of the country).

Rang 4 different garages (numbers mostly from Google, but made a thread in the limerick forum where a member or two on boards threw up some mechanics info).

One garage said they wouldn't offer such a service.

The other three garages priced themselves at €30, €30/€70 and €35.

I ended up arriving a little late in the evening and the €35 garage closed too early for me, so went with the other two. (I intentionally used two different garages as I wasn't local to the town and the seller was. I didn't want to go to just one mechanic in the sellers town incase it turned out that the seller knew the mechanic and the mechanic gave a clean bill of health to a car that was dying a death, cos he was friends with the seller).


So anyway...

I met the chap with the car at the first garage. Mechanic in that garage lifted the car on a ramp and test drove it. Said it was driving fine, checked out well mechanically, but that the steering rack was leaking and the alternator pulley was worth getting replaced. He reckoned it'd cost roughly €250 and €80 for each job, respectively, off your average mechanic (info that's handy to have for haggling).


The second garage gave an option of charging €30 to lift the car, or €70 to lift it and also wire it up to a diagnostics machine (the only driving they did with it as in and out of the garage itself). Playing it safe, I went with the €70 option. Diagnostics is supposed to check, as far as I'm aware, for ABS, airbag, etc. issues. Nothing came up. The second garage told me the steering rack was leaking, but never mentioned the alternator pulley.

Both garages had the car for about 10-20 minutes each.


I ended up spending €3,200 on the car (probably could have haggled harder, in hindsight, but such is life).

Considering €30 is literally less than 1% of the money I spent on the car, I'd say it's the best money you could ever spend when buying a car privately.


In my honest opinion, If you're gonna pay the AA €200, to tell you that evening what they think of the car, then you deserve a good slap.

hof1982

Deleted User wrote: »

I bought a car last week in Limerick (I'm from Drogheda, so practically opposite side of the country).

Rang 4 different garages (numbers mostly from Google, but made a thread in the limerick forum where a member or two on boards threw up some mechanics info).

One garage said they wouldn't offer such a service.

The other three garages priced themselves at €30, €30/€70 and €35.

I ended up arriving a little late in the evening and the €35 garage closed too early for me, so went with the other two. (I intentionally used two different garages as I wasn't local to the town and the seller was. I didn't want to go to just one mechanic in the sellers town incase it turned out that the seller knew the mechanic and the mechanic gave a clean bill of health to a car that was dying a death, cos he was friends with the seller).


So anyway...

I met the chap with the car at the first garage. Mechanic in that garage lifted the car on a ramp and test drove it. Said it was driving fine, checked out well mechanically, but that the steering rack was leaking and the alternator pulley was worth getting replaced. He reckoned it'd cost roughly €250 and €80 for each job, respectively, off your average mechanic (info that's handy to have for haggling).


The second garage gave an option of charging €30 to lift the car, or €70 to lift it and also wire it up to a diagnostics machine (the only driving they did with it as in and out of the garage itself). Playing it safe, I went with the €70 option. Diagnostics is supposed to check, as far as I'm aware, for ABS, airbag, etc. issues. Nothing came up. The second garage told me the steering rack was leaking, but never mentioned the alternator pulley.

Both garages had the car for about 10-20 minutes each.


I ended up spending €3,200 on the car (probably could have haggled harder, in hindsight, but such is life).

Considering €30 is literally less than 1% of the money I spent on the car, I'd say it's the best money you could ever spend when buying a car privately.


In my honest opinion, If you're gonna pay the AA €200, to tell you that evening what they think of the car, then you deserve a good slap.

Its horses for courses I guess. I would say it depends on how much you are spending on the car. You got a 10-20min inspection for €70 at the second garage plus €30 for another 10-20min inspection at the first garage, a total of €100. Going with the likes of motorcheck for example, you will pay €199 for a 3 hour inspection including a c.10mile road test plus a full vehicle history check which is important if the car has been imported. I would certainly want more than a 10-20min inspection if spending 10k plus on a car, but if you are spending a much smaller amount then the value is certainly diminished.

NIMAN

I paid €120 I think last year for a guy to come and meet me in Dublin to inspect a car I was interested in.

Took him about 45mins to do his inspection, which included driving it. I was happy enough.

I think €199 for a 3hr inspection, 10 mile road test and History check doesn't sound too bad. I'd pay that.

old_aussie

Well worth the money.

Kop On

No matter where you're buying the car from (Garage or Private Seller), treat the element of risk the same and get it thoroughly checked out before buying it.

You only have to look at the amount of threads on here of horror stories people have had after buying a car from a garage.

Better to be safe than sorry.

hof1982

hof1982 wrote: »

Its horses for courses I guess. I would say it depends on how much you are spending on the car. You got a 10-20min inspection for €70 at the second garage plus €30 for another 10-20min inspection at the first garage, a total of €100. Going with the likes of motorcheck for example, you will pay €199 for a 3 hour inspection including a c.10mile road test plus a full vehicle history check which is important if the car has been imported. I would certainly want more than a 10-20min inspection if spending 10k plus on a car, but if you are spending a much smaller amount then the value is certainly diminished.

Well I suppose the real question is, what can the AA Find out in 3 hours that a mechanic can't find out in 30 minutes?

