What makes our inspection process different… and useful
Is a “free Multipoint Inspection” a deal? Should you trust a “Free Brake Inspection”? Is our own 90-Point Inspection worth your time? Is our flagship Comprehensive Inspection worth the money?
Every auto repair shop has a “multipoint inspection” of some type. Some are actually intended to find vehicle problems while others are little more than superficial sales tools for the shop. We think our structured and meticulous inspection process is critical to quality care for your vehicle, but why? What makes the difference? Why aren’t we “just trying to sell you something” too? Here are some tips on how to tell the good from the bad in any auto inspection, but also some insight to our own inspection process and why we rely so heavily on it.
Only Get An Inspection You Can Trust
There are some good inspection processes, but far too many shops offer inconsistent once-overs designed to benefit the Shop instead of the Client. Bad automotive inspections are more than just useless- they can be expensive if you buy a used vehicle already beyond repair, or even dangerous if there’s false security about a critical system about to go bad. Make sure you trust the shop performing the inspection, make sure it’s complete, and make sure there are quality folks doing it.
Who Needs An Inspection?
Inspections or diagnosis (there IS a difference, see below) are necessary when there’s a problem with your vehicle, but inspections are valuable from the time you buy your vehicle through the time you sell it.
- YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE A THOROUGH PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION DONE OF ANY VEHICLE YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT BUYING BEFORE YOU BUY IT! We hate doing “post-purchase” inspections for clients who just bought a vehicle. We’re all too often the bearers of bad news when our inspection uncovers a must-do problem that will cost thousands of dollars!
- For reasonably well-maintained vehicles with under 40,000 miles, inspections are less important and may find few issues at all but they can still catch developing problems early. If a vehicle has over 60,000 miles, hasn’t been well maintained, or already has problems, it should be inspected more often and you can expect a longer list of repairs. We recommend every vehicle be physically inspected after the first 30,000 miles and on a continuing basis thereafter.
- Inspections can help decide if an expensive repair is ‘worth it’ or not. For example a $5000 engine replacement on a 10-year-old car might make sense, but might not if it still needs thousands more in additional service to be roadworthy.
- An inspection lets you know about any potential problems if you’re getting ready to sell or give a vehicle to friends or family.
Why Can’t I use Mileage Service Intervals?
Mileage-based Service Menus (Menu Services) are packages of services “due” at major mileage intervals like 30-, 60-, and 90,000 miles. They’re built around “average” drivers driving “average” vehicles in “average” conditions. In our opinion, Service Menus are tools to sell highly-profitable services without the hard work of actually evaluating vehicles. A shop can sell their expensive Service Package first and then make the dreaded “second call” to sell more (and possibly more important) work “noticed” once your vehicle “got up on the rack”.
- Mileage recommendations are useful guides and we certainly consider them in our own vehicle evaluations, but they weren’t designed with you in mind.
- Menu Services don’t consider the impact of your personal driving style or local conditions, so will only be approximately correct for your personal vehicle.
- Menu Services don’t reliably predict things like brake or tire wear, fluid leaks, unusual wear, or other potential failures, and don’t include services done between mileage intervals at all.
- Menu Servies don’t account for other, possibly more important needs the vehicle may have developed that aren’t on “the list”. They don’t consider the actual condition of your vehicle.
Questions To Ask About A Vehicle Inspection
To know the value of any vehicle inspection, you have to know what the shop is doing when they’re “inspecting” your vehicle.
- Who’s doing the inspection? There’s no substitute for training and experience in anyone examining your car. Make sure your inspector is ASE-Certified, or ASE-Master-Certified if possible.
- How long should an inspection take? Quality inspections can’t be done quickly or sitting in a shop’s parking lot. Worthwhile inspections take time, training, and equipment. Between road-testing, physical inspection, history review, technical service and recall searches we need a vehicle for at least two hours for a 90-point inspection and at least four hours for a Comprehensive Inspection.
- How deep does the inspection go? There’s value to light lookovers AND deep inspections, but they aren’t the same. For a deep inspection, vehicles should be road-tested to expose driving issues that don’t leave visual evidence. Brake pads can be superficially examined with wheels in place, but the wheels need to be removed to be properly measured for service. Vehicles must be “put up on the rack” to relieve pressure for proper suspension check. Things like your timing belt can’t be checked directly, so the shop should have complete records of when these inaccessible components were last addressed.
- What happens with the results? Don’t settle for just a list of potential repairs because not all the issues found in a vehicle inspection will be equally important. Make sure your results are explained thoroughly with safety or breakdown issues emphasized. We fully explain every result of the inspection in plain language and prioritize our service recommendations by safety, breakdown prevention, and maintenance. You can schedule any needed work at the time of inspection or bring it back to us at a time that works better for you.
