Advice for PPI When Buyer Out of State?

A lot of guys simply won't do it anymore. I do inspections in my shop for some customers but am very clear that there are limits to what I can discover in a couple hours on a used car that I haven't worked on before. The result is my best opinion regarding the condition of the car. It does not come with a warranty.

 

No matter what, always put your own eyes on the car regardless of who is doing the PPI.

 

You have 4 options:

1) do the PPI yourself on site
2) find a shop that will do a PPI
3) Give Dave or FoD a specific list of mechanical items you want checked i.e. compression and leak test, diagnostics on engine, suspension , check emissions levels, check if the car will pass an inspections, check top function etc. etc.. Keep the list cut and dry so there is not opinion rendered just 'it work or not', if something doesn't work get an estimate to repair. If you get through that ok the you may want to have Dave repair anything that needs attention (upside for him) if it needs to much you may want to pass. If all is a go you can go look at it and do the cosmetics and check for crash damage yourself.
4) Fly a mechanic of your choice out to do the PPI on site.

Best of luck

 

The fact that Dave knows the car and has worked on it goes in your favor from the start.
Good Like

 

+100

 

Have you requested copies of the service records that have been performed? That way, at minimum, you can see what has been done, who it was done by, and when the last service was performed.

 

PPIs are a real pain. I've had a couple done and I thought they were completely worthless.

On the other hand, it's not real hard to identify an honest car, regardless of make. You can tell a whole lot about a car in a matter of about 20 minutes. Service history, evidences as to how it's been driven, etc.

Doing a bunch of high dollar diagnostics, blah blah blah, often makes things very complicated, and often it just raises more doubts than answers.

I would venture to guess that the majority of 355s out there that are in good condition have long since been sorted of the major issues.

Then again, I'm somewhat of a riverboat gambler.

 

Frustrating for the buyers, no doubt about it. Boil it down to simple facts and it is easier to understand.

For a few hundreds dollars the following is expected:

Empty out a stall and set aside in-progress jobs currently being worked on.

Find every little thing wrong or sub standard with a local owners car . That amounts to trashing something that was very dear to them, this is all passion driven. Never say never but I have yet to see an instance where one party was not, at minumum, agrivated or insulted in some manner. When I lost a friendship because I refused to lie about the condition of a local car (mind you there was a nice 4 figure bonus attached to that request) to an out of state buyer..... Add to that we have the new 'trend' that buyers started over the last few years of either trashing the shop who's Crystal ball was not seeing 20-20 on a car they had never seen before, or baselessly suing them. You have all read the threads on this site about this very thing. Regardless if the critiques are justified or not, a reputation gets damaged every time and hard facts rarely have any place in the threads. You can sue anyone for anything regardless of the merit and it just costs time and money to defend against it. Think about that when the next "I got SCREWED" thread starts and the 'facts be damned' lynch mob forms on here. Any idea what the shop owners are thinking or how it might affect the service industry?

This is a very difficult situation because I do a lot of work for owners all over the country, this is not a local only business, it is national and in some instances international. It all boils down to a risk/profit decission that must be made with both eyes open looking at the track record of what is happening to shops in the last few years on here. Actual time spent NEVER gets fully covered by the billing as buyers have now decided what this service 'should cost' and the two never add up. Profitable? No way. A wise service to offer when the Net reputation or legal liability factor is considered given the current trends? That is open to debate but at least you now have heard the other side of the equation. When a shop is open to doing this type of service the buyer should ask themselves..... Why?

This is a problem area we need to find a solution for as it is needed.

 

I wonder if a viable business would be performing PPI's only for all types of cars?

 

+1
Been there, done that.
Everyone has their standard of what's normal condition on a 10-15 year old car, and for the shop to be the intermediary between the sellers standards and the buyers standards is not a good place to be sometimes.

 

I agree. Also, this is a client of Dave therefore whatever service Dave has done on this bad boy has been done properly.

 

No.

 

Was not much of a friend if he/she asked you to lie.

 

Bring your mechanic to the car.

I have seen up close too many horror stories from using a local mechanic you don't know and has no need other than his unknown level of integrity to represent your interests.


I have a car here right now that was inspected by a local in Texas and it's a fright show. It has cost the owner dearly because he didn't want to pay airfare.

 

Agreed but it happens all the time.

I have been asked to recreate service records to show the car in a better light.

Local dealers will often perform all sorts of veiled threats to give their cars a pass.


All goes to why Dave and I do not play the game anymore.

 

Because you hired someone worthless to do them.

 

yep. And short of flying your mechanic over 1,500 miles or more to look at a car for himself, that's the chance you take each and every time you try to hire someone from afar.

That's why I wouldn't waste the time and money.

 

Anyone with a clipboard and a flashlight can be a home inspector, not so for doing PPI's. Even at $700 it was a PIA and disrupted the operation of the shop so much it was a money loser.

 

What about, as somebody mentioned above, giving a shop a specified list of things you want values checked on? Compression test, leakdown, brakes, tire wear, clutch wear, etc.

I know a couple shops that will not do PPIs but will happily do a specified "checklist" inspection.

Also, JUST because a reputable mechanic worked on it/maintained it, does NOT mean it's a good car. Read a little more into Brian's and Dave's posts above....and do some searching as well. Good mechanics still maintain cars for people that do the bare minimum and refuse to do what the good mechanics recommend needs to be done....this is not a bad reflection on the mechanic at all, but just another "caveat emptor".