Pre-Purchase Inspection Sandhurst — European Specialist

Looking for an RACV-accredited workshop in Sandhurst?

Worth clarifying: RACV doesn’t perform the inspection itself. It accredits workshops against its standards and publishes the ones that qualify as RACV-Accredited Auto Care Centres, and the actual work is always done by whichever workshop you pick. We hold that accreditation, and every Sandhurst booking is carried out by our own technicians at our European specialist workshop.

In practice that means a published price — $460 incl. GST mobile, $395 at Cranbourne West — booked online rather than negotiated. It also means we come to Sandhurst, so a car you don’t yet own doesn’t have to leave the estate. RACV members should check with RACV directly on any benefits; that’s theirs to confirm.

European and prestige buys: where the money hides

Sandhurst sells a different mix to most of our catchment — more late-model European metal, more prestige, more cars where the purchase price is the smaller half of the decision. On those cars the inspection is less about whether it runs and more about what the next two years cost.

We are a European specialist workshop, so we inspect with that in mind: air suspension and adaptive damping where fitted, transmission behaviour, and the model-specific weak points a general check will not go looking for. Reading the manufacturer’s service system and the modules’ fault history is the optional scan-tool scan, $100 extra — a separate charge, not part of the RACV inspection or its mechanical guarantee. Sandhurst is 8 minutes from us up the Western Port Highway, near the Sandhurst Club and a short run from Skye.

Do you inspect European cars differently?

The core inspection is the same, but we check the model-specific weak points and service requirements that a generic inspection tends to miss. A dealer-level scan-tool scan is $100 extra — a separate charge, not part of the RACV inspection or its mechanical guarantee.

The seller says it has been dealer serviced. Can you confirm that?

We check what the vehicle’s own service system reports and compare it against the physical condition and any records provided. We report what we can verify and say plainly what we cannot.