Why Not A Specialty Shop?
Always have your vehicle inspected by a full-service auto shop because a useful vehicle inspection should cover the entire vehicle equally. Auto shops that specialize in one type of service (like mufflers, brakes, tires, or convenience oil changes) have lots of incentive to find problems in their specialty but little incentive to consider the rest of the car. Besides, it makes sense to get your vehicle inspected at a shop that can fix anything they find.
The Tom Dwyer Inspection Process
We’ve developed our industry-leading, multi-level inspection processes through over 40 years of use and refinement for one reason: No one can make intelligent decisions about a vehicle without knowing its precise mechanical condition, and a sensible inspection program is the only way to get that information.
Our inspection process is designed to give you real-time, accurate information to drive more safely and confidently and to get the most value from your vehicle maintenance dollars. We have three levels of inspection, each with a unique role in mechanical maintenance and upkeep…
90-point Inspection
This is our first-level inspection; what other shops commonly call an “in-depth” or “multipoint” inspection. In ours, an ASE-Certified Technician does the most thorough inspection possible without invasive disassembly. Combined with regular Minor Interval Services and a Comprehensive Inspection on a roughly yearly basis, 90-Points are a great way to proactively stay on top of your vehicle’s needs… or to get some “peace of mind” before a big road trip.
Comprehensive Inspection (IFR)
Also called an “Inspection-For-Repair” (IFR), this is a much deeper version of our 90-Point Inspection. The IFR is a 130-point physical examination and evaluation of every reasonably accessible system of your vehicle… we remove wheels to measure brake pads, pull a spark plug to measure wear, test the steering and suspension, and much more. It also includes a vehicle road test, service history review, and Technical Service Bulletin and Active Recall search. Just ask a Service Advisor to show you one of our IFR forms and they’ll gladly explain how deep and detailed it is!
- We recommend an IFR to all our New Clients to establish a mechanical baseline for their vehicle, and then again every year or so.
- Plan at least half a day for an IFR; more if you expect service will be necessary. Plan to leave your vehicle with us all day for the inspection alone. If you anticipate service will be needed then plan to leave the vehicle with us for the day and get it to us as early as possible.
- A Comprehensive Inspection DOESN’T cover EVERY system. Some parts like timing belts or head gaskets can’t be accessed without major work. We can only go by mileage recommendations on these inaccessible components.
- A Comprehensive Inspection is thorough but it’s NOT a diagnosis. Sometimes an IFR might uncover an obvious problem with an obvious solution, but sometimes a more in-depth diagnostic exam may be needed as well.
- A Comprehensive Inspection is NOT a crystal ball. We can give our best professional analysis of what’s coming up for your vehicle, but we can’t predict the future. Our IFR is not a guarantee that something won’t fail on your vehicle.
Post-service Checkout (40-point Inspection)
Even many of our longest-term clients don’t know it, but we do a 40-point Post-Service Inspection on every vehicle that comes through the shop. It’s mostly an internal check on our work, but also a final set of eyes checking that your vehicle is in its best possible mechanical condition. Here are just some of the 40 key points we check every time your vehicle is serviced:
- Engine oil and other vital fluid levels are checked (documented if abnormal) and topped off
- Under-hood inspection
- Check and replace any lights or signal bulbs
- Check and set tire pressures
- We even make sure your clock is set right!
Just a little more about inspections
Pre-Purchase Inspections
We think it’s absolutely essential to get a thorough inspection of any vehicle you intend to buy BEFORE you buy it… we’ve seen all too many vehicles inspected AFTER purchase when unknown problems costing thousands of dollars. The $200-$300 you’ll spend is cheap insurance against the unexpected or the undisclosed. We’ve stopped doing Pre-Purchase inspections in most cases, a prime reason being that we require the vehicle for the entire day and most sellers aren’t eager to let it go for that long. But, if you call our shop, we’ll either get you in when your-and-the-seller’s schedules allow, or we’ll gladly recommend a Pre-Purchase Inspector that we trust.
Inspections aren’t diagnostics
Inspections show that there IS a problem, but diagnostics tell WHY there is a problem. Sometimes an inspection is all that’s necessary to diagnose; for example, if the inspection identifies a worn belt then there’s not much diagnostic effort to determine a fix. Other times diagnosis is critical; for example, if an inspection shows your battery isn’t getting enough charge then further diagnosis may be necessary to determine which of several possible systems is failing. Make sure your Service Advisor knows exactly what problem you’re having, or why you want the inspection to begin with, so they can warn you about any issues that might require further diagnostics.
