Vehicle Condition Report Template: 4 Free Forms for Workshops (PDF & Word)

A vehicle condition report records the physical state of a car on a given day: existing dents, scratches and chips marked on a diagram, fuel level, odometer, warning lights, and what was left inside, signed by both sides. In Australia the same document turns up at booking-in, on the loan car, and as the pre-purchase inspection a workshop sells to a buyer. Below are four free vehicle condition report templates in PDF and Word, on A4.

Which vehicle condition report template do you need?

Situation	Use this form	Why
New customer, high-value car, existing damage, or staying overnight	Vehicle Condition Report	Full record: diagram, interior, items left, fuel, keys, two signatures.
Routine service, six cars at 8 am	Booking-In Damage Check	One page, one minute: eight areas OK or Noted, fuel, keys, concern, signature.
Handing a courtesy car to a customer	Loan Car Condition Report (out / in)	Condition and fuel at handover, licence details, condition on return, new damage shown to the driver.
A buyer asks you to inspect a car before they pay for it	Pre-Purchase Inspection Report	Body, mechanical, road test and a summary for the buyer with approximate costs. The report is the product.

The vehicle condition report at booking-in

The oldest argument in the trade: the car comes back, the customer sees a scratch on the rear door, and the conversation is that it was not there. If nobody recorded what was there, the workshop pays for the paint, or loses the customer, or both. Two minutes at booking-in with the right form ends that conversation before it starts.

Many Australian job card books print a small damage diagram for this reason. The standalone condition report above is the same idea with room to do it properly: a top-view outline of the car with a letter code (S scratch, D dent, C chip, R rust, P paint, M missing, X previous repair), fuel level, odometer, warning lights on at start, and a list of what the customer left in the cabin and boot. Then the sentence that says received in the condition noted, and two signatures.

How to fill it in

1. Start before the keys change hands. Date and time, customer, rego, odometer in.
2. Walk the car once, clockwise. Front, driver side, rear, passenger side, roof and glass. Mark every scratch, dent and chip on the diagram. Do not skip the wheels: gutter rash is the damage customers forget they caused.
3. Photograph what you marked. One phone photo per mark. The form is the index; the photos are the proof.
4. Open the door. Fuel, warning lights at start, seats and carpet, anything left inside. Ask about valuables and write down the answer either way.
5. Count the keys. Then put them where the form says they are.
6. Read the sentence aloud and sign together. Give the customer a copy or a photo of it.

Booking-in damage check: the one-minute version

The full condition report is the right document for a car you have never seen, a car worth protecting, or a car staying overnight. It is the wrong document for the sixth oil change of the morning, because the form that takes four minutes is the form that does not get done. The booking-in damage check is the same record on one page: eight areas marked OK or Noted with a line to describe, fuel, odometer, keys, items left, the concern, a signature. It lives on a clipboard at the counter and takes about a minute.

Loan car (hire car) condition report: out and in

If you run a courtesy car, the condition report is not optional. Page one is the handover: condition and fuel, the driver’s licence number and expiry, the loan period, and the driver’s acknowledgement that they are responsible for damage, fines and tolls while the car is in their care. Page two is the return: condition and fuel again, kilometres driven, and any new damage recorded and shown to the driver before they leave.

Do the return inspection together, at the car, before handing back their own keys. Nobody argues about a scratch they were standing next to.

Pre-purchase inspection report: the condition report you sell

In Australia, when someone searches for a vehicle condition report, they are often a buyer looking at a used car. Independent workshops sell exactly that service: a pre-purchase inspection, an hour on the hoist and on the road, and a report the buyer can take back to the seller. It is good work, it is paid up front, and a fair share of those buyers come back as customers.

Work from the used car inspection checklist on the hoist; the report above is what the buyer takes away. It is laid out for it: paperwork first (rego and VIN match, logbook, whether a PPSR check has been done), body and paint with the diagram and the signs of previous repair, the mechanical items you can assess without dismantling, a road test, and a summary table for the buyer with a recommendation and an approximate repair cost per item. It says on it that it is not a roadworthy inspection and not a guarantee, because it is neither.

Condition report, job card, or inspection checklist?

Document	When	What it records	Who signs
Vehicle condition report	At booking-in, before the keys change hands	How the car arrived: damage, fuel, odometer, items	Customer and workshop
Job card	When the customer authorises the work	What the workshop will do, for how much	Customer (authorisation)
Vehicle inspection checklist	On the hoist, during the job	How the car works: tyres, brakes, fluids, lights	Mechanic

Paper or digital?

Paper works, and the forms above are as good as any software’s default. The limit is that the photo is on one phone, the form is in a folder, and the car’s last three visits are in three folders. When a customer rings about damage two months later, the question is not whether you did the condition report. It is whether you can find it, with the photos, in the next minute. That is when workshops move the booking-in record into software, filed under the rego.

Frequently asked questions

Is a vehicle condition report the same as a car history or PPSR check?

No. A PPSR check tells you whether the car has finance owing, has been written off, or is recorded as stolen. A condition report records the physical state of the car on a given day: damage, wear, what works. A buyer wants both; a workshop produces the second one.

Who uses a vehicle condition report?

Both. Hire companies, auction houses and transport operators use them constantly. In a workshop the same idea appears in two places: the small damage diagram at booking-in, so a scratch that was already there is not blamed on you, and the pre-purchase inspection report you sell to a buyer. The forms above cover both.

Does a signed condition report protect the workshop if the customer claims new damage?

It is your best evidence. A signed record that the dent was there at booking-in, ideally with a photo, usually ends the conversation. Treat it as documentation, not a guarantee; pair it with photos when the car is worth the extra minute.

What should a pre-purchase inspection report cover?

Paperwork (rego and VIN match, logbook, PPSR done), body and paint including signs of previous repair, the mechanical items you can check without dismantling, a road test, and a plain-English summary for the buyer with approximate repair costs. It should say it is not a roadworthy inspection. The report above is laid out that way.

Can I add my workshop name and logo?

Yes. The Word versions are editable. The PDFs have the car diagram; in Word, mark damage by typing the letter code over the area.