There is probably a lot more good to be said for Dex's shop and I would not undermine those things stated by others by degrading the capacity of this shop to service its customers well. In 2014 I used Dex's Automotive for an inspection of a vehicle we found in his immediate area. Because I help people buy cars around the country, I am used to finding great shops and then enlisting them to complete a thorough pre-purchase inspection of a vehicle. And my experience in 2014 must have been favorable or I would not have kept their name/number for the future, should I need assistance with a prepurchase inspection of another used car.
My disappointment this time around had little to do with the determination of leaks found in critical areas. This was helpful. However, I made it known that I was concerned about the tires and wanted to know how old the tires were on a very low mileage (43k) 2003 Honda. It is inconceivable that after asking the shop to look for the DOT date code on the tires that they were unable to find them and share them with me. All tires have codes that tell you when the tires were manufactured (with 4 digits, the first two noting the week the tire was manufactured, and the last two noting the year the tire was manufactured). I was told that there was not date codes that would warn us if the year of manufacture was more than 6 years from today. Why is this important? Tire material deteriorates based on the age since it was created (not based on whether it looks good, has good tire tread, etc). Vehicles with tires older than 6 years are noted as having disintegrated on the highway and blown out on very rough road surfaces. Despite the expertise of Dex and his staff, I had to tell them where to look, and when they didn't find them on the wall of one side of one tire, they either didn't look at the other side to find the age code. This is a significant safety concern, and searching it out on the internet will present one with instances where serious, even deadly accidents have occurred, simply because the tire material had degraded under the tread, and the driver was unaware of the inherent danger of driving on very old tires.
Knowing that the vehicle had likely sat around for a long time, as evidenced by indications that rodents actually had eaten part of the insulator/insulation under the hood, Dex told me that the tires likely have a "flat spot" on them. Dex was aware that any defect or concern with elderly tires is a safety matter, he told me that you won't see the "flat spots" but you'll feel them if you drive the car at a reasonably high speed. Then I learned that, after spending $90 for a pre-purchase inspection, that Dex did not think it was important to take this Honda out on the road for a road test. To my knowledge EVERY PRE-PURCHASE INSPECTION includes a road test to see if the tires are pulling (alignment issue) or if there is vibration caused by any number of things that one might not be able to see during the visual part of the inspection. And since Dex was already aware of the possibility of a "flat spot" being exposed only by a road test, it is beyond me that Dex would charge us $90 and not include a road test as part of the vehicle inspection.
So yes, Dex was helpful in providing key information about leaks, which are sometimes commonplace on old Hondas, but disregarded the NORMAL PRACTICE of road-testing a vehicle, especially when the person paying for the inspection was long-distance (unable to do the test drive in person).
Would I assume that this is a good and reputable shop? Based on the feedback of others, and even my own experience two years ago, I might very well say "yes." But so far as taking care of a pre-purchase inspection for someone who entrusted Dex to do everything possible to determine the vehicle's condition when that person was not able to see or drive the vehicle in person, the total disregard of taking the car out on a road test seems totally unacceptable and irresponsible. This is especially the case when we are not able to see and drive the vehicle being considered in person. No private buyer ever considers buying a used car without taking it on a test drive, Why in the world would Dex ignore this aspect of this inspection, and only reveal it to us AFTER we paid him $90 for this inspection.
I couldn't be more disappointed by the fact that this highly reputable shop would not take the initiative to road test a used car for a customer, whether local or long distance. But when there were already concerns about the tires having sat around unmoved for an extended length of time, and knowing that the only way to tell if the lack of use/movement could only be revealed by a road test, I believe that Dex demonstrated that even good mechanics make stupid decisions. And not knowing where to find the age-since-manufacture seems elementary, given that many quality shops know to look at tire age as part of a comprehensive inspection. read more
