Buying a Car on Craigslist?

When we buy from CL we do LOCAL TRANSACTIONS ONLY, and we only accept (or pay) cash.

We have not had any luck trying to find a used car that way (CL). It seems like most of the listings are small-time dealers (ugh) or scams.

We have lost a couple of deals, too, on cars from CL after pulling the Carfax history.

My husband did sell an automobile on CL so there are regular people out there selling too (and his went quickly - no wonder after we saw how difficult it was to buy that way).

Good luck and be careful.

I shop on CL all the time. We have never bought a car on it, but we have sold a car on it. I love craigslist and I would look there first for a car if I wanted a used vehicle. I would only do a local transaction. I would NEVER do any sort of vehicle transaction without seeing and driving the car first. And I am VERY leary of any transaction on craigslist that wants to ship an item like a car. Using Paypal would not make me feel any more secure about the transaction. There are many scams out there that involve "shipping" and "shipping fees". We were approached with a few when selling our car. I would definitely have my guard up about the whole thing. Sometimes if the deal sounds too good to be true, there is a reason.

this is what it says in the CL avoid scams and fraud

* DEAL LOCALLY WITH FOLKS YOU CAN MEET IN PERSON - follow this one simple rule and you will avoid 99% of the scam attempts on craigslist.
* NEVER WIRE FUNDS VIA WESTERN UNION, MONEYGRAM or any other wire service - anyone who asks you to do so is a scammer.
* FAKE CASHIER CHECKS & MONEY ORDERS ARE COMMON, and BANKS WILL CASH THEM AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE when the fake is discovered weeks later.
* CRAIGSLIST IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY TRANSACTION, and does not handle payments, guarantee transactions, provide escrow services, or offer "buyer protection" or "seller certification"
* NEVER GIVE OUT FINANCIAL INFORMATION (bank account number, social security number, eBay/PayPal info, etc.)
* AVOID DEALS INVOLVING SHIPPING OR ESCROW SERVICES and know that ONLY A SCAMMER WILL "GUARANTEE" YOUR TRANSACTION.

It's a scam. Don't do it.

You can buy a LOCAL car off Craigs list. Go see it and drive it first! In the day light! My husband looked at a car for our oldest teen once, he found the info on Craig's list.
The seller was always busy until 9 pm and only wanted to show the car at 9 pm in the lot of a grocery store. My husband said, "Sorry, no."
Do not buy a car sight unseen and have it shipped to you. Nope.

I bought my 2000 Explorer several years ago with LOW miles, in good shape from someone on Craigslist for $2800. I've had no problems with it at all. My dad and a friend both checked it out with me (my dad was a mechanic for a LONG time). I would not have gone alone. I felt comfortable with my purchase but can understand your resistance. I would also recomment CARFAX as a way to check on a vehicle's history. I didn't use it in my case but it is something available to you to use to make an informed decision. Good Luck!
***Add to Edit*** I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER buy a car and have it shipped. Nope, no way. Not from Craigslist of ANYWHERE!

I bought a car on Craigslist and have been driving it for years. It was a great find! I agree with the others who have said DO NOT BUY if it's not local!!!!!!! You need to test drive it first of all and look at it with your own eyes and talk with the owner. Secondly, how would you get the car if it's shipped? Shipping a car with UPS or FedEx costs well into the thousands of dollars so it's unlikely that you'd ever actually get your car. My cousin just got scammed selling something on Craigslist. She's now out $3000 but has learned quite a lesson.

There are LOTS of cars out there in your price range. Use Craigslist, eBay, the newspaper, Auto Trader etc... and look into other areas but no areas you wouldn't drive to to see the car first. Do NOT buy a car you haven't driven and seen in person!!

We purchased a car on CL and it's still going strong 5 years later. Always purchase locally, view the vehicle in the light of day, run a CARFAX report on it first (to see if it's been salvaged before, is not stolen, etc.) and we also asked to take it to our local mechanic for a once over first. Good luck! Just use common sense!

