gareth71
Member Since: 10 Apr 2016
Location: North-east Wales
Posts: 548
  
|
| Pre-purchase vehicle inspections |
|
What are people's thoughts re. pre-purchase inspections of used vehicles? AA or RAC? Or someone else? (I'm an RAC member so would like to think I'd get a bit of discount on one of theirs...)
|
 6th Jan 2023 7:26 pm |
|
|
ronp
Member Since: 29 Nov 2006
Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 15213
  
|
I would say it depends on what you’re buying, how much you’re spending and what guarantee do you get.
e.g. if it’s an old classic especially if it’s had some form of restoration.
Or, if it’s a newer vehicle, but something just doesn’t look/feel right, but you really like it.
However if it’s a vehicle the sounds and looks good, with a good dose of service history and everything stacks up (with no glaring issues), then I probably wouldn’t bother. I was a normal heterosexual chap, but in these new woke awakenings I now identify as a Wardrobe.
|
| 6th Jan 2023 7:52 pm |
|
|
Global Puffin
Member Since: 23 Dec 2020
Location: Stirling, Scotland
Posts: 223
|
When I was looking for my D3 V8 I used the Click Mechanic pre-purchase inspections. I did speak to the RAC for a quote on their inspections but for a D3 V8 they were asking for £350. I ended up getting two Click Mechanic inspections; the first one on a car in Cardiff which was amazingly detailed and warned me off from getting the car. The second one I got was on the car I actually bought from Ivan on this forum - and the guy who did the inspection was utterly useless and pointless! And I tried getting my money back but no chance. A friend has since used them very recently down in England somewhere and he got a pretty good, detailed report back.
So personally I would always try to have a Click Mechanic one as it does mean a mechanic will give it a going over and can potentially spot something you wouldn't - especially if you would have to travel a long distance to go eyeball a car yourself which is one of the reasons I did it. 2005 D3 V8
2010 MX-5
www.instagram.com/global_puffin
|
| 6th Jan 2023 9:32 pm |
|
|
VVS210
Member Since: 05 Aug 2015
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 506
 
|
From personal experience of the AA one - AVOID IT LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!
Back in late 2019 I had to find SWMBO an auto FL2 as her knees were shot from too many years around horses, looked at lots locally but nothing worth the money so widened the search using Autotrader.
Found what, on paper, looked an ideal car at a Ford main dealership in Chesterfield which is >150 miles away from home - a 2012 XS SD4 with a few extras added for good measure all for £12k.
Put a deposit on the car subject to clean inspection and paid for inspection by AA then waited.
Inspection complete I got a report emailed saying it was all good and in a call from the 'engineer' who did it he said it was probably the best example he'd ever seen.
Bought one way train tickets, arranged insurance, transferred money into current account to pay and set off one Saturday morning full of excitement.
Got to showroom after taxi ride from station and there was the car sat outside gleaming & ready for an immediate test drive so off we went. It drove well but had no fuel in so was given directions to nearest Tesco.
Back at dealership, salesman asked how I was paying so I said card and he wondered off to do the paperwork leaving me to look around the car...
First thing I noticed was a large area of rust blistering on the wing behind the nearside front wheel... this annoyed me somewhat & I started to think about telling them I wanted a new wing put on it.
Then walked on around the car, checked the passenger side doors, looked in the boot and wheel well and then got to offside rear passenger door... I could see the sanding marks in the body filler straight away and also a very poor (dull) finish on the paint. when I opened the door there was bare bent metal on the inside by the rubber seal. The car had had significant damage tot he door which had been bodged and was, I am guessing, why the previous owners had part exchanged what was otherwise a pretty good car.
Anyway, I rejected the car and got the deposit back from the salesman who didn't seem very surprised at what I'd found and didn't say much as he drove me back to the station.
Having left home at 0800 that morning I got home, having had to change trains all over the place in order to get back home the same day, around 2200.
Contacted AA on the Monday morning and they weren't interested, simply passing it on to the 'specialist' firm they use to do these inspections, they weren't bothered either. For over a year I got passed from one to the other trying to get back the £269 inspection fee plus around £200 in train fares I'd shelled out but to no avail. In the end I gave up as I had better things to do with my time.
Meantime I decided the only way to stand any chance of getting what I wanted with a genuine vehicle and a 'proper' warranty was to go to a LR dealership and as luck had it, my local one had just taken in a low mileage 1 owner HSE SD4. It cost me £2k more than the XS would have done but was a much higher spec, lower mileage car and at under 6 years old I got 2 years LR Approved Used warranty on it so in my mind it was a much better value car. They also fitted 4 brand new Pirelli Scorpion tyres as LR Approved wont let them sell a vehicle with less than 4mm(?) tread on tyres, plus it'd had new discs and pads etc. for the same reason - apart from the mileage it was effectively 'as new'.
In summary, my experience of the AA vehicle inspection is that it is a total and complete waste of money.
Better to stay local so you can see the car for yourself and/or use a LR dealership that you can go back to if you have any issues. D4 - Stornoway Grey
D2 V8 - Zambesi Silver (rust free JDM import 😎)
FL2 - Sd4 HSE
110 Td5 DCPU - Bonatti Grey - sold
FL2 Td4 - Zambesi Silver - sold
D2 Td5 - Epsom Green - sold
F1 Td4 - Giverney Green - sold
90 300 Tdi - White – sold BIG mistake should have kept it!
F1 Td4 - written off by a taxi!
D1 300 Tdi - written off by a Fiesta...
D1 200 Tdi - sold
90 Turbo Diesel - sold
Ser 2a SWB - sold and glad I 'got rid'
Ser 2 SWB - sold but wish I still had it!
|
| 7th Jan 2023 11:58 am |
|
|
astonbuilder
Member Since: 29 Sep 2006
Location: MIDLANDS
Posts: 8052
|
Take it for an MOT…..
Bloke who bought car off me with full service history, all receipts from new, detailed advert, long test drive and crawled all over by himself still had a full indepent check over of it for £600 and it was the second car he’d had done! The car I was selling was only around the £4K mark or so….
After god knows how long the tester was here, sat in it with the engine running reading every receipt, the only ‘negatives’ were a slight fading of one of the indicators and a bit of obscure trim under the dash held on with duct tape. The ‘tester’ was a cowboy IMO; literally kicked the tyres and used a wholly inappropriate Jack to lift it when he ‘checked’ suspension.
I offered the buyer choice of a few garages that he (or I) could take it for an MOT
|
| 7th Jan 2023 1:11 pm |
|
|
beanoir
Member Since: 02 Sep 2021
Location: Bedfordshire
Posts: 27
|
I wouldn't bother with an RAC or AA inspection, they're not much better than having an MOT.
A Land Rover specialist who does PPIs is much better value for money and can be worth its weight in gold.
|
| 22nd Apr 2023 6:24 pm |
|
|
