maytag - if everyone was like you and maintain their cars well we would not need to ask for the maintenance history, however that is not the case.
I have been in touch with at least 10 seller that want to sell their cars after a short ownership,
they have no idea about what happened to the car before they bought it,
I guess that most of them found out that the maintenance is not cheap, so are dumping their cars.

Its also much easier to speak after owning 77 cars :-)

Right now with the virus situation I'm probably not going anywhere so if
I'll get a car out of state I'll have to find some better ways to make sure the
deal is good, has anyone bought out of state w/o meeting the seller, driving the car
and can give any pointers (I refer to private seller, not dealership).

also, Maytag, about that link for the car you sent me, thank you very much, that car looks very good,
thought to get in touch with the user you mentioned - pcarferher,
did a search for that user but I get - 'invalid user specified',
could you please check if that is the correct username

Sorry, I was close:

P_Carfahrer

I've bought several cars out of state without going to see them first. First time I saw them in person was as they rolled off the transport..... I'd owned them outright for weeks at that point.

Here's the deal with that: a dealer will lie to you. ("Lies of omission" are still lies.) That's been my experience every time. But I've learned to accept that there will be surprises, and in no case have they been issues which would've turned me away if I'd been there in person.

Private parties are much more "box-of-chocolates". I had a guy sell me a Buick GNX which was NOT a GNX; didn't discover that till it got to me. I had a guy sell me a supercharged jaguar STR with a rod knock, which he swears he never heard. It can happen. But most people are good, trustworthy people.
Most, not all.

As with any used car purchase: caveat emptor.


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I would never buy a Boxster from a dealer because 99% of the time the dealer has no idea whatsoever what the history of the car was.

Agree with others about buying from dealers - they'll tell you anything to make a sale (true or not) and won't have history. Discard 50% of what they tell you and question the other 50%. They also like to stick you with ridiculous hidden fees. That's why I buy 90% of my cars from private party.

While CarFax is not 100% accurate, it can give you a flavor for maintenance that's been done as well as accident history if the prev owners took the car somewhere for maintenance.

CarFax is valuable for what it tells you. But there are a lot of things (good and bad) that never make it to CarFax. A lot of garages don't participate, DIY never shows up there, etc etc

Hello again Ty: I sent you a private message, please read it when you can. Also, its a good idea to listen to Husker!