Pat Goss Answers this one! What are the upsides and downsides of buying a used car from a private party whom you don't know but found in an ad, versus buying a vehicle from a used car lot?

Private party used car sales can be one of the easiest ways to be taken! There are literally tens of thousands of private sellers who are actually “curb-stoners”. Curb-stoners are highly dishonest scum that prey on folks who need inexpensive transportation. They go to the local junk auctions and buy cheap cars with high mileage or a title problem (totaled, rebuilt, flood damaged, etc.) then adjust the odometer to a lower mileage or “wash” the title through a state that doesn’t brand titles (make disclosures on the title) so the title looks clean and normal. Once the odometer or title problems have been addressed they clean the car and make it look great. Next the curb-stoner advertises the car in some popular forum and you call. There is typically a story, a real tear jerker, that comes with the sales pitch. These stories often include the death or disablement of a special family member from out of state. Remember the washed title? The title is now from another state and may even be in someone else’s name so there has to be a story to explain the discrepancy. These stories often include a beloved aunt, grandmother, mother, sister, etc. from out of town who succumbed to a terminal disease (usually cancer and usually some horrific type like a brain tumor) and family members asked for help in disposing of the car to help buy a headstone, casket, feed his/her children, etc. You show up to buy the car and am impressed with how it looks and you feel sorry for the person selling it who is suffering through a major tragedy. You are convinced to buy the car when the seller drops the price so he/she can get the money to the family in a timely manner so the children don’t go to CPS, the surviving family member isn’t evicted, his/her children will be able to buy food tonight, you name the issue. You buy the car without a pre-purchase inspection, without a warranty, without a documents check or any type of safeguard what-so-ever. Hell it isn’t even safety inspected. Later you take the car for service or a required safety inspection only to find it is a total wreck needing tons of work. You try to call the seller but the number goes straight to voice mail. So you drive to the house where you bought the car in the driveway only to find the house is actually unoccupied. Faced with the reality of the situation you either have to come up with the money to fix the car or scrap it and take a huge loss you can’t afford. On my way to work I pass two places where there is always at least one of these good looking wrecks with a for sale by owner sign in the windshield beside the road. In a survey I conducted a while back (for a local consumer protection agency I did consulting for) on used car ads here in the Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia Metro area 16 out of 18 private ads investigated wound up being curb-stoner ads. It’s a huge problem so be very careful when buying from a private seller.