Before You Buy · Bedford, Ohio
Pre-Purchase Inspections in Bedford
A used car looks its best in a driveway on a dry afternoon. It looks considerably more honest on a lift.
What to Check Before You Hand Over the Money
A pre-purchase inspection is the cheapest hour you will spend on a used vehicle. It is worth as much for what it tells you about the seller as for what it tells you about the car.
Bring us the vehicle before you buy it and we will go through it properly, the underside, the brakes, the fluids, the codes, the things a seller has no particular reason to mention.
What we look at
- Frame, rockers and underbody corrosion, the big one on a Northeast Ohio car
- Brake pads, rotors, lines and calipers
- Suspension, steering, bushings and wheel bearings
- Fluid condition and leaks, engine, transmission, coolant, differential
- Stored and pending trouble codes, plus readiness monitor status
- Tire age, wear pattern and matching
- Exhaust condition
- Belts, hoses, battery and charging
- Evidence of previous accident repair
What you get
A plain conversation about what the vehicle is. What is fine, what needs doing soon, what will need doing eventually, and what would make us walk away.
That last category matters. Some cars are worth buying with a list of faults attached because the price reflects it. Some are not worth buying at any price, usually because of what the salt has done to the structure. We will tell you which one you are looking at.
Arranging it
Call the shop and tell us what the vehicle is and roughly when you can get it here. You will need the seller to agree to let the car come to us, a private seller or a dealer who refuses that is telling you something in itself.
Often Goes With This
Diagnostics
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Brake Repair
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Suspension & Steering
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Fluid Film Undercoating
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Pre-Purchase Inspections. Common Questions
The car needs to come to the shop. Most of what matters is only visible with the vehicle on a lift.
That is worth paying attention to. A seller with nothing to hide usually has no problem with an inspection at an independent shop.
We will tell you what we found and what it means. Plenty of cars are worth buying with a repair list attached, the point is that you know the list before you pay, not after.
A road test, a look underneath on a lift, brakes, tires, suspension, fluid condition, leaks, and a scan for stored and pending fault codes.
Often. Panel gaps, paint texture differences, overspray and repaired structural areas are visible under a lift even when a history report shows nothing.
Because Ohio vehicles rust from underneath. Frame rails, subframes, brake lines and fuel lines are where we look, and that is exactly what you cannot see in a listing photo.
The vehicle needs to come here, since the inspection needs a lift to be worth anything.
That is information too. A seller with nothing to hide has no reason to refuse.
We will tell you the mechanical condition and what it needs. Pricing is your call, but knowing what is coming makes the negotiation easier.
3
Generations
Under the Hood
Same family, same shop, same corner of Bedford. Family auto-repair roots here date back to 1966.
- Year, make and model
- What the car is doing
- Any warning lights that are on
- When it started
- Whether it is drivable
- Any inspection report or previous diagnosis
Call About Pre-Purchase Inspections
There is no booking form here, because there is no booking system behind it. You get whoever picks up the phone at the shop, which is faster anyway, and they can tell you what the week looks like.
Tell us what the car is doing.
803 Broadway Ave, Bedford, OH 44146