Frequently Asked Questions

Shufti helps you inspect a used car and negotiate on what you find. You can start free with a General inspection guide for the car's model. For a Tailored check, you paste in the link to a car listing, and Shufti reads the vehicle's details from it, checks government recalls, runs a PPSR check for money owing or write-off/theft status, and builds the inspection around that exact car. The PPSR check needs the car's VIN or number plate, so you may be asked for one if the listing doesn't show it. When you're at the car, you step through the checks one at a time, capturing a photo or short clip as you go. At the end, your negotiation coach delivers a plain-English summary and an itemised repair cost estimate, then coaches you through the negotiation, from a suggested opening offer to drafting messages to the seller.

Shufti is free to download, and so is its General inspection guide: pick your car's make and model and it takes you through the checks that matter when you're inspecting, one at a time on your phone, with photos, audio and notes as you go. There's a guide for popular models, and one for every type of car, and you can start up to 5 cars a month this way. Your photos and audio stay with your notes, but aren't analysed. A Tailored check builds the inspection around the exact car from its listing, checks your photos and audio, estimates what anything you find will cost to fix, suggests an offer and coaches you through the negotiation, with the PPSR and recall checks included.

The General inspection guide is free. A Tailored check for a single vehicle is $24.99 AUD, or you can buy a 3-pack for $49.99 AUD. These are "vehicle check credits": one credit is spent each time you add a vehicle to inspect, and covers everything for that vehicle, including the PPSR and recall checks. Any unused credits carry over. They don't expire and don't reset between purchases.

Credits decouple the purchase from any single vehicle. Buy a 3-pack once and you can use those three credits on three different cars whenever you like: this week, next month, whenever you find them. Your balance is always visible in your profile, under Inspection credits.

Yes. Our free VIN check shows what a car is from its 17-character VIN, and our free rego check takes you to your state's own registration check. Neither shows money owing or whether a car has been written off: that takes a PPSR search, which is included in a Tailored check.

Offer codes are redeemed through Apple's or Google's own purchase sheet, not a code field inside the Shufti app. On iPhone, use the App Store's "Redeem Gift Card or Code" option; on Android, redeem the code in Google Play. Conditions and expiry dates are set by the store, and each code can only be redeemed once.

Think of it as a well-informed starting point, not a mechanical valuation. The checklist, severity scoring, and cost estimates are AI-generated from the photos, your answers, and known fault data for that make/model/year. They're not a substitute for a qualified mechanical inspection, and Shufti isn't providing financial or legal advice. Use the report to walk into the negotiation better prepared, not as a guaranteed number.

No. It's for the inspection you'd otherwise do on your own: before you pay for a mechanic, or when you can't get one in time. A mechanic can put the car on a hoist and test what you can't see. If Shufti flags something serious, that's a good reason to get one.

PPSR (Personal Property Securities Register) is an official Australian government check that tells you if there's money still owing on the car, or if it's been reported stolen or written off. It's the single most important check you can run before buying, and it's included in every Tailored check, so there's nothing extra to pay. It isn't part of the free General guide.

Recall data comes straight from the official government source, matched to your vehicle's make/model/year. A recall being on record means that model/year range was recalled at some point. It doesn't confirm whether the fix was actually carried out on this specific car, so it's a prompt to ask the seller, not a guarantee either way.

Official recall records, safety ratings, manufacturers' published information, independent reviews and owner reports. See how we check our facts for our standards, and how to report an error.

Yes. Your home screen keeps every vehicle you've inspected, with its report and the full walkthrough and chat history, so you can come back to any of them later.

Photos, answers, and findings may be used to help improve the checklist and scoring models, but this is optional: there's a "Help improve Shufti" toggle in your profile under Settings (on by default) that you can turn off at any time to exclude your future captures from that use. See the Terms of service for the full detail.

In the app, open your profile, then Settings, then Remove account. This permanently deletes your account and the data in it. If you can't get into the app, see Delete your account for how to ask us by email.

Purchases are handled through Apple's App Store or Google Play, so refunds go through their standard purchase-refund processes. Your consumer guarantee rights under Australian Consumer Law apply regardless of the platform you bought through. If a check itself failed to run properly (for example, the report never generated), contact support, or use Help Center, then Report an issue in the app, and we'll sort out the credit.