Motoring organisation the RAC is stepping in to fill the vehicle inspections vacuum left by rival concern the AA.

While the AA is pulling out of vehicle inspections as a result of its recent reorganisation, the RAC is poised to plug the gap for private buyers looking to have a potential purchase inspected, and for dealers to have their vehicles inspected prior to sale.

“We are surprised the AA is pulling out of inspections as we see it as a growing area. There’s a growth in the sales of nearly-new cars and because buying a car is an expensive purchase, people need to invest in a good car,” an RAC spokeswoman says.

She adds that for a dealer, offering RAC-inspected cars can help boost sales by up to 25%. An RAC survey also shows that having cars “RAC Inspected” generates customer loyalty, improves the dealer’s reputation and improves gross profit.

“We had feedback from a number of RAC Inspected vehicle providers that cars being sold with RAC Inspections had had a positive impact on the sales process.

So we wanted independent research to find out what the impact was of selling vehicles with an RAC Inspection versus selling with no inspection,” says Tony Noakes, general manager at RAC Inspections.