Patent ID: 8230362

Claim:
An automated process for grading the condition of a motor vehicle under inspection using having an arrangement providing a display, a processor, at least one storage device storing executable code and predetermined inspection criteria, and an input device, said processor executing said executable code to provide a visually-perceptible display on the device and accepting input from the input device to aid in inspecting the motor vehicle, the process comprising: taking photographs of the vehicle being inspected and storing said photographs in said device; wherein the image corresponding to the motor vehicle being inspected includes an image of the interior and the exterior of the motor vehicle being inspected; presenting, on the display, area picker image corresponding to the make and model of motor vehicle being inspected, said picker image being subdivided into individually-selectable parts; enabling a user to point at individually-selectable parts of the presented picker image to indicate parts that are damaged; in response to said pointing, at least in some cases automatically displaying subsidiary parts relevant to the particular make and model of motor vehicle being inspected and enabling the user to select displayed subsidiary parts which are damaged; presenting a damage severity query for at least some selected parts and subsidiary parts, the damage severity query being configured to query the user to select between re-stored quantitative size of damaged areas of selected parts and subsidiary parts; accepting user response to the damage severity query, recording damage severity of selected parts and subsidiary parts based on user response to the damage severity query, and automatically calculating a grade based at least in part on the user-indicated damage and selected quantitative damaged area size; automatically additionally querying the user concerning information relevant to the reliability, safety and/or legality of the vehicle being inspected; accepting user input responsive to the additional querying; and in response to the calculated grade and the user input responsive to the additional querying, automatically assigning said motor vehicle being inspected an auto grade reflecting overall condition of the vehicle that takes into account quantitative damaged area size and conditions affecting the reliability, safety and/or legality of the vehicle being inspected.