“The seller says everything’s perfect.”
Caveat emptor reality
Every seller says that. We’ve seen "perfect" cars with bent frames, hidden flood damage, oil-burning engines, and stripped service histories. The inspection is the verification.
Pre-Purchase Inspection
Inspect it free — before you wire the money.
Considering a used European car? Bring it before you buy. Full mechanical inspection, cosmetic walk-around, factory-tool scan + fault-code report, frame check, drive test, and a written report with photos. Always free — we’d rather earn your repair business after the purchase.
Always free
Photo + report
Same-day turnaround
32yrFamily-run since 1993
45+Yrs ASE European experience
48mo/48kParts + labor warranty
BoschCertified shop
PACNationwide warranty network
If any of this sounds familiar
The seller’s carfax is clean. Doesn’t mean the car is.
Used European cars hide expensive surprises that no carfax catches and no test drive surfaces. A 60-minute professional inspection from someone who works on the platform every day is the cheapest insurance you can buy — and ours is free.
“The carfax is clean but the frame doesn’t sit right.”
Carfax-clean ≠ damage-free
Many accidents never get reported. Visual frame inspection on a lift catches what carfax misses — uneven panel gaps, paint thickness mismatches, suspicious frame welds, evidence of paint touch-up.
“The mileage seems low for the wear I’m seeing.”
Odometer rollback
Factory scan tools can read stored mileage values from multiple modules — cluster, transmission, key, infotainment. If they don’t match, the odometer was tampered with. Common on 10+ year old cars.
“The dealer won’t allow an independent PPI.”
"No PPI" = walk away
Any reputable seller welcomes an independent inspection. A refusal — even with creative excuses — is your single best signal to walk away. We see this most often on auction-flip cars.
Our approach
Mechanical. Cosmetic. Electronic. Honest.
Most "pre-purchase inspections" at chain shops are 30 minutes of walking around the car with a flashlight. They check tire tread, look under the hood for leaks, and call it done. They miss frame damage, hidden electrical faults, deferred maintenance, and odometer tampering.
Our PPI is 90 minutes of structured inspection: full mechanical (engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, exhaust on a lift), cosmetic (paint thickness, panel gaps, glass, interior), electronic (factory scan tool reads every module + stored fault codes), drive test (highway + low-speed + braking), maintenance-history review, and a written report with photos and repair-cost estimates for anything we find. Always free, no obligation, and we’ll tell you honestly whether to buy.
- Full mechanical inspection on a lift — engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, exhaust, undercarriage
- Factory-tool scan reads every module — engine, transmission, ABS, ADAS, infotainment, body
- Cosmetic inspection — paint thickness gauge on every panel, panel gap measurements, glass + trim review
- Drive test — highway speed, low-speed maneuvering, braking, cold-start behavior
- Written report with photos + repair-cost estimates — sent to you within hours of the inspection
Scope of work
What a Boca Autohaus PPI actually covers.
Eight inspection categories on every vehicle — the same 90-minute systematic walkthrough whether you’re buying a $25,000 daily driver or a $200,000 exotic.
Full mechanical inspection
Engine, transmission, drivetrain, suspension, brakes, exhaust. Lift inspection for fluid leaks, suspension bushings, control arms, sway bars, and CV boots.
Factory-tool scan + fault codes
Mercedes XENTRY / BMW ISTA / Audi ODIS / Porsche PIWIS / Land Rover SDD / Jaguar IDS. Every module read, every stored code captured, mileage cross-checked.
Cosmetic walk-around
Paint-thickness gauge on every panel (catches repainted body work), panel-gap measurements, glass condition, trim alignment, wheel + tire condition.
Frame & undercarriage check
Visual frame inspection on a lift, weld-quality check, suspension-mount inspection, evidence of accident repair (bent components, replacement panels, paint overspray).
Tire / brake / suspension
Tire tread depth (DOT date code — tells you when tires were made), brake pad + rotor measurement, suspension bushing condition, wheel alignment indicators.
Drive test
Highway acceleration + cruising, low-speed maneuvering, braking from speed, cold-start behavior. Listen for transmission shift quality, engine noises, suspension clunks.
Maintenance history review
Service-record cross-check (carfax + dealer history + receipts if seller has them). Identify deferred maintenance, missed intervals, and platform-specific common failures.
Written report with photos + estimates
Sent to you within hours of the inspection. Every issue noted with severity (cosmetic / fix-soon / fix-now / walk-away), photo evidence, and ballpark repair cost.
How a PPI goes
Five steps. No surprises.
From the moment you call to the moment you get the report, here’s what to expect — and what you walk away with at every step.
01
Book + arrange access
Call (561) 395-5566 with the year, make, model, and seller info. Most PPIs scheduled within 24–48 hours.
02
Drop off (or seller delivers)
You bring the car to the shop, OR seller delivers it, OR we arrange flatbed pickup within South Florida. Whichever works.
03
90-min inspection
Full mechanical + cosmetic + electronic + drive test. We document everything with photos.
04
Written report
Emailed within hours of the inspection. Every issue with severity, photo, and ballpark repair cost. Plus our buy / don’t-buy recommendation.
