Honda Element

[glatt]

You can inspect anything a mechanic will inspect, but the mechanic can do it faster. They will put it on a lift and look at the underside, for example. Are you going to bring jack stands and take the time to jack it up? Mechanic will have a battery tester, you probably don't. Mechanic will pull a wheel off and check brake pads.

When we bought our Camry, the mechanic gave us a list of things that were wrong. None were deal breakers, but that list was a powerful negotiation tool. It literally paid for itself tenfold.