There are several car inspection services available. www.carchex.com is
found to be pretty poor.
My friend in Connecticut (I am in Arizona) was looking for a BMW Z-3 M,
a kind of juiced up version of a Z-3. He also wanted a hardtop, so kind
of rare. He searched for a few months, and finally found one with low
miles and a color he liked in Chicago - too far for either one of us to
go - hey I know, but we work for a living. On my advice he paid an
inspection service $79 to check out the car. They gave it high marks.
Well, my friend was pretty satisfied when he got it, except when he
drove it over 35 mph, the front end whined like a banshee - needs new
wheel hubs - cost of about $1000 (they have anti lock sensors, and all
sorts of stuff I don't know anything about...except they aren 't giving
them away). Sure seems more than reasonable that the "55 point
inspection" should have covered it. And of course the dealer he got it
from "don't know nothing about no noises, must have been the transporter".
He asked me, and we agreed that good old www.carchex.com "had a lot a
'splainin' to do". They told him, well, it was snowing, and they didn't
actually drive the vehicle, they just sort of went around the parking
lot. And they felt is was more than adequate, so tough shit (I am
paraphrasing here).
So, he is a bit more generous then me, and he is just getting it fixed.
So, if you can't actually go look at the car, then don't use these idiots.
Bob Walker
Phoenix, Az
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