Surry Hills is the hardest kind of suburb to inspect a car in and the easiest to get wrong: almost no off-street parking, permit-only kerbs and terrace streets barely wide enough to open a door. We work around that rather than pretending it does not exist — and the report tells you plainly what could and could not be assessed where the car was standing.
Between Crown Street, Cleveland Street and the rail corridor, kerb space is the scarcest resource in the suburb. Everything about how we run an inspection here follows from that.
Most Surry Hills kerbs are resident-permit or two-hour metered. A full Comprehensive inspection takes longer than a two-hour ticket comfortably allows once the road test is included, so we agree a spot with the seller in advance — a loading zone outside the window, an off-street space, or the building's visitor bay — instead of racing a parking officer.
Doors that cannot open fully mean hinges, sills and door-card fitment cannot be assessed properly, and there is no room to sight down a panel for ripples. Where a street is too tight we move the car a short distance to somewhere with clearance. If that is not possible, the report says which checks were limited and why.
A car that has spent its life between Cleveland Street and the CBD has done a lot of hours for relatively few kilometres. That makes idle-hours behaviour, brake condition, low-speed transmission engagement and cooling-fan operation worth more attention than outright kilometres, so we spend the scan-tool time there rather than on the odometer alone.
A road test confined to Crown Street tells you almost nothing. From Surry Hills the Eastern Distributor and South Dowling Street are close enough to include a genuine sustained-speed leg, which is where vibration, alignment pull, gearbox lock-up and wheel balance actually reveal themselves.
You don't need to be there and you don't need to move the car. Timing depends on inspector availability in your area and on when the seller can make the vehicle available — we confirm a time with you once we've spoken to them.
Send the listing and the address of the car. Tell us if there is anything specific you want checked.
We contact the seller or the dealership directly and lock in a time that suits both sides, based on inspector availability in your area. You don't need to be there.
A qualified mobile inspector attends the vehicle where it is and works through the full checklist, including a road test.
Comprehensive and Elite reports are issued on site. Essential reports are delivered the same day. Every report ends with a plain-English recommendation and a phone call if you want to talk it through.
Every price below includes travel within our Sydney service area, so there is no surcharge for Surry Hills. All prices include GST.
Visual and mechanical safety check, OBD-II scan, measured brake and tyre life, battery and charging test, and a road test.
Written photo report the same day
with code SAVE10
Everything in Essential plus a full mechanical assessment, an undertray-off leak-source check where safe and permitted, every suspension bush inspected, PPSR history and repair-cost estimates.
Report issued on site, before the inspector leaves
Everything in Comprehensive plus a senior inspector, paint-thickness readings on every panel, cold-start assessment, advanced history deep-dive and on-site price negotiation.
Report issued on site, before the inspector leaves
Adds a measured state-of-health assessment of the high-voltage battery on any EV or hybrid, issued as a separate certificate.
Certificate issued with your report
If we miss a major fault that was present at the time of inspection on an Elite Buyers' Protection inspection, we contribute up to $3,000 toward the repair within 30 days. Essential and Comprehensive do not include this cover.
A pre-purchase inspection in Surry Hills removes most of the risk in a used-car purchase. It does not remove all of it, and you should know where the edges are before you book.
Wherever the car can legally and safely stand for the length of the inspection — a driveway, a building's visitor bay, an unrestricted kerb a street or two over, or the seller's off-street space. We confirm the location with the seller before the appointment rather than turning up and improvising.
We inspect the underbody from ground level with lighting and, where there is space and it is safe, from ramps. That covers corrosion, leaks, exhaust condition, suspension bushes, sump and subframe damage. It is not a hoist inspection, and the report says so — if something needs a hoist to confirm, we tell you rather than guessing.
$199 Essential, $329 Comprehensive and $449 Elite, all including GST and travel inside our Sydney service area. An EV or hybrid battery health assessment is $199 on top of any tier. There is no inner-city surcharge.
Not automatically. A car with modest kilometres accumulated entirely in inner-city traffic has done a great many cold starts, idle hours and low-speed clutch or torque-converter cycles. That is a different wear profile from a highway car with the same reading, and we assess it on condition and diagnostic data rather than the number on the dash.
Surry Hills sits inside our Inner West coverage. If the car you're chasing is a few suburbs over, it's the same service and the same price.
Tell us where the car is and we'll arrange the inspection with the seller. Written repair cover on Elite (30 days / up to $3,000).
Inspection in Surry HillsBook a same-day inspection in Surry Hills
At the seller's address · from $199