05
Phone call to discuss
Want to talk through the report? We’ll call you (or you call us). No pressure to buy. Most reports lead to either confident purchase or confident pass.
Marques we PPI
All marques →How we’re different
What you actually get, line by line, vs. a chain-shop "PPI".
Most "pre-purchase inspections" at chain shops are 30 minutes of flashlight + tire-tread check. Here’s the row-by-row comparison.
| What you’re paying for | Typical chain | Boca Autohaus |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection cost | ×$129–$249 | ✓Free — always, no upsell |
| Inspection duration | ×20–30 minutes | ✓90 minutes structured |
| Lift inspection | ×Skipped — visual only | ✓Full undercarriage on a lift |
| Factory scan tool | ×Generic OBD reader | ✓Marque-specific (XENTRY, ISTA, ODIS, PIWIS, SDD, IDS) |
| Paint thickness check | ×"Looks fine" | ✓Paint-thickness gauge on every panel |
| Drive test | ×"Around the block" | ✓Highway + low-speed + braking + cold-start |
| Written report | ×Verbal — "looks good" | ✓Written report with photos + repair-cost estimates |
| Buy / don’t-buy recommendation | ×"Up to you" | ✓Honest opinion — we’ll tell you to walk if it’s a bad deal |
What it costs
Pre-purchase inspections are always free. Always.
This is the one place we deliberately don’t charge. The reason is simple: someone who comes to us BEFORE buying a European car becomes a repair customer AFTER buying. Charging $200 for the inspection makes that flow awkward; making it free makes it obvious.
So we do the full 90-minute inspection, send you a written report with photos and repair estimates, and tell you honestly whether to buy. No catch. No upsell. If we find something that means you should walk, we tell you to walk.
The only ask: when you do buy a European car (whether it’s the one we inspected or a different one later), think of us for the service work.
Pre-purchase inspection
Free full 90-min inspection + written report
No upsell, no obligation, no catch. We’d rather earn your repair business after the purchase than charge you for the inspection beforehand. Open Mon–Fri 8–5, closed weekends.
See published labor rates and starting prices for oil, alignment, brake, and diagnostics.
Frequently asked
PPI questions, answered straight.
The seven questions we’re most often asked about pre-purchase inspections — with the real answers.
Why do you offer free pre-purchase inspections?
Two reasons. First, someone who comes to us before buying a European car becomes a repair customer after — that’s the business model. Second, we genuinely want to keep bad cars off the road and good owners out of bad situations. A 90-minute inspection costs us a tech’s time and the lift; the value to you is potentially thousands in avoided regret.
The only catch: we hope you’ll think of us for service work after the purchase. No obligation, no contract.
What does a Boca Autohaus PPI include?
90 minutes of structured inspection: full mechanical (engine, transmission, suspension, brakes, exhaust on a lift), cosmetic (paint-thickness gauge on every panel, panel gaps, glass), electronic (factory scan tool reads every module), drive test (highway + low-speed + braking + cold-start), and a maintenance-history review.
You get a written report within hours: every issue noted with severity (cosmetic / fix-soon / fix-now / walk-away), photo evidence, and ballpark repair cost. Plus a phone call to discuss if you want one.
The dealer won’t allow a PPI — what do I do?
Walk away. Any reputable seller (dealer or private) welcomes an independent inspection. A refusal is the single clearest signal that the car has problems the seller doesn’t want surfaced. We’ve never seen a "no-PPI" car turn out well.
If the dealer offers their own inspection instead, that’s also a red flag — an inspection performed by the seller is not an independent inspection by definition.
How long does a PPI take?
The actual inspection is 90 minutes. Total turnaround — from drop-off to written report in your inbox — is usually 3–4 hours. Most PPIs are completed same-day if scheduled in the morning.
Bookings are typically 24–48 hours out. If you have a deal that’s closing fast, call us — we can usually fit a PPI into a free slot within 24 hours.
Can I bring a private-seller car for inspection?
Absolutely — about half our PPIs are private-party purchases. You can either bring the car yourself, ask the seller to deliver it for the inspection, or arrange flatbed transport (we can help coordinate within South Florida).
We strongly recommend NOT having the seller present during the inspection — gives our tech freedom to inspect honestly without sales pressure.
What if you find issues — do I still owe anything?
No. The inspection is free regardless of what we find. If we find serious issues and you walk away from the deal, you owe us nothing. If we find minor issues and you negotiate a price reduction, you owe us nothing. If the car is great and you buy it, you owe us nothing.
(That said: if you do buy the car, send us a photo of you in the driveway. We collect those.)
Do you do PPIs on exotic cars (Bentley, Maserati, Aston Martin)?
Yes — we PPI Bentley, Maserati, Aston Martin, and other European specialty cars on request. Same 90-minute structured inspection plus marque-specific common-failure checks (e.g., Bentley W12 timing chain, Maserati clutch on Cambiocorsa, Aston DB9 timing-chain tensioner).
We don’t currently PPI Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, McLaren, or Lamborghini in-house — for those we recommend a marque-specific specialist. Call us anyway and we’ll point you in the right direction.
Bring us a car for a free pre-purchase inspection.
Tell us the year, make, model, mileage, and where the car is. We’ll schedule the inspection and send you a written report with photos — usually within 24–48 hours of the booking.