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Buying a car sight unseen can be like playing Russian roulette with your money. I used to work for a car dealership back in high school, so I know exactly how deceiving pictures (and sellers for that matter) can be. I am not necessarily talking about the infamous online scams; this concept applies to all of the used cars around. I have never seen a seller that says: “my car is in fact a piece of junk”, “I am selling it because the engine is about to fall apart”, “I have wrecked and repaired it, but it shines like new”. I am not saying that there aren`t any honest sellers out there, but a little caution never hurt anyone. Remember, it`s your money at stake.
Last week, I had a great buyer`s experience. I had in mind buying a used Mercedes S550. Since there weren`t any good ones within 200miles, I started to expand my search.
Found a decent one 800 miles away. The carfax record looked solid: all maintenance was done on time, no accident reports. The guy told me that he`s selling it because he wants the 2011 model. Generally, I don`t buy any seller`s stories. At first, I wanted to ask him to get the car inspected locally by Mercedes dealer near him. But then again, he could have paid the dealer a few hundred dollars and he could have magically omitted some nasty details. It`s not like I haven`t seen that one before.
I asked him if he`s be willing to drive it down here. If the car looks exactly like in the pictures, I will buy it. No one in their right mind would do that, but then again it was worth the shot. He said he`ll do it, but he wants to make sure that I have the money and that we agreed on a price. He wanted to use either escrow.com or onleaders.com.
I checked out both services. What drove me onleaders was the fact that the buyer has the opportunity to ask the seller to pay for any undisclosed damage. On top of that, they issue a vehicle report that shows the actual owner of the vehicle and any loans/liens that are against the title.
He opened the transaction, I paid the full value of the car and we met 2 days later at my local dealer. The car was flawless. I had never seen a car so meticulously maintained. The guy was a bigger maniac than me. I released the escrow to him and he gave me the signed title and the bill of sale.
Being careful and not rushing to the first deal when you buy a used car usually pays off.