Pre-Purchase Vehicle Inspection — Gauteng (We Come to the Car)

You are about to hand over R100,000 or more to someone you have never met, for a car you have driven once. We look at it first, at the seller's address, and tell you what is there.

What we check

• Body and paint — panel alignment, colour and texture match, evidence of previous accident repair, rust in the sills, arches and spare wheel well
• Wheels and tyres — measured tread on all four and the spare, wear pattern, tyre age, mismatched brands
• Under the bonnet — oil and coolant, visible leaks, belts, battery condition
• Suspension, steering and brakes — leaks, play, knocks, disc and pad condition where visible
• Interior and electrics — every warning lamp at ignition including whether any have been disabled, aircon, windows, locking, instruments
• Road test — cold start where possible, idle, gearbox through every gear, clutch, braking and steering under load, temperature behaviour, hot restart
• Documentation — service history read against the odometer, and whether the mileage is plausible for the car's condition

What you get

A written report the same day, with photographs of every significant finding, ending in one of three things: buy it, buy it with conditions, or walk away — and the reasons.

It also lists what needs doing and roughly what it costs. If we find R4,000 of tyres and R3,000 of brakes due, that is R7,000 the seller has not priced in, and it is yours to negotiate with.

What is not included — read this before you book

This inspection does not include an electronic fault-code scan. We do not yet own diagnostic equipment we would put our name to, so we do not offer it. That means we cannot read faults stored in the car's computer, and we cannot tell whether a warning light was cleared shortly before we arrived.

A workshop will run a scan for a few hundred rand. Send us the results and we will read them for you at no charge.

We also do not dismantle anything, do not put the car on a lift, and cannot guarantee that intermittent faults will appear on the day. Whatever we could not check, the report says so.

How it works

Send us the make, model, year and where the car is standing. Inspections run on Saturdays across Johannesburg and Pretoria. Payment on completion, once you have the report.

We do not sell cars, we do not carry out repairs, and we take no commission from any workshop. There is nothing in this for us except getting it right.

If you are not happy with the report, do not pay us.