Buyer beware isn't a strategy.
Being aware is.

You should — and if the seller offers one, read it. But a history report tells you what's been reported: accidents, owners, title status. It can't tell you that this engine eats timing chain guides at 120k, what that repair costs in your area, or whether the asking price is fair for the condition. Different job. We assume you'll have the history report and start from there.

Do that too — we'll even name three well-reviewed shops near the listing in your report. But a pre-purchase inspection runs $150–$200 and takes days to schedule, and you can't do that for every car you're considering. This is the step before: it tells you whether this specific car is worth an inspection, and what to tell the mechanic to look at. A mechanic tells you the car's condition. We tell you what it's worth and what to say to the seller.

No, and we won't pretend otherwise. It's desk research — vehicle history, open recalls, technical service bulletins, known failure points for that exact year and engine, and market pricing. Nobody puts the car on a lift. It cannot find hidden damage or a concealed defect, which is precisely why every report ends by telling you to get a physical inspection before you hand over money.

No. Most Marketplace and Craigslist sellers don't post one, and asking for it usually means starting a conversation you may not want to start yet. The listing link alone is enough to get going. If we hit something that genuinely needs the VIN, we'll email you — and that's also a useful moment to ask the seller for it.

Within 2–4 hours of us having your listing, and usually sooner. That's the honest constraint of doing this properly rather than running it through a template. If the car sells before your report arrives, email us and we'll refund you in full — you're not gambling on the seller's timeline.

No. One payment, one delivery. There's no account to cancel, no card kept on file, and no upsell sequence. You pay once, you get your report, and that's the end of it unless you choose to come back.

That's what the 3-car comparison is for. Send all three listings together and you get a full report on each, plus a direct read on which one is actually the better buy once repair exposure and fair price are accounted for — which is usually not the cheapest sticker. It's $59 for all three, and everything comes back in one email within 2–4 hours. If you're only looking at one car right now, buy the single report; you can always come back.

One person — not a content farm, and not an AI generating generic model summaries. I'm not a mechanic and I don't claim to be. I'm someone who has bought used cars off Marketplace, got burned badly on one, and built a research process so it wouldn't happen again. That process is what you're buying. The full story is further up this page, and the free sample report lets you judge the actual work rather than take my word for it.