You’ve found a used car on Kijiji or Marketplace. The price looks right. The owner seems fine. You want to know what you’re actually buying before you hand over $20,000.
That’s what a pre-purchase inspection is for. About an hour on the hoist by someone who has no reason to lie to you. Here’s what we actually check, and — just as important — what a PPI (pre-purchase inspection) is and isn’t.
What a pre-purchase inspection is
A pre-purchase inspection is a diagnostic. We look at the car end to end and give you an honest report on what we find. Nothing more, nothing less.
It’s a different thing from an Alberta out-of-province vehicle inspection — that’s the formal government-required certification when you register a vehicle brought in from another province. Different form, different scope, different purpose.
A PPI is also not a guarantee. Even a thorough inspection can miss an intermittent problem that only shows up two weeks later. What it does do: catch the obvious stuff, catch most of the not-obvious stuff, and give you leverage in the price conversation.
Most PPIs at our shop take about an hour of hoist time.
What we actually look at
Roughly in the order we do it.
Body and frame from underneath. We put it on the hoist first. Rust on the frame rails, evidence of past collision repair, welds that shouldn’t be there, panels that don’t line up right. A car that was rear-ended and rebuilt cheap will often look fine from the sidewalk and terrible from underneath.
Suspension and steering. Wheels off the ground, we grab each tire and check for play. Bushings, tie rods, ball joints, sway bar links, wheel bearings. On a 10-year-old car, at least one or two of these are usually starting to wear. That’s normal — but you should know before you buy.
Brakes. Pad thickness on all four corners, rotor condition (grooves, warping, minimum thickness), calipers seized or leaking, brake lines cracked. Also brake fluid condition — cheap to change, expensive to ignore.
Tires. Tread depth on all four (and the spare), even wear vs cupping vs feathering, sidewall condition, DOT date code so you know the actual age. A car with tires that are 8 years old needs new tires soon, regardless of tread.
Exhaust. Leaks, hangers, cat converter present (missing or gutted is a huge red flag), muffler condition. Exhaust work isn’t the end of the world, but it’s a negotiating point.
Under the hood. Fluid levels and condition — engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering, transmission where you can check it. Belts and hoses for cracks or bulging. Battery age. Engine mounts. Signs of oil or coolant leaks — small seeps that a seller wouldn’t necessarily point out.
OBD-II diagnostic scan. Every car built after 1996 has a computer that logs codes. We plug in and pull them — current codes, pending codes, and codes that were recently cleared. That last one matters: someone clearing codes right before selling is a signal. If the check-engine light is off, that doesn’t automatically mean the car is fine. More on engine diagnostics here.
Electrical basics. All exterior lights, wipers, horn, dash warnings, power windows, HVAC actually blowing hot and cold. Not glamorous. Almost always finds at least one bulb out.
Road test. Highway speed if we can, brake feel, transmission shift quality (auto or manual), any pull or drift, any weird vibration, any noise that shows up warm that wasn’t there cold.
At the end you get a plain-English list. Green light: nothing significant. Yellow light: things to be aware of, negotiate on, or plan to fix in the next year. Red light: don’t buy this car, or drop the price by $X to cover what’s needed.
What a PPI can’t tell you
A PPI catches condition, not future failure. We can tell you the timing chain is fine right now; we can’t tell you it’ll be fine two years from now. We can tell you the transmission is shifting normally; we can’t guarantee it won’t grenade in 40,000 km.
A CarFax report tells you registration and accident history. That’s a separate check the seller (or you) can pull online — worth doing alongside the PPI.
We also don’t do body-shop-level paint or collision inspections. If the car has obvious body damage, we’ll flag it and recommend a body shop for a real estimate.
When to bring it in
Ideally, bring the car in before you agree on a price. If the seller won’t let you take it to an independent shop for a PPI, that’s information too.
Call (403) 243-4204 with the year, make and model and we’ll book you in. Most inspections we can do same-week; we’ll give you a quote up front before you commit.
FAQ
How long does a pre-purchase inspection take?
About an hour of hoist time in most cases. Plan for two hours total — dropping it off, the actual inspection, and a walk-through of the findings with you before you go.
Can I get a pre-purchase inspection on a car I’m buying privately?
Yes — that’s what most PPIs are for. Bring the car in, or arrange with the seller to meet at the shop. We give you the report; the seller doesn’t get a copy unless you decide to share it.
Do I need a pre-purchase inspection if the car is a certified used from a dealer?
You still can, and a lot of buyers do. Dealer certifications vary widely — some are thorough, some are checklists someone signed off on in 15 minutes. A second set of eyes doesn’t hurt.
Is a pre-purchase inspection the same as an out-of-province inspection?
They’re different. A pre-purchase inspection is a diagnostic — a full look for your own information. An out-of-province inspection is a formal government-required certification when you’re registering a vehicle in Alberta that came from another province. Different purpose, different paperwork.
Buying a used car works out better when you know what you’re looking at. Give us a call and we’ll take a look before you hand over the money.