It sounds like for the most part deals have worked out once due diligence was applied. I've searched Craigslist and looked at maybe 6 so far. My last two car purchases were located via Ebay, but I traveled to the seller in person to look at them and had a PPI done. These purchases were considerably more expensive than the car I'm getting for my son (my M5 and C4S). In this case I've checked the rating of the seller who is a dealer for more than 15 years with a 1300+ feedback score, all positives. However, I would still have a PPI conducted. I'm considering using the service below. They will contact the seller, and make arrangements to get the car to one of their independent mechanics then generate a report. At the most I would be out of the PPI cost if I decided not to buy the car but it's a lot easier to walk away from a PPI cost than a bad purchase.
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