What to do when the car is maintained by the best shop around? By a very unscientific survey here and over at Pelican, I have found the best shop to do a PPI. It comes VERY highly recommended by users at both sites. But the current owner also uses the same shop for work on the car. Do I find a second tier shop, or go on the reputation of the first one, and hope for impartiality? Thanks as always for the great advice.

 

Unless the shop is also rrepresenting the seller,ie consignment, your contracting with the shop means they are working for YOU. Not the seller. If the shop is that highly regarded, they would understand the appearance of the conflict of interest that may exist in your mind. I would be very upfront with the shop's owner and make your concerns known. If you feel unsure, find another shop.

 

A shop that knows the seller and the car can sometimes be the best endorsment - they know the car. It makes a ppi easy for them insomuch that they can honestly tell you the condition of the car. Talk to the shop about the car and the owner and you will get more info than simply taking the car to a shop that does not know the car.

 

Thanks for the replies; and as a follow up, if buying a car from a dealer i.e Holt Motorsport or Truspeed, is a PPI still required? Thanks

 

I was approached on a number of occasions to perform a PPI on an existing customer's car. I would call the seller, get approval to open his file with the buyer. I would invite the buyer to come to the shop, and we would review the car's invoices - there is a space on each invoice dedicated to "what the car needs," that I used for every car. I would be able to tell the buyer what we had found, and how much the job would cost. I would then offer to test drive the car, and put it on the hoist to see if anything had changed since I'd last seen it - at N/C. If I had not seen the car for anything other than one or two minor services, or it hadn't been in for an extended period, I explained the situation and recommended a full-blown PPI. Which was carried out as though we had never seen the car.

Everything depended on the seller, just because a car was advertised as "Red Line" maintained, that didn't mean it was a "Red Line" car. I had a buyer call me once, about an ad in the L.A. Times. It stated "engine overhaul by Red Line Service in Santa Monica." Well, the seller's name barely registered, I pulled the file, and we had done nothing more than three minor services over a two-year period - never even replaced its plugs, let alone overhaul it! It's "to-do" list was long. A good shop will have its papers in order, and will take care of a buyer, for anyone's car.

 

especially

 

Peter obviously knows how to do it right. It sounds from your description that the shop in question is absolute top-line and as such, you will likely get similarly unbiased, good advice.

However, IMO there is value in a new set of critical eyes looking at a car. Is this shop light years above anything else nearby, or are there some other shops that might come close? If there are, I would be tempted to consider them for the unique perspective. I woud also ask if I could discuss the car with the current shop as well. Now you would have two good sources of opinion.

Where I live (Toronto) there are a number of very good shops. Everyone has a favorite, but it is debatable which one is the best. In this siutation, PPI opportunites are easy to come by.

 

+1 Pete. The shop has an interest in a smoth transaction of a good car between good owners. If a car can stay in the market that the shop serves than they get to keep a customer most likely. if not then it will most likely be a good customer for another shop which is good for the industry as a whole. Remeber when an uninformed buyer gets a turd off of Ebay, its the shop that takes the hit. The sellar is long gone, the buyer is Pissed, and it hurts the entire hobby because that guy is more likely to sell the Porsche with the attitude that Porsche cars are crap(and go buy a Vette off of Ebay). The shop owners are the educators in our industry and are the guys that go home with grey hair because of customer conflict. The shop, more than anybody wants to see a good car go to a good customer.

 

Not everyone has the Integrity of Pete Zimmermann.

 

go with an independent assessment.