Local auto service shop provided faulty inspection?
Location: Cincinnati, OH.
I recently purchased a used vehicle from a co-worker who got a pre-delivery inspection performed by a local, chain auto service shop here in Cincinnati. The inspection report showed no issues with the vehicle (they found one non-urgent issue). After seeing the inspection, I purchased the car, transferred the title, registered the car, etc. (The inspection occurred one week before the purchasing.)
A week after the purchase (so two weeks since the first inspection), I took the car into a dealership to get another inspection, as this is a relatively old car and I wanted tips to maintain this car as long as possible and wanted to be in the dealership's service system for routine check ups. Long story short, the dealership's service shop's inspection revealed a ton of issues, almost all of which they said should never have been missed even with the most basic of inspections (think things leaking, loose, etc). The dealership sent me a video of the inspection, which I sent to a mechanic friend in a different state who agreed with the assessment and said none of these things should have been missed in the initial inspection, and said that whoever did the initial inspection and signed off should be reported to the state(?).
Considering that I purchased the vehicle under the pretense of a clean inspection, what recourse do I have for cost of repairs? I feel like the co-worker is not really at fault here, since they did their part in taking the car for the initial inspection. The dealership said some of these issues were so obvious that whoever did the first inspection may have just been checking boxes without actually properly inspecting the vehicle. I have the two separate inspection reports that clearly shows that one found no issues while the other found many issues, as well as video evidence from the dealership walking through every single issue they found.
I'm not looking for a full-refund of the cost of repairs or anything, but wondering what my options are here (and willing to escalate if needed). Some things I find online were that I could go in-person/email the auto service shop that did the initial inspection with the two inspections and video and ask how they missed these issues and whether they would offer any reimbursement, or going as far as to report the service shop to the BBB?
Posted Apr 5, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC