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Tips for buying a vehicle sans the usual inspections

Today, with our world becoming smaller and smaller, thanks to our ever increasingly sophisticated forms of communication, is it becoming any easier to buy a used car? In other words, with our ability to be in contact with virtually anyone, do we need to rely on the local dealership or newspaper classified when in search of that elusive vehicle—the one that must be just so?

Put it another way, would you purchase a car sight unseen, or rather, without kicking its tires?

An informal survey of a number of car enthusiasts who have bought more than their fair share of used vehicles says they would not, unless...

Friends and Romans

They already knew the buyer. That's pretty much a given...although there's an old adage that you should never sell a car to a friend. Of course, there are exceptions to everything. Who would pass up a Shelby Daytona that was stored (hiding?) in an old shed? Plenty. Authenticity could be called into question by the more skeptical, or perhaps the more knowledgeable, but because passions run high in the big dollar stratosphere of collectible automobiles, many times it's shoot first and aim later. In these cases, it's the lawyers who try to settle the dust and, in fact, make the big dollars.

Dealer Reliability

It was a relatively new model being sold by a dealership. In this case, a low mileage vehicle (particularly one that has been certified pre-owned by either the dealership or the manufacturer) can be deemed trustworthy enough. However, even with assurances by the dealer's salesperson and a DMV or VIN query of the vehicle's history, one doesn't always know the complete record. Even passing a background check and receiving a dealer-authorized certification may not disclose that the vehicle had been crashed. This has happened more than once and has not always resulted in a happy ending.

Worst-Case Restoration

The buyer is prepared for the worst because he intends to do a full restoration of the vehicle in any event. This is where "rolling the dice" becomes the norm and, while it's still chance, the odds are better because the buyer knows the outcome—it all rests on just how much he wants to spend. Naturally, the buyer still wants to get a restorable car; anything less becomes a parts car or gets taken to the dump, and the new owner only has himself to blame. The kind of car that gets purchased this way is either something extremely rare and all new components will likely have to be hand-crafted, or else it's a model where the parts are easily available (e.g., Mustang, VW Beetle). In this case, the buyer has likely already done a lot of research and is prepared to face the rust.

Modern Society

Digital photos and email are relied upon (or conventional pictures and snail mail, if one doesn't abide by modern technology). Using the most convenient form of communication, especially when time (and that overriding passion) is of the essence—which tends to be the case when one is looking for a new ride or collectible—a seller and potential buyer use email to "talk" back and forth about the vehicle while the latter can scrutinize all digital photos sent. Such negotiations and considerations generally occur as a result of a vehicle's listing in a specialized publication—Robb Report or DuPont Registry, as well as within AutoWeek and similar "auto buff books."

Perhaps most reliable are vehicles listed within car club publications, such as Porsche Panorama and BMWCCA's Roundel. Sellers placing cars within these classified pages all share the same zeal and respect for their marque, and one would hope their information and vehicle are exactly as described.

Some aggressive dealerships also will provide a variety of photos of a particular car, but it is the true collector who will make the extra effort to supply either digital pictures or photographs to a potential buyer in the hope of satisfying the latter's concerns and hesitations. Further conversations can include faxes of service records and the like. All these sources are generally at everyone's disposal.

Web-"Sights"

> One shops on eBay.com, autotrader.com or any other web-based auction house, bidding service or vehicle classified site. These have been quite successful, especially the market leader, eBay, with its eBay Motors section. Buyers are more likely to purchase a vehicle sight unseen via eBay for several reasons:

> People put a fair amount of trust in this community of buyers and sellers, and eBay prides itself on this established rating system. The number next to the seller allows the buyer to get a better understanding of what that person is like. The feedback score helps to rate the integrity of the person.

It is this insight that calms nerves and adds a sense of reassurance to the potential transaction. In many cases, buyers want to see the "character" who owns the car being sold as much as they want to examine the car itself. For eBay, the number beside the name assuages that fear. It's a kind of cyberspace kicking of the tires.

> The quality of vehicles is supported by numerous digital photos and sometimes quite elaborate explanations of the vehicle and its history. And because it is an auction, one that occurs over a number of days, a potential buyer can review the process of the listing, and see just what kind of interest other viewers and bidders may have for the car in question. Obviously, a car that appears right in the photos, but has no bidders over days causes most to pass on its purchase. This is a fairly effective check and balance procedure...a sort of "self-cleansing" process. Perhaps there's more than meets the eye, literally, in this car's case.

> The service encourages buyers to contact sellers and offers up an inspection service—a Trading Assistant—that a potential buyer can utilize, for a fee, in order to examine the vehicle in question. In addition, a buyer can take his or her car to a shop and have them perform a complete cosmetic and mechanical inspection. This helps to authenticate the vehicle to be sold. Finally, potential buyers can order up a vehicle history report from AutoCheck or CarFax, based on the vehicle's VIN. This also is a relatively inexpensive way to further scrutinize the car's legitimacy.

Whether doing business cross-town or cross-country, the desire to get the best deal possible is paramount to both buyer and seller. Still, the old motto "caveat emptor" has to be acknowledged and respected. But it takes on a slightly different meaning when purchasing a car through the Internet. According to one web site enthusiast, buying a car sight unseen, especially online, is "like putting a coin into a machine and trying to scoop out the desired toy. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

Perhaps in this case it's time to revise caveat emptor into "e-caveat emptor."