Pre-Purchase Inspection (PPI) Survey

[RyanH.]

My friend and I are working on a project to create a directory of PPI services as well as possibly connect enthusiasts willing to check out cars on behalf of potential buyers. Where to get a PPI for a particular car is a recurring, common question on a lot of forums, so we figured it made sense to aggregate that into a single resource as well as separate the reviews of the PPI from the shop’s Yelp reviews.

If you have a few minutes and know a shop or more that you’d be willing to recommend to others, can you complete our brief survey?

https://forms.gle/JVP4KFvzLz6ztbBF9

[MichaelB]

A PPI can be valuable for sure, but unfortunately many buyers have used it as a tool against the provider. For example I witnessed a vintage Ferrari buyer process a law suit against a shop (that offered their PPI services) years after the sale. The sale went well enough, but later on the engine was rebuilt and found to have a crack that had a weld repair on the block from decades earlier. This weld was not mentioned in the PPI (as it was not visible without dismantling) and the "buyer" felt that the shop who performed that PPI service was liable for the correction (correction as in replace the vintage Ferrari engine block). Many legal case dollars were tossed about afterwards.

Now shops (and individual enthusiasts) have gotten weary of even taking on PPI services. Most well versed shops now will only offer an opinion on a car without the extraordinary liability of a detailed "inspection."

[deckard]

i bought a '67 912 sight unseen original paint car a year and a half ago. no ppi
i bought a '92 C2 five speed coupe before that. no ppi.
before that a '68T sight unseen. no ppi. and before that a '94 C4 widebody which i drove but no ppi done.
if i were to have waited to have a ppi done on any of those cars i would not have had them.
before them an '86 911, a '75 911, an '82, a 68L no ppi's done.

[RyanH.]

Buying cars sight unseen is what is prompting this idea. PPI's are hit and miss. You can have a shop with great yelp reviews but they only do surface level mechanical things on the PPI. It'd be great to compile a resource of shops that are actually knowledgeable in certain makes and models.

[Bucketlist]

My 2¢......I'm not a believer in PPIs. I have bought and sold special interest cars all of my life and never had a PPI coming or going. If you need a PPI you shouldn't be buying this type of a car in the first place. I have worked for shops that do PPIs and seen the total lack of interest when your "expert" gets one of these "fluff jobs". From a sellers point of view, you will miss the good buyer and be stuck with the nit picking, price cutting guy you don't want.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by RyanH.

...You can have a shop with great yelp reviews...

Yelp was the wrong choice. The majority of Yelp reviews are fake from unscrupulous customers who use them as a weapon. Yelp has been sued for poor business practices and lost.

Google reviews are just as fraudulent.