I just bought an '09 base MT with 107,000 miles for US$4500 (asking price was $4950) from a small dealer this week in Maine. It came inspected.

Before I agreed to buy it, I took it to a 3rd party mechanic (found on Google- my mechanic just moved away) to get checked over. They test drove it and put it up on a lift.

They said overall it looked good, but that left front caliper was sticking and left front sway bar link was loose. Mechanic also said the dealer had come in with another customer/car and "it was ok... but... Eh, not great" but not bad enough to not buy my car, which he said was a good enough deal.

The dealer said he would fix both issues before I picked up the car.

The next day he called & told me his mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with either part, and sent me a video of them (I am not a mechanic tho...). We agreed that I would take the car to a different mechanic to get it looked at and if they needed fixing, his mechanic would fix them. I have 90 days to get it looked at, and it's in writing.

Which would be better- an independent mechanic or a Honda dealer?

The Honda dealer has a $70 multi-point inspection deal (or $140 to also hook up to the computer and scan it, but I have a FIXD I can scan with) or a Sullivan does a "health check" for $50. The mechanic down the street will do it for $20 but I don't know how thorough it would be.

 

Caliper sticking is usually the slide pins need to be lubed, sway bar loose is normally worn bushings, finding both of those items leads me to believe that mechanic is very thorough. Small car dealerships don’t tend to have very good mechanics. Neither item is a very expensive fix so I would just try and negotiate a little more off the price and take it back to the guy that did the inspection. Honda dealers normally do a multi point inspection for free with any other service, but it’s hitter miss even when you purchased the multi point as a prepurchase inspection it depends on the mechanic.