Best Car Lift Guide

Realistically, the price you pay for your car ​lift will very rarely be the highest or lowest on your list. You want to find that perfect zone where cost and value are roughly equal. You do get what you pay for. Business owners know that they need to consider the overall cost of the automotive lift throughout its entire life of service. The criteria is slightly different for home users that don’t plan on earning revenue off of the purchase, but trying to save a couple hundred bucks can still mean the difference between enjoying your time in the garage and a total service nightmare.

While an expensive car​ lift will not always mean high-quality materials, an exceptionally low-priced automotive lift will almost certainly be cheaply made. That means undersized automobile lifting cylinders, no engineering to speak of, compromised safety systems and thinner steel. These are the kinds of things that can cost a business owner untold thousands of dollars in damage or downtime.

On the other side, home users are willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on their beautiful automobiles, but then senselessly cut corners on the very thing that holds them up. There’s nothing wrong with shopping around for a good price, but make sure you are willing to at least pay for the value that you hope to get out of your new auto lift.

Car lift pricing

A standard two-post car ​lift with a capacity of around 10,000 pounds will usually run anywhere between $2,000 and $3,500, which is about the same price as a lower capacity four-post auto lift. Opting for a four-post auto lifting solution in the 10,000-pound weight range will generally cost a couple hundred dollars more, but it might be worth it if you want to also stack to vehicles.

Always check to make sure that shipping and installation are included in the final quoted price for your new car ​lift. Standard installation should be around or under $500 for a two-post car lifting solution and under $1,000 for a four-post auto ​lift. As previously noted, in-ground car lifts and installations are by far the most expensive auto lifting option available, sometimes costing as much as $10,000.

Once you venture into higher capacity automotive ​lifts--the kind that can lift a fire truck, for instance--the pricing scales considerably. Ultra-high capacity car lifts like mobile column auto lifts and huge parallelogram-style truck lifts can easily cost over $10,000. These can both be excellent options depending on your specific needs, as long as their giant capabilities are properly utilized by equally impressive vehicle weights.

Check the warranty

A car ​lift is nothing like a flat screen television or a stereo system. If there was ever a purchase that required a comprehensive warranty, an automotive lift is it.

The differences in warranty can vary considerably from one manufacturer to the other, so do not just assume everything is covered. The better warranties out there offer years of protection, but as little as three months can be sufficient to discover manufacturing flaws. Frame and construction are the strongest components of a car lift’s construction, so those are usually covered under warranty for much, much longer.

Even if the repair itself is considered under warranty, extras like labor, shipping and travel can sometimes result in unforeseen fees for the customer. Carefully read the details of each warranty when making your decision. For reference, you can find all the details on BendPak's 5-2-1 car lift warranty by clicking the button to the right.

We're almost done! In the next section, we go over some insider car lift tips that could save you some serious money and hassle.