SL/R231: Pre Purchase Inspection(PPI)
Thread Starter
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,636
Likes: 522
From: Hagerstown MD
2015 SL400; 2019 X5M40i
Pre Purchase Inspection(PPI)
I have purchased several BMWs from all over the USA and Canada and have used BMW CCA members who have years of experience evaluating cars. I may be searching for a EClass wagon in a few months and if I find one hundreds of miles away I may need to get a PPI independent of the selling dealer. For those that may have purchased a used Mercedes have you hired an independent inspector or in the case of a CPO car from a Mercedes dealer have you simply trusted that the CPO certification was good enough to assure you of the car's condition? I hope to find a car within up to 4 or 5 hours driving time away but if I was to find one halfway across the country I would likely have it shipped to me. I would be interested in forum members thoughts and experience. Thanks in advance. Feel free to post or send me a PM.
Member
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 83
Likes: 14
From: Virginia
2020 SL 450
I have purchased several BMWs from all over the USA and Canada and have used BMW CCA members who have years of experience evaluating cars. I may be searching for a EClass wagon in a few months and if I find one hundreds of miles away I may need to get a PPI independent of the selling dealer. For those that may have purchased a used Mercedes have you hired an independent inspector or in the case of a CPO car from a Mercedes dealer have you simply trusted that the CPO certification was good enough to assure you of the car's condition? I hope to find a car within up to 4 or 5 hours driving time away but if I was to find one halfway across the country I would likely have it shipped to me. I would be interested in forum members thoughts and experience. Thanks in advance. Feel free to post or send me a PM.
Super Member
Joined: Jul 2018
Posts: 563
Likes: 171
From: Nothern Georgia, U.S.A.
'17 SL450, '25 Lyriq, '25 Sonata Hybrid, '96 Corvette GS coupe
During my nearly-year-long search for a CPO 2017 SL450 with ABC I found exactly one car. It was Silver/Porcelain with nearly 30k miles on it, it was loaded, it was described as "mint" by the M-B dealership, and it was, for the time, quite reasonably priced. I'm in north Georgia and the car was in mid Florida. I googled PPIs in that area and found what turned out to be a great one. He was every bit as **** as I am and he knew everything to look for. He was not as cheap as I had hoped, but he checked out the car the next day and then emailed me 250 close-up photos of everything he found wrong with the car and spent nearly 3 hours on the phone with me going over all of those photos in great detail. As badly as I wanted an ABC car, I just had to let that one go. When I think back on it now...about what would have happened if I had instead decided to go ahead and close the deal over the phone, car sight unseen, based solely on the salesman's glowing description of it, and then having them ship the car to me...only then to find out what a POS it actually was...
The point is, I looked upon his fee as an investment in not getting stuck with a nasty example and then ending up spending many thousands of dollars trying to make a nice car out of it.
The point is, I looked upon his fee as an investment in not getting stuck with a nasty example and then ending up spending many thousands of dollars trying to make a nice car out of it.
