Racv Pre-purchase Inspection.worthwhile?

Hi guys,
I was wondering if anyone else here has had a pre-purchase car inspection by the RACV and whether its worth doing.

Do they check the car properly?

Also what is a good reading for a VCT AU engine compression test-XR6?

Anyone?

[Gilesie]

I have heard both good and bad.
About 10 years ago my brother bought a VL Dunnydoor and got an RACV inspection he drove the car aprox. 15Kilometers and the auto shyte itself.
So I think it just may depend on the mechanic that looks at it.

[ratter]

pre purchase inspections are a good idea whether it be by RACV or by your mechanic, but you have to remember, not all things will show up as being about to fail.

[brenx]

I personally would save your $ and spend it making the car r/w or fixing issues.

[pauljh74]

Originally Posted by brenx

I personally would save your $ and spend it making the car r/w or fixing issues.

If you don't know what to look for, then getting someone to look at it is worth the approx $100 it is for the inspection. Otherwise, you could get a heap and spend thousands

[OLDFORDNUT]

they are designed for near new cars only,as a chip in paint on bumper for example has pass or fail no explanations so report will read paint condition fail ,10 mm tread depth on outside edge of tyre and 9.9mm on inside edge =tyres Fail
front end fail. just pointless on cars more than 2 years old as minor things that are not a problem = report that makes car sound like a pile of crap even though it might actually be a very nice machine.

[parawolf]

nicholas, sorry but I have to disagree with that comment that they are useless for older cars.

Going on a recent personal experience in looking for an older car (20 - 30 years old) the inspection pulled up massive amounts of things that I just could never have known by driving it or looking at myself. Things like the LPG install was not correct (don't have specific info as I don't have the report handy right now). Other things were like parts were welded into place making adjustments to front wheel alignment impossible.

I have to disagree about their usefullness, personally i reckon they are more useless on a car that is still covered by new car warranty than an older car.

[OLDFORDNUT]

i have seen the rediculous RACQ reports personally on 4 cars in last two years and can tell you they are rubbish,

Try this one,mini engine coil taken from engine and bolted to guard =read report says engine electrics fail,brake shoes fail,we had just put a full set of shoes on this car and RACQ guy said to buyer the shoes were around the wrong way,we pulled wheels off and checked ,nothing wrong so even though sale of mates car had fallen through after report we went and fronted him ,waste of time arrogant pig just siad bad luck ,we checked 17 fails on car and only two of them had the slightest bit of merit which we fixed and were even then only minor things that did not make car unsafe in any way.then mate takes his late model volvo in for customer and they fail it on several things which were just plain wrong including telling Lady that it would cost over $2000 to fix air conditioning,He found the guy had turned it on while test driving around 18km(should check trip meter before they run around in customers car )guess what he had heater knob turned on full so air con could not do its job .
i have seen lots of fails on these test reports that are just a joke or worse still plain wrong.i tell anyone i know to use them as it helps them bargain a price right down as they just make any car sound terrible.if you want a true report on an old car then forget the RACQ and other states equivelents.

[parawolf]

Well fair enough - you got a bad reporter. However after getting the report I went a discussed this with the seller of the car, and he reluctantly agreed with some of the things, and together we both negated a lot of the other 'failures'. However we would have been happy to overlook the agreed 'failures' had he wanted to conceed on price so at least these could be fixed. However he wouldn't be flexible at all. So fair enough we walked away.

Information is about communication. If you take everything on face value than it is worthless data.

[thunderoo]

Originally Posted by ratter

pre purchase inspections are a good idea whether it be by RACV or by your mechanic, but you have to remember, not all things will show up as being about to fail.

Spot on !!! We do alot of pre - purchases at our workshop....we go top to bottom of the vehicle....but in the end when we talk to the customer..we advise them..
1) Drive the vehicle around town and on the expressway...make sure that you are totaly happy with how the car drives and handles yourself as you will be the one driving it every day.
2) On seconed hand cars that have done a few klm's we make sure we tell customers ( with a good car ) that the car is fine and if you like the car ( whats mentioned in parragraph 1 ) But...even tho we have gone top to bottom of the car....there is alot of things that can be " covered up " and a full inspection will NOT be able to tell life expectencys of internal parts of an engine...gearbox...or diff. !! Totaly impossible to tell.

You can ussaly tell when an internal part is about to fail...eg a knock...a bad noise...or slippage..But sometimes an internal part can just decide to fail "on the spot" with no warning what so ever. Yes you can get some bad inspectors or some very picky ones...you just have to find a good mechanic / inspector.....which can be difficult....but ussaly "word of mouth" from other peaple will put you in the right direction !!

[Swordie]

I used a RACV test for a 2 year old car. I found out it was car previously written off and had no factory warranty. If I ever tried to sell the car the motor trade would have known its previous state and found it hard to get rid of. For the money I paid I’m very thankful to the RACV, they saved me thousands of dollars.

[DivHunter]

Where is it getting done and are you organising it directly?

They are worth it but some are better than others.

[LTDHO]

They're good value if you know nothing about the car. But like any business you will get a good report and bad ones.

I had one done on the LTD when i bought it. The car salesman put the bloke down (as they do) but I used the RACV to check for anything I had missed, ie Third opinion.

Car still great, only thing that needed fixing after I bought it wwas the cruise switches.

[OzJavelin]

My two cents .. don't buy a car you can't see/test yourself. You'll get a "feel" for what the car is like. A pre-inspection is a good thing, but it's just part of the buying process. Unfortunately I bypassed this process a few years ago and bought a car in Qld sight-unseen based upon an inspection from a supposedly "reputable" company [ who's name is an acronym for Very Important Person ]. The car was junk and the inspection not worth the paper it was written on. I believe this company sub-contract, and the quality of their contractors is IMHO p1ss-poor. I'd trust the RACV, RACV, NRMA, etc far more than these yokals ..

[Swordie]

If you have a trusted mechanic it might be worth dropping the car off there.