Home → Services → Pre-Purchase Inspection → Sample Report
Pre-purchase inspectionThis is what a pre-purchase inspection report actually looks like
Everyone selling inspections promises a "full report." Almost nobody shows you one before you pay. Here's mine, a complete sample, so you can judge the format before you book. Real measurements in millimetres, an honest codes scan, the Ontario rust verdict, and findings that turn into negotiation numbers from published GTA ranges, not vibes.
The scope below reads "150-point" and that number is a published list, not a slogan: all 150 are numbered on their own page across 14 systems. In this sample, 142 came back OK, 3 became negotiation numbers and 5 went in the file as monitor items. 142 + 3 + 5 = 150. Price is $120–$250 flat, no parts, no add-ons, no hourly rate.
The vehicle below is a representative example, not a real customer's car. Your report carries the actual VIN, actual measurements, and photos of the actual car, delivered before you hand over a deposit.
Pre-Purchase Inspection Report, 2018 Honda CR-V EX AWD (sample)
VIN 2HKRW2H•••••••••• (masked in this sample, real reports show the full VIN). Dash plate, door-jamb sticker and under-hood stamp all match, no re-VIN flags. Odometer reading is consistent with pedal, wheel and seat wear. Seller's name matches the ownership, not a curbsider flipping under a friend's name. Open-recall lookup run; nothing outstanding on this sample unit. I also tell you to pull the UVIP before you sign, it's the seller's legal job to provide it.
Full OBD-II scan: no stored codes, no pending codes. All readiness monitors show complete, and that line matters more than the empty code list. When a seller clears a check-engine light before your visit, the codes vanish but the monitors reset to "not ready." A clean scan with complete monitors means nothing was erased recently. That's the honesty check most buyers never hear about.
Pad material measured, not eyeballed. Fronts healthy; rears at the point where rotors are getting involved, rear rotors show lipping and light scoring.
Tread measured with a gauge at three points per tire. Even wear across each tire, alignment is behaving. DOT date codes show the set is a few years old. Roughly two seasons of life left at typical driving; no cords, no sidewalk-rash bulges, no mismatched brands.
Ball joints, tie rods, control-arm bushings and wheel bearings checked under load, tight, no play, no torn boots. Struts show no leakage and the truck-stop bounce test settles in one. One rear sway-bar link has faint play, not a safety item and not worth money off yet; it goes in the file as a monitor item so you're not surprised in a year. Steering rack dry, no clunk over the test bumps.
Engine oil: level slightly above the full mark with a faint fuel smell, a known behaviour of this 1.5L turbo engine in cold climates, where fuel works into the oil on short winter trips. Not a walk-away on its own, but it means shorter oil-change intervals and it's exactly the kind of thing a seller won't mention. Coolant: correct spec, clean, no oil sheen. Brake fluid: moisture test borderline, flush due within the year, routine maintenance. CVT fluid: checked at the dipstick, darkening but not burnt; a drain-and-fill is due by the book. All noted so you inherit a maintenance list, not a mystery.
Battery: original-fitment unit, date code says it's lived a full life, tested weak under load. It'll start the car all summer and leave you stranded on the first hard frost. Charging output: healthy at idle and under load. Serpentine belt: cracking across the ribs, normal at this mileage, cheap now, expensive when it lets go on the highway.
This is a GTA car that's seen salted winters, and the underside says so honestly: surface rust on the rear subframe seams and exhaust hangers, normal for the age, no perforation, no structural scaling. Brake and fuel lines solid, no flaking. Just as important: no fresh undercoating, a brand-new black spray on an eight-year-old underbody is usually hiding something, and I call that out when I see it. Frame rails straight, no crash-repair welds, no crush-zone wrinkles.
Cold start witnessed. I ask the seller not to warm the car up before I arrive, because a pre-warmed engine hides rough cold starts and startup rattles. CVT engages cleanly, no shudder or flare from city speed through highway merge. Tracks straight hands-light, no pull under hard braking, no fade after repeated stops. No suspension clunks over the bad-pavement loop. Heat and A/C both do their job, all windows, locks and driver-assist cameras working.
Verdict, buy it, but negotiate first
Negotiation items found: 3, rear brakes ($350–$700), battery ($180–$450), serpentine belt ($150–$350). That's roughly $680–$1,500 estimated using published GTA ranges, real numbers you hand the seller, not a feeling. Everything else is honest wear for the mileage, logged as monitor items so you know what's coming.
If the seller moves on price, the inspection paid for itself several times over. If they won't budge, you still know exactly what you're inheriting, and sometimes the right answer is to walk away. That's the report doing its job too.
And notice what those three findings are: rear pads and rotors, a battery, a serpentine belt. All three are driveway jobs. So if you buy this car and have Fares do that work, the inspection fee comes off the repair, the exact fee on your invoice, off one repair of $400 or more, on this car, booked within 30 days. The bounded terms are published here, including what they don't cover. Ranges for those exact jobs live on the cost guides and in the rate card.
A real report doesn't end at "here's what's wrong." It ends at a number you can hand the seller and a repair you can actually book. That's the block right below this one, the three findings above are already ticked in it.
And when a finding isn't my work, the report says that too. If an inspection turns up a timing chain, a clutch, a head gasket or internal engine trouble, I don't quietly quote it, I turn that work down, because it needs a lift, a press or a full day and mobile is the wrong way to do it. What you get instead is the straight version: what it is, that it belongs in the negotiation, and that you should get a written shop quote for the number. If you want a sanity check on that quote, a second-opinion diagnostic is $100–$250 flat at your location, and if you walk away from the car, the next one gets a $120–$250 inspection.
From findings → to a negotiation number → to a booked repair
This is the part most inspections skip. The three findings from the sample above are pre-ticked. Untick them, add whatever your own report found, and the number rebuilds itself from the published GTA ranges, the same public file the seller can open to check you. Then there's a message written for the seller, and a real window to book the work afterwards.
The report above is a representative sample, an illustrative vehicle and illustrative data, shown so you can judge the format. It is not a real customer's car and not a safety certificate. Real reports carry the actual VIN, the actual measurements, and photos of the actual car at every finding, sent to your phone the same day, before money changes hands. Negotiation estimates always come from the same published GTA ranges everyone can see.
Found a car you're serious about?
Don't wait on a callback, pick a real window below and it's held. $120–$250 flat, confirmed in writing before the visit, at the seller's location in Mississauga, Oakville, Milton, Brampton or Etobicoke. Still deciding whether the car is worth the hour? Paste the listing here first.
Get a flat quote on anything else
Brakes, suspension, no-start, cooling, leaks, same driveway, flat quote first.