Save your money

I have never purchased an expensive second-hand car privately before so in February this year I decided to give myself peace of mind and paid for the AA premium inspection at £200, which should include a 10 mile road test. I was never made aware the inspection is not carried out by the AA, but sub-contracted, on this occasion to Ace Vehicle Inspections The car is a 2015 Mazda MX-5 ND convertible, selling for £9400. My own research indicated this car is prone to sub-frame corrosion, of which I could see myself, but wanted the extent confirmed. Of note the car had passed an MOT a few days before inspection, with not even an advisory. Post inspection the engineer gave me a verbal report, later followed up by an email. He confirmed he did not carry out the test drive, as he found cracking in the tyres. This and minor corrosion of sub-frame were the only negatives in his report, thus I travelled to buy the car. The seller later confirmed the engineer spent less than an hour looking at the car and was clearly in a hurry to leave. On the long journey home I noticed a clunking noise from the rear suspension on winding, uneven roads. Sadly my own research and then 2 mechanics confirmed bushes in the suspension hub to be worn. Mazda conceded this was identified as a design fault, for which they would cover the cost of repair, but not for a car of my age. They gave me a price of £2000 for replacement of both hubs, as they do not supply bushes only. Both Mazda and another mechanic expressed surprise the engineer did not know of this fault, which is well known in the industry, or identified it during inspection, which is easy to do. The engineer recorded the suspension as being in good order.Both mechanics and another Mot tester totally disagreed with the decision of the engineer not to test-drive the car and found the tyres to be totally safe and road legal. I managed to have the car repaired at a reduced cost of £1100, sourcing independently engineered components and thereafter lodged a complaint with the AA Inspection Team Dept seeking compensation for the missed faults, as per their terms and conditions. In summary they supported their engineers decision not to test drive the car and rubbished the validity of an MOT carried out a few days before. The fault should easily have been identified even without a test drive, but the AA wouldn't even confirm this, but did confirm the suspension would not have been touched, hence the fault found,just visually examined. In summary, DO NOT waste your time or money on an AA inspection. Sadly as I didn't, but if you check the Internet there is clear evidence that their engineers are incompetent, disinterested and look for excuses not to road test cars. As it is only a visual inspection you might as well just look at the photos of any car advertised on the Internet yourself, because that's as good as any inspection. As an AA member I found the AA and their complaints team an absolute disgrace, who are happy to rubbish their reputation by sub-contracting.