Pre-purchase inspection · Carrollton, Texas
Know the car before the keys.
A full fault read, a service history review and a photographed written report on the car you are considering, from a workshop with nothing riding on your decision.
Before you buy
An Aston Martin presents beautifully long after its maintenance has slipped. Hand-finished interiors and low mileage make a car look cared for, and a car that looks cared for is a poor guide to what it will cost you in the first twelve months of ownership.
Deferred maintenance is the usual finding. Servicing runs on the calendar as much as the odometer, and brake fluid, coolant, gearbox fluid and spark plugs all come due on time rather than on mileage. A car with 5,000 miles on it can be several services behind, and none of that shows on a test drive.
History matters beyond the invoices. Cars that sit develop flat batteries, hardened tires and seized calipers, and a stack of receipts for oil changes tells you nothing about whether the four-year and six-year items were ever addressed.
We inspect the car, read every module, go through the history against the schedule and hand you a written report with photographs. Then it is your decision. We have no stake in which way it goes, and that is the whole point of asking us.
What we inspect
A generic checklist is on a hundred websites. The items below are the faults we have documented on Aston Martins in this workshop.
A full read across every module, powertrain, transmission, chassis, body, climate and infotainment, covering stored faults, pending faults and the conditions recorded around them. This is where a car's real history surfaces, including faults cleared recently enough to look like nothing ever happened.
We check what has been done against what the car's age and model require, not against what the seller says. Annual service, brake fluid on its time-based cycle, gearbox fluid, coolant and spark plugs on the V8 and V12 engines, and the inspection items that arrive at the longer intervals.
What we check varies by car, because the failure modes do.
Brake pad and rotor condition inspected properly rather than glanced at through the wheel, tire wear and date codes, fluid condition and leaks, suspension and bushings, underbody and exhaust. Then a road test: cold start, temperature behavior, gearbox under load, brakes from speed, and anything that only appears once the car is warm.
The inspection
The car comes off the ground for structure and underbody inspection, not a glance through the wheels.
Panels, glass, lamps and brightwork examined close up, where repair evidence shows itself first.
Findings sorted into now, soon and cosmetic, with photographs against every line.
What you get
Year, model, mileage and the listing if there is one. We will tell you before you book whether an inspection is worth doing on that particular car.
Fault read, history review, mechanical inspection and road test, photographed throughout.
Every finding, photographed, sorted into what needs doing now, what will need doing soon, and what is cosmetic, with estimates alongside so you know the real number.
We go through it with you. If it is a good car we say so. If it is not, we say that too, and buyers tell us that conversation saved them more than the inspection cost.
Inspections are usually scheduled within the same week, with the written report following within one business day of the car leaving. If you are on a deadline with a seller, say so when you book and we will work to it.
Pre-purchase inspection
Buy it knowing exactly what it is.
Where the car goes
Inspections run from the workshop at 1750 Briercroft Ct, Ste 136 in Carrollton, just off the President George Bush Turnpike, roughly twenty minutes from Plano and Frisco, twenty-five from Highland Park and University Park, half an hour from Southlake and Grapevine and about forty-five minutes from Fort Worth.
If the car is with a private seller or a dealer inside that radius, we can usually inspect it where it sits rather than asking you to move a car you do not yet own.
A large share of this work is for buyers nowhere near the car. The Aston is in Dallas-Fort Worth, the buyer is in another state, and the seller's photographs are the only evidence on offer.
We act as your eyes. Same report, same photographs, same conversation, and you decide without flying anywhere. Send us the listing and we arrange access with the seller directly.
Both are regular sources of work and both are a drive rather than a neighborhood. We arrange enclosed transport, so the question is scheduling rather than distance.
Owners in either city, tell us where the car is and we will handle the logistics.
Why an independent
You can, and sometimes it makes sense. But the car you are considering was almost certainly not sold by the dealer you are asking, and a business that sells Aston Martins has a view on whether you should buy one somewhere else.
We do not run a dealership. The inspection is a standalone job, so the report says what we found and nothing more. That independence is the product you are paying for.
The technical side is not a compromise either. These are cars we service every week, on equipment that reads every module, by people who know which findings matter and which are simply age.
The inspection is the job. The report reads the same whether you buy the car or walk away from it.
Body, chassis and comfort systems included, which is where the expensive surprises usually hide.
Coil packs, gearbox fluid, drains and cooling are all jobs documented on cars in this workshop.
Areas we serve
Our Carrollton workshop serves owners throughout Dallas-Fort Worth, with collection and delivery available across the Metroplex and enclosed transport arranged statewide.
Explore all service areasWhat owners say
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
1 month agoTop tier service experience on my Aston Martin. A great alternative to the dealership, but with the same level of professional staff.
3 months agoCame highly recommended by fellow Aston Martin Owners Club members. Very reasonably priced pickup and drop off service west of Fort Worth.
1 month agoDalton at March Motorsports is the real deal. He answered every question honestly, never pushed me, and went out of his way to help. Their inspection work is thorough and transparent.
Carrollton, Texas
Tell us about the car you are considering. The listing, the mileage and whatever the seller has said about history let us tell you before you book whether the inspection is worth doing.
Questions
Less than a single deferred service item on one of these cars, which routinely runs into four figures. You get the figure before you book and it does not change once we have the car.
We give you a date when you book. If the car turns up something that warrants a closer look, we call you before spending the extra time rather than afterwards.
Usually, yes. Tell us where the car is and we will tell you what is possible. Across Dallas-Fort Worth this is routine, and we arrange transport for cars further out.
You send us the listing, we arrange access with the seller, and you receive the full report with photographs without traveling. Much of our inspection work is for buyers outside Texas.
There is no pass or fail. You get a list of findings with photographs and costs, sorted by urgency, and you decide what it means for your offer. Buyers frequently use the report to renegotiate rather than walk away.
We will tell you plainly if we do and recommend a third party if you would prefer one. An inspection is only worth what its independence is worth.
Yes. We check what has been done against what the model and age actually require, including the time-based items owners most often skip, rather than taking a stack of oil change receipts at face value.
We do post-purchase inspections on exactly the same basis. It is a sensible first step before the car's first service here, and several documented jobs started that way.
Yes. We inspect the Aston Martin range from earlier V8 and V12 cars through current models, adapting the inspection to each model's known issues and service requirements.
Yes, with photographs against every finding, sorted into what needs doing now, what will need doing soon, and what is cosmetic.
