Inside the 150-point inspection every car must pass
June 5, 20267 min read
About one in five cars we buy never makes it to the showroom floor. That's not a marketing line — it's the direct result of the 150-point inspection every vehicle goes through before it's allowed anywhere near the gallery.
Here's what actually happens in the service bay, and why we're comfortable standing behind every car we sell.
The battery is half the inspection
On a gas car, you check the engine. On an EV, the battery is the engine, the fuel tank, and most of the car's value in one sealed box — so it gets the deepest look. We pull the pack's health report, verify usable capacity against the original spec, and check charging behavior on both AC and DC.
Anything under 90% of original capacity gets flagged, priced accordingly, and disclosed on the listing. Anything with an unhealthy cell group doesn't get listed at all.
Then everything else
Brakes come apart — EVs use them so little that corrosion, not wear, is the real enemy. Tires are measured, suspension is checked over Portland's finest potholes, every screen, sensor, and driver-assist feature is tested, and the software is updated to current.
The checklist ends with a technician's signature. If the car needed anything along the way, the work order rides along in the car's file — ask and we'll show you the whole history.
Written by the Diplomat Motors team — the specialists on our Troutdale and SE Portland floors. Questions about anything here? Talk to a human.
