PPI question - would you trust a shop to be unbiased if they work on the cars of seller?

You want an independent view. The current shop isn't independent. After all, you might buy the car, but the current owner is a paying customer.

That said, based on your prior posts, if you're talking about Norwood Auto Italia they're fine.

 

bring your own Fcar mechanic

 

I have done a related shop PPI twice. First time due to inexperience, second time as trusting the dealership and me being a 4 hour flight away. Trust me when I say do a 3rd party PPI or your own mechanic.

 

I would get your own. It's hard enough to get an independent shop to tell you anything let alone a shop that works for a seller

 

I have done it successfully when the car was too remote for the seller to be comfortable with trucking. After the guy was done, I flew up for him to go over everything with me in person. I bought the car and 10+ years later everything has been fine.

 

Any dealer that won't let me get my own opinion is a hard no for me.
If they are letting you truck the car for an unbiased opinion, do it.
I had one place say I could send them a mechanic of my choice to look at the car on their lift, but also said "There is not much to see! There are trays covering everything." which means they will not really let my guy look. Hell no.

 

I can only speak from my experience but for me it went fine, I didn't discover anything major or overlooked once I took possession of the car (motor mounts were the only thing replaced two years later during an annual). I've owned my f430 since June 2019.

See if you can get a sample PPI inspection sheet so you know what they look at. A good one will list everything that is good and not only things that are bad.

Ex.
- Seat leather in great shape or Drivers seat has normal wear along the door panel side.
- Undertray missing 3 screws or Undertray using a mix of torx and philips head screws.

 

For my F430, I had a PPI done through a dealer recommended independent shop. I Yelp'd them and the shop seemed ok. A month after the purchase, I replaced cracked headers and oil/water pump. Make sure whoever does your PPI knows what to look for... and drop that bottom panel to look for leaks. I always wonder if the shop and dealer knew (about the issues) but never said anything to sell the car.

 

100% they knew, my oil/water pump has had seepage since the PPI in 2019, every year during the annual since then it's been a "monitor/take action or not" type of an item. My mechanic says still no need to do anything yet.
Cracked headers could be a tough one.
For informational sakes how much did the oil/water pump cost you?

 

A lot of good comments above.

A few of my thoughts.

Letting the person who knows the car perform a PPI has its pro's , such as they know the car, it's history, and what has and has not been deferred.
No matter how good an inspecting technician is, they don't always know what they don't know ( or see )

Letting a fresh set of eye look it over allows an un-biased opinion, who may see something differently. Or they may have more experience with a specific model that offers you even better insight prior to purchase

I'll repeat what was stated above.... Ask whichever shop that will be performing the inspection, to share with you exactly what is being inspection and how it will be documented.
Written check list, photos, video's, etc. We offer everything from a 1 hour walk around / visual inspection, 2 hour, 3 hour with photos & video, all the way a CPO or Power Warranty inspection that can take a day. Pro Tip - If you like the car enough that you are going to purchase it and you want to add power warranty, chose the power warranty level PPI, so that when you purchase the car, you can add warranty without having to pay for another inspection!
Usually whomever is paying for the PPI is the customer, regardless of who actually owns the car. The person paying for the inspection should be the only person to receive the results, unless express permission is given in advance.

A PPI is a snap shot in time, things can and will still happen the moment the car leaves their car.

Steve

 

This was back in 2017, but $3,500 for a new oil/water pump alone. Headers and oil/water pump together was $7,145 for parts. Total labor to install both was $2,928.

 

Don't waste the money.

Its a very rare situation when a selling party either has no other Ferraris or is not replacing it with another. Also one of the reasons to have a PPI is to find poor quality or ignored prior work.

So you are asking a shop owner to throw an existing and future clients car under the bus at the same time he is supposed to be brutally honest about his own work product?
To help someone he may never see again?
You're kidding right?

Is this an episode of the Fing Twilight Zone?

 

If I sell my 328…. And I mean IF…. I have a binder full over every single service receipt going back to the original owner buying it at Midwest Auto Group in the late 80’s. OK, there are a few gaps in the middle, but it’s pretty comprehensive. I might need to add a second binder soon.

IF I ever sell it, which is unlikely, the binder of receipts goes along with it.

Even with that, I have no doubt that the team that has maintained the car since I moved here 16 years ago would be 100% upfront and honest about condition and maintenance, and I would absolutely support and urge them to do so.

 

Not a question of trust. Question of suck. If owner's dealer is lame his best ppi is lame

 

Not to mention, most of the good guys don't like doing PPIs. The potential future headaches outweighs the few bucks you can make doing a PPI. You're already working your ass off, why bother unless a long-time customer asks for your help.

Pro Tip. Get to know the sales people at your local Ferrari dealership. They know which cars they sold have had frequent trips to the shop, and which ones have not.

Pro Tip 2. Every used Ferrari has something wrong with it. Hell, every new Ferrari has something wrong with it. It's a Ferrari for crying out loud. The key is avoiding the real clinkers. Every now and then, Ferrari makes the car from Hell. No matter what you fix, there is a another hand grenade waiting to go off. These are the cars you want to avoid.

 

I wont do them except for service clients and then only because I am tired of people dragging dog **** cars in here that they just bought. Life is too short.

 

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Ferrari Zone.

In the Ferrari zone, there is an exception to Brian’s warning. That exception is if you’re lucky enough to have the car, like mine, serviced by Brian. I am sure that with regard to my car he would first note that the owner of the car is a Fing moron but would then give an equally honest assessment of the car.