Buying a used car?
Get it checked before your money moves.
Text one word and a real mechanic goes to the car — wherever it's parked — runs a 40-point photo checklist, and sends you a report with a straight verdict. BUY, BUY AT a price, or WALK.
HE COUNTED YOUR MONEY. SMILED. AND WATCHED YOU DRIVE OFF IN A DEAD CAR.
Tapping the green button opens Messages. On a computer, or if nothing opens, text INSPECT to 617-546-4973 from your phone.
Book an inspectionBuyer form — car, town, and when you're meeting the seller Mechanics: apply to inspect$80 per completed inspection — now recruiting across all three launch zones
How it works
From one text to a verdict in your hand — usually the same day you're meeting the seller.
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Text INSPECTION to 617-546-4973
Or open the buyer form above. Two minutes: the car, the town it's in, and when you're meeting the seller. Don't have the street address yet? Town is enough to book — sellers guard addresses, we get it. Send the exact address when the seller gives it to you.
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Pay $79 for the first 7 — $119 after
Card link by text. The first 7 launch inspections are $79 each; after those are gone, it's $119 flat. Either way that's the whole price: the records check, the mechanic, the checklist, the report. Nothing gets added at checkout.
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The VIN records check runs first
Before any mechanic rolls, the car's VIN is checked for total-loss and theft records, plus open safety recalls. If the records kill the car, you hear it within minutes — see below.
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A mechanic goes to the car
First available inspector in your zone takes the job. You and the seller both get his name and arrival time by text. He runs the full 40-point photo checklist at the car — the job can't close without it. Your confirmation text also carries the one line you have to pass to the seller — the cold-start rule in the box below.
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You get the report and the verdict
Photos, findings in plain words, estimated fix costs — and one call at the top: BUY, BUY AT a lower price, or WALK. Your money moves after the facts, not before.
Before the appointment, remind the seller: do NOT start the car. This one's on you — the seller is your contact, and the warning only counts if it lands before he touches the key. The mechanic has to start the car cold: a warmed-up engine hides hard starting, smoke, strange noises, and a weak battery. A seller who “warms it up for you” isn't doing you a favor — he's erasing the test. Send him this, word for word:
“Please don't start or run the car before the inspection — the mechanic needs to start it cold. If it's already been run that day, just tell me and we'll push the time.”
If the car got started anyway, tell us before the mechanic rolls. We can push the appointment so the engine cools back down — or the inspection goes ahead and the report marks the cold-start section NOT VERIFIED, never passed. What nobody does is pretend a warm start told us anything.
The records check comes first
Every inspection starts with the car's paper trail — included free in the $119, never sold as an add-on.
What the VIN check looks for
- Total-loss history — an insurer already declared this car totaled once.
- Theft records — if the car shows an active theft record, nobody rolls. Ever. You get a full refund and a plain warning: walk away from that car.
- Open safety recalls — flagged in the report so you know what a dealer owes you for free.
- Does the VIN match the listing? At the car, the mechanic photographs the VIN plate — records say one thing, the car says another, and you find out standing there, not at the registry.
If a total-loss or theft hit kills the car before the mechanic rolls and you cancel — full refund. A clean records check is a strong screen, not a guarantee; that's why the hands-on checklist is always the second layer.
What gets checked
Eight blocks, about 40 checks. Photo-mandatory items can't be faked from a couch — the report only exists if a mechanic stood at the car.
Starts cold with no help? Idle quality, noises, smoke — and its color.
Every warning light must light up at key-on, then clear. A missing airbag light means a pulled bulb — flagged.
Photo requiredEngine, transmission, ABS and SRS (airbag) — plus readiness monitors, which expose codes a seller cleared that morning.
Photo requiredOil level and condition, coolant, transmission fluid where accessible, and every leak located and rated.
Rust thumb-test zones, frame rails, subframe, exhaust — the New England killers.
Photo requiredPad and rotor estimate, tread-wear patterns (inside-edge wear = alignment/suspension trouble), tire age codes, spare.
Cold and warm shifts, braking pull or shudder, steering play, bearing and axle noise.
VIN plate matched to the records check, odometer photo against the listing miles, inspection sticker status — and the title itself, photographed.
Photo required
“He's selling it for his friend”
Sometimes that's true. Sometimes it's an untitled flip or an open title signed by somebody who isn't there — and the buyer finds out at the RMV counter, when the car can't be registered.
The mechanic doesn't argue with anybody. He photographs the title and records three names: the owner on the title, the person standing there, and what that person claims. Your report then says it plain:
- Title present and signed by the titled owner — clean, nothing to say.
- Title in another name, pre-signed, or not shown at all — the risk is flagged up top in the verdict, in plain language, before your money moves. No title shown means the report reads PAPER UNVERIFIED.
Every report ends in a verdict
No vague “seems fine.” The mechanic has to make one of three calls, with his top findings and estimated fix costs behind it.
The car is what the listing says it is. Paper is clean, scan is clean, nothing found that changes the deal.
Worth it — at a lower number. Real findings with real fix costs, priced into the offer you should make instead.
Don't buy this car. Hidden damage, bad paper, a scan that tells a different story than the seller — you keep your money.
One price. Everything in.
Launch offer: the first 7 paid inspections are $79 each. Once those 7 are gone, the price is $119 flat — same inspection, same report, same verdict.
- VIN records check — total-loss, theft, recalls
- Mechanic dispatched to the car, wherever it sits
- Full 40-point photo checklist, including the all-module scan
- Title and paper check — whose name, whose signature
- Written report with photos, fix costs, and the verdict
Refund rules, straight: records check kills the car before dispatch → full refund. Car simply isn't there before the mechanic arrives → full refund or reschedule. Mechanic arrives and the seller refuses access → $25 dispatch fee kept, the rest refunded. Hours — winter included: daylight-first, not daylight-only. Outdoor jobs start at least 75 minutes before sunset. After dark, an inspection runs only at a well-lit spot — a garage, a parking structure, a dealer lot — with the buyer or seller present; the mechanic brings a work light and headlamp, every photo still has to read clearly, and the lighting gets recorded in the report. A driveway at 6 PM in December doesn't qualify — we'll move that job to daylight rather than guess in the dark.
Where we run — three launch zones
- Boston Core — Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Winthrop, Malden, Medford
- North Shore — Lynn, Saugus, Peabody, Salem, Melrose, Woburn
- South / Brockton — Quincy, Braintree, Randolph, Brockton, Weymouth
Outside the zones? Mechanics can still apply — you sit on your zone's bench list, and a new zone opens when it has 2+ mechanics and real buyer demand.
Mechanics — get paid to inspect
$80 per completed inspection, same-day pay queue once the checklist is in and the buyer confirms. Jobs come to you by text — claim one, send your ETA, run the checklist at the car. The gate is real: your scanner must read all modules — engine, transmission, ABS and SRS. Basic OBD2 code readers don't qualify. Recruiting now, before the customer launch.
Apply to inspectScanner photo required — 5-minute application