Quote Originally Posted by vim View Post
I will NOT make a private car purchase unless the seller agrees to have the car checked, BEFORE the sale, by my mechanic, whom I'll give the heads-up that it's a potential purchase. This has saved me grief through the discovery of hidden problems. I've negotiated lower price, and I've also walked away, as a result of this. I didn't do it once, when I was young, and got screwed.
It is a wise decision and I am sure you have sellers decline doing so. I recently sold my cummins and a potential buyer wanted all kinds of tests done (leak down, scan, alignment check, etc) to make sure he was not buying a lemon. I was not willing to let "his mechanic" tear down my truck to check things that it did not need. I had so much interest in the truck that I declined his offer and told him if it did not sell by the weekend I would call him and we could arrange that. It sold the next day.

It was not worth it to me to miss half a day of work to sell my truck. On top of all this, the guy wanted me to pay for a second emissions test so that he could see it would pass. He even went as far as telling me it was illegal to sell a vehicle in Colorado that does not pass emissions and that I am 100% reliable if it doesn't. He wanted a BOS that stated if he found anything wrong with it he could bring it back and get all his money back, no questions asked. It was a 14 year old truck with 194k on it. At this point I declined his cash offer and told him if I did not sell it within a couple of weeks I would call him.

Getting a little off topic but this is some of the stuff you deal with private parties. Sometimes you just get plain weirdo's. I was not hiding anything with my truck but I wasn't willing to miss a half day or full days worth of work to get an emissions test and take it to his mechanic so he could molest the sh*t out of it and they say it wasn't what he was looking for. Just be considerate of others people's time and be polite. Good deals can be had if you look. What kind of vehicle are you looking for?