The multi-point inspection
every point, and what each one costs you

Most buyers inspect your car and then hand you a figure, and the connection between the two is left for you to guess at. We do it the other way round: the inspection is a conversation, you hear what was found while the car is still on the lift, and the number comes after. This page is the checklist itself, so you know what's coming before you arrive.

An offer with no explanation is impossible to argue with, which is exactly why so many buyers structure it that way.

If a number arrives with no reasoning attached, your only options are accept it or walk. You can't tell whether the deduction for the tires is fair, because you were never told there was one.

So we invert it. Our team goes through the car, writes down what they found, and walks you through the list. Then the number. Every item you hear about is an item you can question, and some of them you'll be able to answer — the noise is a known thing, the light came on last week, the service was done and here's the receipt.

That conversation regularly moves the figure upward. It can't do that if it happens after the offer.

About forty minutes on a typical car, longer on a truck or anything with a complicated history. You're welcome to stand there for all of it and most people do.

People brace for the wrong things. Cosmetic items feel enormous when it's your car and usually aren't. The expensive findings are the ones you can't see.

Here's the honest ranking of what changes an offer in this market, largest first.

Whatever happens next, you leave with the findings. Written down, itemized, yours to keep.

People use it in ways that have nothing to do with us, and that's fine. It's a negotiating document if you're going to trade the car in somewhere else. It's a to-do list if you're keeping it. It's a disclosure list if you're selling privately, and knowing what a buyer will find is worth more than hoping they don't look.

There is no charge for it and no obligation attached. We'd rather be the people who told you what was wrong with your car than the people who used it as leverage.

Worth being clear, because the phrase "multi-point inspection" means different things at different businesses.

This is a seller-side inspection. It exists to value a vehicle we're considering buying. It is not a pre-purchase inspection for a car you're thinking of buying elsewhere, it isn't a state safety inspection, and it isn't a mechanic's diagnosis with a repair plan attached.

If you need any of those three, a good independent shop is the right call and we'll say so rather than take your afternoon.

The whole inspection can happen at your address instead, and for a lot of people that's easier than getting the car across town.

One honest limitation: there is no lift in your driveway. We check the underbody as thoroughly as ramps and lighting allow, which is enough on most vehicles and not enough on a rusty one. Where it matters, we'll say the number is subject to a look on the lift rather than quietly assume the worst.

Everything else — the scan, the history report, tires, brakes, electronics, the road test — is identical.

None of it is required to get an inspection. Bring what you have.