Used Car Pre-Purchase Inspection Sheet
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.
VB-01 2 pages
Vehicle buying and selling · VB-02
Vehicle Viewing Comparison Sheet
A free printable vehicle comparison sheet — three cars side by side with price asked, mileage, year, test left, faults seen and what each one drove like, on one page.
Download Free · no sign-up
One page. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Compare the cars you have seen on what you wrote at the kerb rather than on what you can still remember a week later.
Who it is for
Anyone viewing several used vehicles before buying, and anyone helping a friend or a son or daughter choose one.
How to use it
- Fill in your name, the dates and the budget you have set at the top.
- Give each vehicle a row and fill it in while you are still standing there.
- Write faults and how it drove in the second table, in your own words.
- Note what is still to check before you make an offer.
- Keep the sheet with any inspection sheets you filled in for the same cars.
What is on the sheet
One page, top to bottom:
Printed under the title: Three vehicles side by side on one page — asking price, mileage, year, test left, faults seen and what each one drove like — so the choice is made on notes rather than on the last one you saw.
Write it at the kerb. Fill a column in while you are still standing at the vehicle, not that evening. The middle car always sounds better than it was by the time you get home, and the first one is usually the one you forget.
Write-on lines: Your name · Dates viewed · Budget you have set · Preferred in the end
The three at a glance — one row per vehicle
Table, 3 rows: Vehicle · Seller and where · Price asked · Odometer · Year · Test left · Advertised as
What each one was actually like
Table, 3 rows: Vehicle · Faults seen · How it drove · Paperwork seen
Ruled lines: Notes — what decided it, and anything to ask before you commit
Questions
Why is there no scoring or star rating?
Because a score hides the reason behind it. A car with one expensive fault and a car with five cheap ones can land on the same number, and by then you have thrown away the thing that mattered. The notes are the comparison.
Only three columns — what if I saw more?
Print a second sheet. Three fits on a page with room to actually write, and in practice people compare a shortlist rather than everything they viewed.
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