Buyer's guide
Pre-purchase car inspection: what it is and what it costs
Before you hand over thousands for a used car, you want to know what you're actually buying. There are two ways to do that — and the smart move is to start with the cheap one.
The traditional way: a shop inspection
A pre-purchase inspection at a mechanic shop is the gold standard. A technician puts the car on a lift, checks the brakes, suspension, leaks, and frame, and tells you what's wrong. It's thorough — and it costs $100 to $300 per car.
- You find a car you like and call a local shop.
- You schedule the inspection — often days out.
- You pay $100–$300 per car, whether you buy it or not.
- You do it all again for the next car on your list.
If you're comparing three or four cars, that's $300–$1,200 in inspections before you've bought anything. Most people skip it — and gamble instead.
The smart first step: a $14.99 Buyer's Inspection Report
Before you pay a shop anything, run the car's VIN through DRVIQ. In seconds you'll know the car's exact factory specs and every open federal safety recall — the problems the seller may not mention, or may not even know about.
- Full factory specs decoded from the VIN
- Open federal safety recalls with plain-English explanations
- Red-flag summary you can bring to the seller
- Printable report you can keep or share
If the report shows serious open recalls or the specs don't match the listing, you walk away — and you've spent $14.99 instead of $200. If it looks clean, then a shop inspection is money well spent on a car worth inspecting.
Free VIN check first. The full Buyer's Inspection Report is $14.99. See a sample report
What a report can't tell you
We're honest about this: no report replaces a mechanic's hands on the car. A VIN report won't catch a worn clutch, a hidden oil leak, or fresh bodywork over an old crash. That's exactly why the $14.99 report comes first — it weeds out the cars that were never worth a $200 inspection, so your shop money goes toward a car you'll actually buy.
Compare: a single CARFAX report costs $44.99. See the full comparison