Free Dealer inspections?

[Conor D]

I'm looking at buying an MX5, I don't have much experience with buying cars and as such I don't want to buy a lemon..

I spoke to the Mazda dealer near the seller (it's private) and they said they do free vehicle inspections, but you have to book in. Any time we leave a car in with Toyota they give us an inspection which seems quite good, at least they'll have it up on the lift.

Are these inspections any good though? They're free, and hopefully they wouldn't come out and say "Oh, you needed a new engine, so er.. Here's an invoice".

Free inspection, HPi and a look over by myself?

[idge]

Perhaps i'm a bit mistrusting but surely the only reason they would do a free inspection is to potentially get some work out of it?

AA/RAC/Greenflag Check? At least they don't have any angle for making any more money from the report they give.

[UncappedTag]

Get them to check, then verify their finds elseware.

[mcford]

Don't use the MOT as an indication of the cars condition, it's only a basic check on selected parts without any dismantling or a road test.

[Engineer1]

The free dealer check over could be enough if the car isn't massively old, the dealership should know of any weak points etc. An AA or RAC test can be too thorough so unless you can confirm some ball park figures for repairs then you may get 100 issues which could be a 10p fix and all related or individual problems at £10 a go.

[bazking69]

mcford said:

Don't use the MOT as an indication of the cars condition, it's only a basic check on selected parts without any dismantling or a road test.

Good advice.

[spikeyhead]

bazking69 said:

mcford said:

Don't use the MOT as an indication of the cars condition, it's only a basic check on selected parts without any dismantling or a road test.

Good advice.

How many inspections are going to dismantle a car? If I were selling the car it's not having someone use a spanner on it until they've bought it.

[Jasandjules]

Frankly, you are better off paying an expert to undertake an inspection so at least you might have some recourse against them in the event that they miss a fundamental flaw in the car.

[Superhoop]

Where are you exactly? I looked at your profile, but it only says Ireland

I should be able to sort something out for you..... PM me and I'll explain in a little bit more detail,