Vehicle Condition Report: What to Write Down
Before a used car goes on the lot, someone has to write down what is wrong with it. A vehicle condition report is a written record of one car's condition on one date: its VIN, mileage, panels, glass, tires, interior, the parts under the hood and what the road test showed.
What a vehicle condition report holds, section by section
The report answers one question. What shape was this car in on this day? It has five parts.
| Part | What you write down | What the reader gets from it |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | VIN, year, make, model, trim, engine, transmission, drivetrain, color, stock number, date | The page belongs to one car on one day |
| Mileage | The odometer reading, in miles or kilometers, and whether it is the actual figure | The number a buyer looks at first |
| Outside | A grade and a damage code for each panel, glass item and light, plus tread and DOT date for each tire | What a buyer sees on the walk-around |
| Inside and mechanical | Interior grades, under-hood checks, rust, frame, exhaust, road test and scan-tool codes | What a buyer cannot see from the curb |
| Sign-off | Overall grades, the inspector's name, signature and date | Who looked, and when |
Copy the VIN from the car, not from the paperwork. A VIN has 17 characters, and the federal VIN rule allows only numerals and a set of letters that leaves out I, O and Q, according to 49 CFR 565.13. An I, an O or a Q in your VIN means you misread a character. Look again.
Exterior: grade each panel, then code each flaw
Pick one grade scale and use it on every car. One that works runs from 1 to 5: 1 excellent, 2 good, 3 fair, 4 poor, 5 very poor. The grade says how bad the panel is. A damage code says what kind of flaw it is.
| Code | Flaw |
|---|---|
| A | Scratch |
| B | Dent |
| C | Chip |
| D | Crack |
| E | Missing |
| F | Other, described in the note |
A right front door with a ding reads grade 3, code B, note "door ding". A windshield with a small chip reads grade 2, code C. Grade every panel, the good ones too. A 2 on the hood tells the next reader that someone looked at the hood.
Glass and lights follow the same pattern. Glass gets a grade and a code. Lights get Pass, Attn or Fail, where Pass means OK today, Attn means it needs attention soon and Fail means it needs repair now.
Tires: tread at each wheel and the DOT date
Measure tread at each wheel in 32nds of an inch. Write each wheel's number, not an average. Four wheels and the spare make five positions.
Then read the DOT date. The last group of a tire's identification code is a date code of four numerals, and the first two give the week and the last two the year of manufacture, as 49 CFR 574.5 lays out. A code of 1418 means week 14 of 2018. It is the tire's date.
Age and tread tell you different things. A tire can have 6/32 inch left and still be older than the buyer expects. Put the two side by side. Write an age note when the date is more than six years before the report date. The sheet we describe below sets no legal limit, and neither should your note. It states the date and leaves the decision to the buyer and your shop.
Inside, under the hood and on the road test
Side 2 covers what a curb walk misses. Grade seats, headliner, carpet, odor and controls. Mark Pass, Attn or Fail on the oil, coolant, leaks, belts and hoses. Grade rust, and mark frame and exhaust.
For the road test, write what the driver felt. Note the cold start, idle, shifting, braking, steering pull, noises and warning lamps. That is a note about the drive. It is not a safety certificate.
When you plug in a scan tool, write each code it shows, with its status as stored, pending or permanent. A code is not a diagnosis. It points at a system, and a technician still has to find the cause.
Finish with one overall grade each for exterior, interior, under hood, underbody and tires. Then sign and date. Someone should be able to read the last box and know who stood at the car.
A condition report records condition, not value
An appraisal is a different thing. The report does not say what the car is worth. It says what was found, and what work is still to do. Those are different jobs, done by different pages.
Keep the repair list that travels with the car on its own sheet. The Used-Vehicle Condition Report Kit has one. Its columns are item, now or soon, parts, hours, estimated repair cost, done and initials. The cost cells stay blank until your shop writes a repair cost. Nothing on the sheet puts a figure on the car.
A condition report is only as good as the person who filled it in.
What a condition report does not replace
Two legal documents sit next to it, and the report replaces neither.
When a car changes hands, the seller must disclose the odometer mileage on the title or the document used to reassign it, signed and with the odometer reading, the date and the VIN. 49 CFR 580.5 sets out what that disclosure holds. Your sheet records the reading you saw and whether it is the actual figure, as shown, or unknown. That is your own record.
Dealers covered by the Used Car Rule must post a Buyers Guide before a vehicle is shown for sale, and it tells buyers whether the car is sold as is or with a warranty, according to the Federal Trade Commission's guide for dealers. Warranty terms are not part of your condition sheet. Check which rules apply to your lot in your state.
When a paper condition report is the wrong choice
A printed PDF is slow when you need photos filed with each car, a search by VIN across a hundred units, or a link to send a buyer. Software does those things, and a pen and paper do not. Paper also costs time, because someone has to scan or file each page.
Your sheet is not an independent inspection for a buyer, and it is not a vehicle history report. It records what you saw on your own lot. If a buyer wants an outside opinion, that is a different service.
Typing, checkboxes and saving were tested in the PDF viewer built into Firefox. Other viewers, including Acrobat and Apple Preview, were not tested.
Get the sheet laid out for you
The Used-Vehicle Condition Report Kit puts all of the above on two sides of one sheet per car. The kit has seven pages in US Letter and A4: a cover, a start-here page, the condition report in two sides, a reconditioning list, and a filled sample of both sides. You type your shop name, address and phone once, and print one two-sided copy per vehicle. The filled sample shows a tire date more than six years old recorded as an age note, so your staff can see the habit before they use it.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What should be included in a condition report?
The car's identity (VIN, year, make, model), the odometer reading and whether it is the actual figure, a grade and a damage code for each panel, glass item and light, tread and DOT date for each tire, the interior, the parts under the hood, the road test, any scan-tool codes, overall grades, and the inspector's name, signature and date.
What is considered a poor condition for a car?
There is no single standard, so define it on the page. On a 1 to 5 grade scale where 1 is excellent, 4 means poor and 5 means very poor. A Fail mark means the item needs repair now. Write the reason in the note next to the grade, so the next reader sees why.
How do you say a car is in good condition?
Give the grade, then the facts. A 2 means good on a 1 to 5 scale, and the notes carry the detail: tread at 6/32 inch, a small chip in the windshield, a door ding. Specific notes are easier to trust than the word "good".
Conclusion
A good condition report is plain. It names the car, grades each part on one scale, codes each flaw, dates the tire, and lists the work still to do. It does not name a price. Write it the same way for every car on the lot, and anyone who picks up the file later can see what you saw.
Sources
- Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 49 CFR 565.13 General requirements, Vehicle Identification Number requirements (as amended 2009) https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/565.13 last checked
- Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 49 CFR 574.5 Tire identification requirements (current text) https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/574.5 last checked
- Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, 49 CFR 580.5 Disclosure of odometer information (current text) https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/580.5 last checked
- Federal Trade Commission, A Dealer's Guide to the Used Car Rule (current guidance) https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/dealers-guide-used-car-rule last checked