What 181 Melbourne Pre-Purchase Inspections Actually Found

Most advice about buying a used car is opinion. This is not. We went back through 181 of our own pre-purchase inspection reports from across Greater Melbourne and counted what our inspectors actually found.

We call the dataset the Instant Auto Reach Inspection Index. The short version, in the 100 reports with severity rated findings, 55 cars had at least one major or critical fault, and only 10 had nothing rated moderate or worse.

The cars we inspected

The typical car in the Instant Auto Reach Inspection Index is a 2016 model with about 114,000 km on the odometer. One in five had travelled more than 200,000 km.

Make	Reports
Toyota	53
Ford	16
Mercedes-Benz	15
Mitsubishi	13
Honda	10
Hyundai	9
Mazda	9
Holden	8
Tesla, Volkswagen, Lexus	6 each
BMW	5

The rest covers 13 more makes, from BYD and Kia to Hino and Mack trucks. Eleven were fully electric.

How many used cars were in fair or poor condition?

Of the 135 reports where the inspector gave an overall condition rating, 40 cars (30%) were rated fair or poor.

Overall rating	Cars	Share
Very good or excellent	47	35%
Good	46	34%
Fair	23	17%
Poor	17	13%
Not classified (for example, inspection stopped)	2	1%

Nearly one in three is a lot. These were cars a buyer liked enough to pay for an inspection.

Does condition drop with kilometres?

Yes, and sharply after 100,000 km.

Odometer	Cars rated	Fair or poor
Under 100,000 km	61	9 (15%)
100,000 to 200,000 km	48	19 (40%)
Over 200,000 km	21	10 (48%)

Low kilometres did not mean safe. A 2017 truck at 68,143 km was rated poor, and a 2017 sedan at 88,843 km had a suspected head gasket leak. We cover this in what the data says about high kilometre cars.

What faults did we find most often?

Our newer reports rate every finding on the Instant Auto Reach Severity Scale, Critical, Major, Moderate, Minor or Monitor. Across the 100 reports that use it, this is how many cars had each type of fault at moderate level or worse.

Fault area	Cars out of 100
Suspension bushes, shocks and links	30
Engine oil leaks or residue	26
Cooling system	21
Driveline (driveshaft, CV, diff, clutch, transmission)	19
Brakes	18
Fault codes or warning lights	17
Tyres	15
Steering or pulling	11
Engine oil level wrong	10
Previous body repair or damage	9
12V battery	9
Rust or corrosion	6
Service history missing or unverified	6

We break down the top of this list in the 7 most common faults we find.

How serious were the faults?

• 55 of 100 cars had at least one major or critical finding.
• 12 of 100 had a critical finding, the kind that usually ends a sale.
• 10 of 100 had nothing rated moderate or worse.

Critical findings included structural chassis damage, suspected head gasket failure, excessive engine blow by and a car with finance still owing. See the critical faults, car by car.

What about electric cars?

We measured battery State of Health (SoH), meaning how much battery capacity is left, on used EVs with an AVILOO test. Readings ran from 82% on a 2019 Tesla Model 3 at 164,136 km to 99.1% on a 2023 Kia EV6. The full table is in our used EV battery health results, and you can book an EV battery health check in Melbourne on its own.

What buyers said afterwards

Our Google reviews sit at 5.0 from 55 reviews. One buyer put the numbers above in plain words:

“They saved me a lot of money. The first few cars I liked, but the reports showed they were lemons. The last report enable me to buy a car I was happy with. Great if your not a mechanic.“

How we counted

• Every figure comes from a real Instant Auto Reach report. No estimates, no surveys.
• A fault is counted once per car, and only if the inspector rated it moderate or worse.
• All reports are de-identified.
• This is not a random sample of Melbourne cars. It is the cars our customers were serious about buying, which skews toward private sales and older vehicles.

If you manage vehicles for a business, the same method applies to a fleet vehicle inspection before purchase or disposal.