Car purchase appraisal

[Den41Buick]

Has anyone used a company or person to conduct an appraisal/inspection of a car they were looking to purchase outside of there area? What was your experience positive or negative.

Can anyone recommend anyone in Michigan? Thanks

[Dynaflash8]

Nobody but the prospective buyer, in person, is ever going to appraise one of my cars that might be for sale. I went down that road once; never again.

[Shop Rat]

This is an excellent group to check out. It is called I-VAN.

I-VAN - Your Source for Fast and Accurate Auto Appraisals

[D Yaros]

I did, and I was very satisfied. I am in WI. The car to be inspected was in WA. The inspection/appraisal report included well over 100 photos for me to peruse. The reason I was satisfied was that the report convinced me NOT to buy the car!

Who did I use? Automobile Inspections

[Paul Dobbin]

There is no substitute for seeing the car yourself. Like arranged marriages,

chances of happiness are deminished when somebody else does the looking.

Recently a friend bought a car using a inspector with good credentials and paid top dollar for a car worth less than half of what he paid based on the inspection. Turns out the seller & the inspector knew each other.

Having flown and driven all over the country to inspect what I was interested in buying and had predetermined to buy it if as advertised, I have a less than 50% buy rate.

The cost of travel to do your own inspection is forgotten long before the pain of

a bad purchase or the feeling of be cheated. If you're not sure of values, hire an appraiser and go with him.

[impala]

I support what Susan (shop rat) said about I-van. I found them professional, reasonable and available nationwide.

impala

[Guest Mochet]

I rarely get the same type of car twice, so I never really know what I'm getting until I start to restore it. Also, when I travel to see a car, I emotionally want to get it. A cold-blooded appraisal sounds like a good idea to me!

Phil

[Larry Schramm]

I agree that nothing beats you looking at the car you are thinking about buying.

That said, I am fortunate that I have a few friends around the country that are highly qualified and I trust to look at a vehicle for me.

[Shop Rat]

My husband Bill and I have done two inspections of cars for prospective buyers. One that ended in the person that hired us not buying the car because it was not as the seller had portrayed it.

The other did purchase the car based on our inspection and he was happy with his purchase. The $75 he paid us was WAY cheaper than the flight he had done to look at a vehicle himself that was quite aways from where he lived only to find out it was not at all what he was lead to believe it was.

In both cases we were not at all involved in the price being asked or paid. What we did was go and look at the vehicles, using the AACA judging sheet as a guideline for condition and checking for correctness or absence of parts.

We took many detailed photos and sent those along with a written explanation of what we found when we inspected it. Bill and the owner of the T-Bird that was purchased went for a drive in it with Bill doing the driving to get a firsthand feel for the car.

[Dynaflash8]

My experience was when I was selling a car through a dealer. They called in some "appraiser" from Canada (as I understood it) who totally cut up my AACA National Senior car. It not only killed that sale, but the dealer wanted to cut my price severally. I will never, ever allow an "appraiser" to review any car I have to sell in the future. If somebody wants to every buy one of my cars again, he or she can spend the money to come and look at it themselves. This is also why I will only allow a dealer who I trust a whole lot to offer one of my cars for sale too.

[Steve9]

Dynaflash, I thought your first posting was a little harsh, but after hearing the rest of the story, I'm with you 100%!