Used Car Pre-Purchase Inspection Sheet

What this sheet is for

Carry out the same inspection on every car you view, so a decision made in somebody's driveway is based on what you saw rather than what you remember.

Who it is for

Private buyers viewing three to six cars over a fortnight, and anyone helping a friend or a son or daughter buy their first one.

How to use it

1. Print one sheet per car before you set out, and fill in the top block from the advert while you are still at home.
2. Ask for the engine to be stone cold when you arrive — the cold start section is the part you cannot repeat later.
3. Work round the car in one direction and write what you see, not what you conclude.
4. Total the faults column afterwards, at home, and compare the sheets side by side.

What is on the sheet

The layout is fixed at a size that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the A4 and Letter files are visually identical and print at full size on either. Rows are set at a height that an adult can actually write a date and a few words into with a pen — most printable tables are built in a word processor and never tested with one.

Questions

Does this replace a professional inspection?

No. It is a buyer's own walk-round, and its job is to stop you forgetting a check while somebody is standing beside you. Anything expensive — structural repair, a cambelt, a gearbox, a hybrid battery — is worth paying an independent inspector or a marque specialist to look at before money changes hands.

Why is there nothing about what the readings should be?

Because tread depths, emissions limits, roadworthiness tests and what counts as acceptable corrosion are set nationally and change, and because tyre pressures, service intervals and fluid specifications are the manufacturer's, not ours. The sheet records what you found; the standard it is measured against should come from the handbook and from the rules where you live.

Why two pages?

Because a one-page version means either dropping the test drive or shrinking the writing space until nobody uses it. The first page is what you can check standing still; the second is the car moving, and what putting it right would cost.