What a Pre Purchase Inspection Costs

A pre purchase inspection from PPI Auto costs $225 for most cars, pickups and SUVs, anywhere in the 50 states.

• The full 122 point inspection, the same one on every vehicle
• A complete OBD scan, including codes a seller cleared recently
• Photographs of anything worth seeing, not just a checklist
• A written report you keep, whether you buy the vehicle or walk
• A plain answer about whether it is worth the asking price

Most vehicles are the flat price. The ones below it are quoted because the work is genuinely bigger, and we would rather give you a real number on the phone than a range that means nothing.

Inspection pricing is usually vague on purpose. You call, you get a range, and the number firms up once somebody is already standing at the car. We would rather publish it.

So $225 is what it costs, and it is the same in Los Angeles, Atlanta or a small town three hours from either. The price does not move because the vehicle turned out to be further away than it looked, and it does not move because we found something. Finding things is the job.

Advanced tests that mean taking parts off the car, like a compression, leak down or combustion leak test, cost extra. We only run them after you say yes. If the scan or the road test points at something deeper, we tell you what the next test would show and let you decide.

A used vehicle is one of the few things people buy for thousands without anyone qualified looking at it first. $225 against that is small. One transmission that was slipping on the test drive, one accident repair hidden under fresh paint, one diesel with a scan full of stored codes, and the inspection has paid for itself several times over.

The report is also the strongest thing you can take into a price negotiation. A list of faults with photographs and repair costs is much harder for a seller to argue with than a feeling that something is off.