Why a Car Offer Can Change After the Inspection

An online offer is priced from a description. The inspection is where that description meets the car, and when the two do not match, the number has to be made again. That is the whole mechanism, and knowing it in advance is most of what keeps it from being a bad surprise.

Here is what gets looked at, what tends to move a number, and what to do if you think the new one is wrong.

Why does the offer change at all?

The offer was priced for the car you described. Nobody quoting a vehicle they have not seen is pricing the car on your driveway; they are pricing the one in your answers. When those two are the same thing, nothing moves, and the visit is short. A car that is exactly as described can be bought in ten or fifteen minutes, which most sellers do not believe until they watch it happen.

When the two are not the same thing, the number is re-made against what is actually there. That is not a tactic and it is not a second negotiation. It is the same arithmetic that produced the first number, run again on better information.

What is the buyer actually looking at?

Less than most sellers expect, and in a fixed order. The body first, then the drive.

• A walk around the whole car, looking for dents, scrapes and panel work that the photographs missed or that nobody mentioned
• A short drive, listening for clunks and for anything that does not sound like a car in good order
• What you said about accidents, claims and repairs, checked against what the car itself shows

That is it. No hoist, no stripping panels, no diagnostic report. It takes a few minutes, and almost everything that changes a number is visible from standing up.

What costs more than sellers expect?

The most common surprise is not a dent. It is water inside a tail light.

Condensation in a lens means the seal has failed or the light is cracked. It usually still works, which is exactly why it reads as cosmetic to the person who owns the car. It is not cosmetic. The unit has to be replaced, and on most vehicles that is in the region of eight hundred dollars for one side, varying with year, make and model.

It has come up four or five times on our own pickups, and the seller was surprised every time, because from the driver's seat there is nothing wrong with the car.

Does an offer ever go up?

It can, and the reason is the same one that makes it go down: the description was wrong, in the other direction. Sellers routinely understate a trim level, forget which options a car has, or describe honest condition as worse than it is because they are bracing for an argument.

What if you think the new number is wrong?

Say so, and ask a specific question: which item moved it, and what does that item cost to put right. That is answerable, and the answer either holds up or it does not. A change explained as a named part with a named cost is one you can check. A change explained as the market or the condition generally is not an explanation.

Nothing is signed at that point. The car is still yours, the paperwork has not been started, and you are under no obligation to accept a number you do not believe. A buyer worth selling to will expect the question and will have the answer ready.

How do you keep it from happening?

Almost every change traces back to something the seller did not think was worth mentioning. The fix is to over-describe rather than under-describe, and to look at the car as a stranger would before you answer anything.

1. 1Walk the whole car first. Both sides, both bumpers, and the corners. You stopped seeing the scrape by the rear wheel two years ago. A person who has never seen the car sees it immediately.
2. 2Check every light. Front and rear, for cracks and for water sitting inside the lens. This is the one that costs real money.
3. 3Say the things you would rather not say. Accidents, insurance claims, warning lights, anything repaired. It comes out at the appointment regardless, and a problem named in advance gets priced instead of discovered.
4. 4Mention what you have learned to live with. The clunk on left turns, the window that is slow, the tailgate that needs a second pull. You have adapted to all of it. The buyer has not.

A number that moves at the inspection is almost never somebody trying it on. It is a description catching up with a car. The sellers this never happens to are not the ones with the best cars, they are the ones who described what they actually had.