Four bands·Pre-sale inspection
Bands 01 to 04 · order of work
The inspection in the order it is carried out
The front page sets out what is read. This page sets out when, because the sequence is load-bearing: three of the eight stages exist only to stop the later ones being wasted, and a busy afternoon is not a reason to take them out of turn.
Rule Why the sequence holds
Paper before metal, cold before warm, underneath before the gauge
Paper comes before metal because a finance entry or a mileage discontinuity makes a two-hour mechanical check irrelevant, and the two hours are not recoverable. Cold comes before warm because a cold start is a single event that cannot be repeated that day: start the vehicle once to move it across a yard and the information is gone until tomorrow.
Underneath comes before the gauge because structural corrosion ends the inspection, and there is no point measuring shut lines on a vehicle that is not going to be offered. The gauge comes before the decision because the decision is written from readings, not from an impression formed on the road.
Out of turn
A stage taken out of order is recorded on the sheet as taken out of order, with the reason. The sheet is a record of what was done, not of what was intended.
One vehicle at a time
Two vehicles are not run through the same stage together. Readings taken in parallel get written against the wrong sheet, and a reading on the wrong sheet is worse than no reading.
Stages Eight, in this order
From the vehicle arriving to the sentence at the end of the sheet
- Arrival, and nothing elseThe vehicle is parked, the keys go into the office, and it is not started. If it arrived warm, the cold start belongs to the following morning and the sheet is opened with the date it arrived, not the date it was looked at.
- Kerb walkIdentification number in all three places, plate characters and spacing, keys counted, the wheel-nut key found or recorded absent, odometer photographed before the vehicle moves a length.
- Paper, at the deskRegistration certificate and new-keeper slip, the test record read in date order, and the finance and write-off search run against the identification number and the registration together.
- Cold startFirst turn of the key of the day. The self-test lamps are watched on and then off. The idle is held while the first half of the sheet is written, then the cooling fans, then the heater, then both together.
- RoadA hill start, a stretch at fifty, full lock in both directions, and one hard brake application on a straight with hands loose on the wheel. Windows down for part of it, radio off throughout.
- RampSill seams, jacking points, boot floor and spare-wheel well first. Then gaiters, bushes, drop links, brake pipes where they run over the axle, and the exhaust mountings.
- GaugeTaper gauge on each shut line, near side against off side. Paint depth on every panel and on the roof. Photographs of the odometer, the stamped number, each shut that was gauged and each finding.
- DecisionThe sheet is completed at the vehicle and closes with one of its two sentences. Nothing is added to it afterwards; a later finding opens a second dated sheet.
Stop Ends the inspection early
Three findings that end it where they are found
Most findings are written down and the inspection continues, because a worn drop link is a cost and not an obstacle. Three are different. Each ends the inspection at the stage it appears, and the remaining stages are left undone and marked undone rather than estimated.
At stage two
A stamped identification number that does not read the same as the plate and the certificate. Nothing further is checked and the vehicle is not moved onto the pitch.
At stage three
Finance registered against the number that the seller has not settled, or a write-off marker the seller did not declare. The vehicle stays where it is until the seller answers in writing.
At stage six
Structural corrosion inside a prescribed area, a weeping brake pipe, or a steering or suspension joint with movement that can be felt by hand. The ramp is where this is found and the ramp is where it ends; the gauge and the decision stages are then not carried out at all.
A vehicle that fails at any of the three leaves as it arrived, with the dated sheet describing the stage reached. Nothing is reconditioned to make a second attempt pass.