If you're paying 10k for a car, then it makes sense to be more cautious.

However, if it were me, I'd still rather spend 30 on a mechanic, and just get a few different mechanics to look at it. Go from garage to garage and see if anyone picks up on something the others havent. If 4 mechanics say the car is grand, except for (insert issue here) then you're probably safe enough?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

When you think of it as a percentage of the purchase price it sounds like you'd be mad not to get an inspection done. The only kick in the stones is if the inspection throws up issues that need attention, and the seller won't lower the price accordingly. If that happened twice in a row you'd be shelling out good money with nothing to show for it.

hof1982

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

When you think of it as a percentage of the purchase price it sounds like you'd be mad not to get an inspection done. The only kick in the stones is if the inspection throws up issues that need attention, and the seller won't lower the price accordingly. If that happened twice in a row you'd be shelling out good money with nothing to show for it.

Yes that could be an issue if you had a couple of cars in mind. You can potentially mitigate against this by getting the vehicle history check done first (which is what I have done) and this will give you a good indication as to how well maintained the car is in terms of service history etc. Of course looking at things such as time remaining on NCT/MOT can also assist in terms of whether you would proceed to shelling out for a full inspection. In my case, motorcheck will refund the €35 which I paid initially for the history check before deciding to purchase the full inspection (history check is included in the cost of full inspection).

Duracell Bunny

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

When you think of it as a percentage of the purchase price it sounds like you'd be mad not to get an inspection done. The only kick in the stones is if the inspection throws up issues that need attention, and the seller won't lower the price accordingly. If that happened twice in a row you'd be shelling out good money with nothing to show for it.

Well, it depends how you look at it, I suppose.

What happens if your budget is €5,000 and you buy the car, only to discover afterwards that there's €1,000 in potential issues.

You'd have been better off paying the €50 to the mechanic, walking away from the car, and then continuing your car search €50 lighter.
(in my opinion).

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Well, it depends how you look at it, I suppose.

What happens if your budget is €5,000 and you buy the car, only to discover afterwards that there's €1,000 in potential issues.

You'd have been better off paying the €50 to the mechanic, walking away from the car, and then continuing your car search €50 lighter.
(in my opinion).

Feckin sure you would, no question there. But let's say that inspection cost 50, and you spent another 50 on tolls and juice that's 100 with nothing to show for it.

Then you go see another car, and the same thing happens. Not impossible in the 4/5/6 grand market.. all these inspections add up. I can understand why some people don't bother.

Duracell Bunny

Duracell Bunny wrote: »

Feckin sure you would, no question there. But let's say that inspection cost 50, and you spent another 50 on tolls and juice that's 100 with nothing to show for it.

Then you go see another car, and the same thing happens. Not impossible in the 4/5/6 grand market.. all these inspections add up. I can understand why some people don't bother.

I see where you're coming from alright, and it'd be fairly disheartening to see your budget dwindling constantly, but at the same time, you do, in a roundabout way, have something to show for it (evasion of a bigger bill).


How many cars would the average person see before settling though?

I'm on my third car and each time I bought, I purchased the first car I went to see, cos i made sure to be somewhat familiar with what i was looking at and looking for. Made sure the car was one I liked and upon hearing bad news or problems, haggled hard (though i do still feel I could have haggled harder on the 407 when it's issues slowly came to light).


So long as you've a good idea what you want, if you find the car has X amount of money to be spent on repairs, you can try to haggle that into the price you pay (so you can get it fixed without going too far over budget).


I dunno. As has been said already, it's horses for courses. When I go to see a car, there has to be an enormous fault for me to not be driving it home, and that's cos i spend ages looking for a car that i want to buy.

For me, if a mechanic uncovers a fatal flaw, then it's pack my bags time, unless I can 1) get a quote off the mechanic, and 2) get that (At the least) knocked off the price i was willing to pay for the car (ie; not the asking price, which no one ever pays anyway).

green123

anyone ever used these ?

http://www.calloutmechanics.com/pre_purchase_inspection.html
they are charging 120 for an inspection

or these for 99 ?
http://inspectacarorvan.com/inspection-prices/

for 70
http://www.dublindiagnostics.com/inspections/

gaiscioch

green123 wrote: »

anyone ever used these ?

http://www.calloutmechanics.com/pre_purchase_inspection.html
they are charging 120 for an inspection

or these for 99 ?
http://inspectacarorvan.com/inspection-prices/

for 70
http://www.dublindiagnostics.com/inspections/

I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who has used these also. Interestingly, that last link says "Clocked Mileage (It’s legal to clock the mileage of a car in this country)". Surely it must be illegal to clock a car in this state? It's the same as robbing because you're fraudulently selling a product.

green123

gaiscioch wrote: »

I'd be interested in hearing from anybody who has used these also. Interestingly, that last link says "Clocked Mileage (It’s legal to clock the mileage of a car in this country)". Surely it must be illegal to clock a car in this state? It's the same as robbing because you're fraudulently selling a product.

it is legal to clock a car, but illegal to sell a clocked car

here is another car inspection:
http://www.carsireland.ie/pre-sale-car-inspection-service-dublin.html
from 99 euro.