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I guess it does help to be careful in ANY case when it comes to provide personal information for an online transaction, and setting up an account solely for these exchanges seems like the best bet, but I wish we could get the "mysterious european bad guy" idea out of our heads. Scams come from all places, but identity theft in the USA comes mostly from within.
The only things you give out in the case of a bank to bank transfer are your name, account number, bank's abba and swift routing numbers, which in NO way compromise your account, the funds you have there or your identity.
In europe, transfers are the most used way of commercially, and privately send money.
To be fair, It is NOT necessary to have a persons ID to complete a transfer of funds but I would not jump into conclusions, you have to put yourself in the buyer's shoes who is about to send money across to someone he does not know, he probably asked for ID just to know that it was not a made-up name and to know to which address travel and make a claim, in case he got burned. To them we are the "mysterious american bad guys".
What an ID thieve needs to burn you is (besides bank or credit card information) is the address that "links" and validates them (usually found in an ID). What I did is separate the commercial account's address from my ID's address using my home's and work's address so when someone asks for personal identification from me, I can provide this without compromising the information that would link them to my banking or credit register.
If he does not answer, is probably because he bought another car or he's the one who did not feel safe enough.
Whatever the case, it is better to plan ahead to cover your bases.
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