What we check before you buy a used European car in Lexington

A used BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen or Porsche can feel right on a short test loop and still be the wrong car to buy. What decides that sits under the car, in the electronics, and in the paperwork.

We work on all of those platforms at the shop on Eastland Drive. Here is the order we go in on a pre purchase inspection, and what each step is for.

Cover image: AI-generated editorial illustration, not a photograph of Stuttgart Motors or a customer vehicle.

The records come out first

Before the car goes in the air, we read what came with it. That is the service records, and whatever history the seller describes to go with them. Records show what this car has already needed, and we compare them against the scheduled and factory interval work the model should have had by now.

Where a record is missing, we go and look at that system ourselves. We run the shop on the NAPA TRACS system, so the work we do on a car is written up in one place.

If the car has been sitting unused, tell us when you book. Waking a stored car is its own service here.

On the lift

With the car in the air we go through the engine bay, the underbody, the brakes, the tires, the suspension and steering, and anywhere fluid has been. Brake fluid gets the same attention on a car that has been sitting on a lot as on one with road miles behind it, and the cooling system gets its own look.

Uneven wear on one edge of a tire, or a pull you felt on the test drive, puts the car on our alignment equipment. That equipment is here in the shop, so the check happens while the car is already with us. A car that has spent its life on Richmond Road and Nicholasville Road has been through pothole season in early spring, and that is hard on suspension and steering parts.

We check the battery and charging system early, AGM batteries included, because a tired battery can put faults in front of us that have nothing to do with the condition of the car. Cold start faults and engine electrical work turn up once freeze thaw weather arrives, so we look at that side of the car now, while you still have the option to walk away.

What a stored code tells us

A stored code tells us which system recorded a condition. It rarely says which part failed. We read the car with European diagnostics, then put hands on the system the code points at. If the test says that part is healthy, the code stays on the list and we keep going.

One symptom on a European car can surface in more than one system, so we read the whole car before we say what it needs. There is a longer piece in our archive on European diagnostics beyond the trouble code if you want the mechanics of it.

Brakes and brake fluid, the cooling system, batteries and charging systems, suspension and steering, transmission service, wheel alignment and tires for performance cars are all jobs we do here. When the testing points at one of them, that is work we would be doing ourselves.

What to ask before you hand over a deposit

Ask the seller for the service records, the name of the shop that did the work, and whether there are invoices to go with it. You want dates on the brake fluid, the cooling system and the battery. If the records are in the glovebox, bring them with the car.

Before you book an inspection anywhere, ask what it covers, and whether the shop reads the car’s stored information and explains what that means for your model. An alignment check is worth asking about by name, because it can be part of an inspection or a separate trip somewhere else.

Ask too which findings need a repair and which need another test, because those are different answers. Whatever the shop finds, ask whether it comes to you in writing, because that list is what you take back to the seller.

The check you can make in the driveway

Turn the steering all the way to one side and look at the inside edge of the front tire. A tire worn down on the inside edge, on a car that has lived on Fayette County roads, is worth an alignment check before you agree to buy anything.

Stuttgart Motors Eastland is Shawn Leonard’s independent European car repair shop on Eastland Drive, with roots going back to 1973. Owners bring BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche to us from across Lexington and Fayette County, Hamburg and Chevy Chase included. Bring it in before you buy it and we will tell you what we find.