Mechanica

Glossary · workflow

Digital vehicle inspection

A digital vehicle inspection is an inspection a technician completes on a tablet or phone, recording every finding with a severity rating, a measurement and photo or video evidence that attaches to the repair order and can be sent to the customer.

workflowPublished August 3, 2026

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DVI, digital inspection, photo inspection, electronic multi-point inspection, tablet inspection, digital vehicle inspection, electronic inspection, DVI report, what does dvi stand for auto repair

A digital vehicle inspection is an inspection a technician completes on a tablet or phone, where each finding carries a severity rating, a measurement and a photo. All of it attaches to the repair order, and the advisor can send it to the customer with the estimate.

Shops adopted these because a photo answers the question every customer asks, which is some version of "how do I know". The paperwork side changed too. An inspection that lives in the system is the source document the estimate gets built from.

What goes into a digital vehicle inspection?

An item list, a rating per item, a measured value where one exists and evidence. Severity has to be a short list a customer can read at a glance: red for unsafe, yellow for due soon, green for good, plus an informational level for notes that are neither.

The measurement is what separates a usable inspection from a colored checklist. Pad thickness in millimeters. Tread depth in thirty-seconds. Battery test result in cold cranking amps against the rating on the label. Those numbers do two jobs: they justify the recommendation today, and they give the next visit something to compare against.

On a truck wearing a commercial plate the thresholds are already written down for you. Federal carrier rules put steering-axle tread at "4/32 of an inch when measured at any point on a major tread groove" and everything behind it at 2/32. Lining and pad minimums branch on how the shoe is built, so the number depends on what the technician is looking at. On a steering axle with air drum brakes the lining "shall not be less than 4.8 mm (3/16 inch) at the shoe center for a shoe with a continuous strip of lining; less than 6.4 mm (1/4 inch) at the shoe center for a shoe with two pads; or worn to the wear indicator if the lining is so marked". Record the measured value beside the one that shoe has to meet and a yellow item stops being an opinion.

What makes a finding sellable?

A number and a picture. "Brakes low" is an opinion and a customer can decline an opinion without feeling anything. "Left front pads at 3mm, photo attached, rotor scored" is a condition, and the conversation moves to when instead of whether.

The second half is language. A finding written in bay shorthand goes out to a customer who reads it cold, and half the vocabulary means nothing to them. The service writer rewrites it, which is the step people skip when the shop is busy. Everything the tech wrote about cause and correction belongs in the concern, cause and correction fields, and everything the customer reads belongs in plain words.

How does an inspection become an estimate?

Every finding above green becomes one of two things: a job on the estimate, or a documented decline. Nothing gets to be a third thing. California's Bureau of Automotive Repair puts the customer-side obligation plainly, that "the auto shop must give you an estimate that shows the expected cost of the work", and a red item that never reached the estimate is a finding the shop wrote down and then hid.

The repair order holds both sides. Jobs the customer approves become work. Jobs they pass on become declined work with a date on it, so the next visit starts from what the shop already found instead of starting over. That record is also the honest version of an upsell: a recommendation the vehicle earned, carried forward.

Where do digital inspections go wrong?

Treating completion as the goal. A tech under pressure fills the checklist because the system will not let them close it otherwise, and the shop ends up with a page of green, a red item carrying no photo and no note, and a writer who cannot sell any of it.

The other failure is volume. An inspection that flags a dozen items sends a customer a wall of problems, and a wall of problems reads as a sales pitch. Ranking matters. Safety first, then the thing that will strand them, then the maintenance.

What does a diesel inspection need that a gas inspection does not?

Readings from the scan tool. Soot load and differential pressure across the diesel particulate filter tell you where that truck is in its regeneration cycle, and neither one is visible from underneath. Fuel filter interval matters more than it does on a gas engine, and on a 6.7 Power Stroke there are two of them.

Add crankcase ventilation filter condition, turbo shaft play, coolant condition and any evidence of fuel dilution in the oil. On a Duramax, note the condition of the fuel you drain from the filter housing, because metal in that bowl is the finding that changes the whole conversation from a filter service to a fuel system. Photograph the drain. That photo is worth more than any paragraph an advisor can write.

Back to the glossary, or read how an estimate gets priced.

Questions shops ask

What is the difference between a digital inspection and a multi-point inspection?
A multi-point inspection is the checklist. A digital vehicle inspection is that same checklist done on a tablet, where each item carries a severity color, a measured value and a photo. The list did not change. What changed is that the evidence travels with it.
How many photos does a finding need?
One that shows the problem, and one wide enough that a customer can tell what they are looking at. A close-up of corrosion with no context reads as a picture of a rock. Video helps on anything that moves or makes noise, because a wheel bearing is hard to photograph and easy to record.
Does a digital inspection replace the technician's write-up?
No. The inspection records the condition. The technician still writes the cause and the correction on the jobs they are recommending, and that wording is what the advisor turns into a line on the estimate. A red finding with no note is a color, and a color does not sell anything.
Who sends the inspection to the customer?
The service advisor, after reading it. Sending a raw inspection straight from the bay puts tech shorthand and internal notes in front of a customer, and those get read the wrong way. The advisor picks what goes out and writes the recommendation that goes with it.
What should a diesel inspection cover that a car inspection does not?
Fuel filter service interval, crankcase ventilation filter condition, turbo shaft play, coolant condition and the exhaust aftertreatment readings the scan tool gives you. Soot load and differential pressure across the particulate filter tell you more about the next six months than anything you can see with a flashlight.

Sources

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