what Is Arrow Certified
our own standard
Arrow Certified is a 180 point inspection, and then the part most dealers leave out. what we found, what we replaced, and what it cost us. on every car, in writing.
what it actually costs us
the average car we sell had this much spent on it before it was listed.
- $1.9M of reconditioning put into the cars we have sold, at what that work is worth.
- 7,000+ individual repairs and services carried out to get those cars ready.
and on the cars sitting outside right now. not an estimate, these are the invoices from our own shop.
- $3,054 average spent per vehicle getting it ready for sale, HST included.
- $2,748 the middle car, so one expensive repair is not carrying the average.
- 603 individual repairs and services recorded across the cars currently in stock.
01 · Inspected
Arrow Certified starts with 180 points and a licensed safety inspection, in our own shop.
every vehicle goes through our 180 point Arrow Certified checklist, and a full Ontario safety inspection against the province’s Passenger and Light-Duty Vehicle Inspection Standard. both are carried out by licensed technicians in our own NAPA AUTOPRO service shop, not sent out and not rushed.
the safety inspection is recorded against the vehicle’s VIN on the provincial inspection record. that is not marketing. it is a legal filing, and it follows the car.
the 180 points are our own list. Ontario’s inspection standard sets out what a car must pass to be road legal and does not publish a point count, so no dealer’s number, ours included, comes from the province. take any of them as a description of how a shop works rather than a government measure, then judge us on the report.
02 · Brought up to our standard
passing the legal minimum is not the same as being ready to sell.
a car can pass a safety inspection on tyres that are nearly finished. we hold a higher line than the law does, and we replace against ours rather than against the legal floor.
we keep tyres at four millimetres or better. the legal minimum in Ontario is one and a half. that is roughly two and a half times the tread the law asks for, and it is the difference between stopping and nearly stopping on a wet road in November. brake pads are replaced below five millimetres of a twelve millimetre pad, long before they are worn out.
- tyre tread. a new tyre is 8.0 mm. Ontario passes it at 1.5 mm. we replace at 4.0 mm.
- brake pad. a new pad is 12.0 mm. Ontario passes it at 1.6 mm. we replace below 5.0 mm.
03 · Written down
every Arrow Certified car comes with the receipts.
every Arrow Certified vehicle comes with a reconditioning report. it lists the work we carried out, the measurements we took, and what the whole job was worth. if we replaced a control arm, it is on there. if all we did was an oil change, that is on there too.
ask any of our team for the report on a specific car and they will send it to you before you come in. you can read it at your kitchen table, not across a desk.
on tyres and brakes
where the law stops, and where we stop.
- tyre tread remaining. Ontario legal minimum 1.5 mm. Arrow Certified 4.0 mm or we replace it.
- brake pad remaining. Ontario legal minimum 1.6 mm. Arrow Certified below 5 mm and we replace it.
- who does the work. Ontario allows any licensed facility. Arrow Certified is our own NAPA AUTOPRO shop.
- what you are shown. Ontario requires a safety certificate. Arrow Certified shows you the full list of work and what it cost.
what stands behind it
after you drive away.
three years, 60,000 km. every part we replace is covered for three years or sixty thousand kilometres. ask your Product Advisor what that covers on the specific vehicle you are looking at.
oil changes for life. keep your servicing with us on schedule and your oil changes are on us, on the programme’s terms. ask us to walk you through them before you buy, not after.
a NAPA AUTOPRO shop. work we carry out here may also qualify under NAPA’s own warranty at NAPA AUTOPRO locations across Canada, on NAPA’s terms.
common questions
straight answers about Arrow Certified.
how many points is the inspection?
180, on our own Arrow Certified checklist, alongside the Ontario safety inspection every car must pass. we will be straight with you about what that number is: it is our list, not the province’s. Ontario’s Inspection Standard says what a vehicle must pass to be road legal and does not publish a point count, so no dealer’s figure comes from the government, ours included. it describes how we work. the reconditioning report is the part you can actually check, and that is the one we would rather be judged on.
is Arrow Certified a government or manufacturer certification?
no, and we will not pretend otherwise. Arrow Certified is our own reconditioning standard. it is stricter than the legal minimum, but it is not a manufacturer’s certified pre-owned programme and it is not a substitute for a Safety Standards Certificate.
can I see the report before I come in?
yes. ask us for the reconditioning report on any vehicle in stock and we will send it to you. there is nothing on it we would not want you to read.
can I have my own mechanic look at it?
we encourage it and we will accommodate it. if a car is good enough to sell, it is good enough to be checked by someone who does not work for us.
what if the car needed almost nothing?
then the report says so, and the number is small. some cars come to us in genuinely good order. we would rather show you a short list than invent a long one.
does every car get the same process?
every vehicle we retail goes through the same inspection and is held to the same standard on tyres and brakes. what differs is how much work each one needed to get there, which is exactly what the report shows.
see the Arrow Certified report on the car you are looking at
every vehicle in stock has a report behind it. ask us for it by stock number, or come and put your hands on the car.
“Arrow Certified” is Arrow Motors’ own reconditioning standard and is not a government or manufacturer certification. it is stricter than the legal minimum, but it is not a Safety Standards Certificate and does not replace one, or an inspection by a technician of your choosing, which we encourage and will accommodate. Ontario minimums referred to on this page are the pass limits set out in Ontario’s Passenger and Light-Duty Vehicle Inspection Standard and O. reg. 625. reconditioning figures are drawn from our own repair orders on vehicles currently in stock and include HST. warranty and programme terms are summarised here; your Product Advisor will confirm what applies to a specific vehicle.