Craigslist is no different then the local paper. Buyers beware. When shopping for a car I would make sure you do your research check K.'s blus book for the value, and get your mechanic to look at it to make sure it is running as tey said. I always look at it after I checked K.'s value and then ask the owner if they object to me taking it to my mechanic prior to purchase or a 1 week trial period, so I can get it looked at. If they object then I see if a mechanically inclinded friend will look at it.

Remeber if it is ment to be it will be, so take your time in making the desicion. Yes if it is a good deal it will go quick but you need to be prepared.

You can find a good deal on Craigslist but the ones that look too good to be true, newer models for $3000.00 are scams. They usually email back a sob story and mention shipping. Sometimes they'll tell you they want to be paid by some e-bay buyer protection program which doesn't even exist. As far as shipping if it's such a great deal you'd figure they could sell it locally. So yeah, be careful with the scams

a friend bought a mini van off CL, She got a good price and put about 2,000 to fix up. Still cheaper than finding a used mini van conventionally. However, she was able to check it out and have her machanic look at it. Would not buy anything blind

Definitely go local. You do not want to buy a car without test driving it. You can get an awesome vehicle in the $3000 range, though. We got a much older Subaru Forester (2004, I think) with well over 100,000 on it over a year ago for the same exact reason--husband needed fairly reliable, cheap vehicle to get to work 100 miles away. We figured if it lasted us a year, we got our money's worth (We paid $3,500) and it's still going strong. We never would have purchased it if we didn't get it locally though. Be safe. Good luck!

Yes be wary of anything that says they will ship it to you it almost always is a scam, you will lose your money, hope you find something.
good luck

i wouldn't buy any car without test driving it or looking at it first, checking the carfax on it too.

my brother's ex gf did that and had no problems, but i surely dont' think it's very secure

We bought my son's car on CL and it was the best used car buying experience we have ever had. But I would never buy a car or anything else without being able to check it out first.
Victoria

You should not buy things that they will ship on craigslist in fact they have a fraud/scam warning on the top of the page about it. We did buy my durango off craigslist but it was from a dealer, we went and test drove it, paid the man and got the title before we left. What you are talking about sounds terribly fishy and I would not do it.

If it sounds too good to be true - and this does - then be careful. DH and I sold our used BMW on Craigslist and found a great buyer for it. She was in our area, test drove the car and went with DH to handle all the paperwork transferring ownership. We kept her informed the whole time and involved in the process and she was great. We sold the car for blue book value and both parties were happy with the deal.
Prior to listing on Craigslist we tried to sell the car on ebay through Paypal and it was a disaster. This one woman who was local bid on it. She called and discussed the details with DH and when the auction was over she was the highest bidder. Then she refused to pay. She had actually bid on two different cars and was the highest bidder on both. She refused to buy either of them -apparently she did not understand how ebay works. She wrote nasty comments through PayPal to my husband and we never got the money. It was a big pain to deal with and that is why we turned to Craigslist.
As far as I know there is no guaratee you will get your money back through PayPal without a big hassle. The seller can say he gave you the car and just take your money. You will have to go through a rough process of proving that you never received the car. Unless these cars have ridiculously high mileage they are worth a lot more than $3K and I think this smells like a scam - especially if the seller is not in your area where you can go, meet with them and test drive the car.

I bought my last car (an Audi) via CL and it was wonderful 60000 miles later and still going strong! Think of CL as a giant classified ad section and treat each transaction with the same circumspection you would when dealing with any private party seller.

Get the car checked out by a mechanic, deal only in certified funds, etc. Remember, the seller if they are legit, is just as wary of you being a scam artist as you are of them. So be careful, and happy shopping!!

Buy local. Shipping a car is a scam. How expensive would that be?

We haven't bought a car from CL, but we sold one just 2 months ago. We had a great experience with the buyer. Personally, I would want to pay in anyway but cash. When we sold ours, the guy showed up with cash in hand(not a check) and drove away with it. I would trust anyway but that, but that's just me!