Buying another Diesel, Advice on the deal??

[rholcom2]

Thought that this thread may get more exposure here. It does fit since its a Diesel!!



This may be a bit long winded, but I will try to be sweet and concise.



I purchase a car on Ebay, the sale was fine, I received additional pictures as I requested, clear title, ran Carfax, everything checks out. I did in fact win the car. Since the sale, I have made the required $500 deposit. Before the deposit was made the owner gave me his home address and full name. I have actually talked to the seller a couple of times, nothing out of the ordinary. Now this morning I get this email (I have cut and pasted it below).



Ryan,

A paperwork complication has come up with the Jetta.

It seems that my wife has thrown the title away. You can imagine that this is pretty upsetting.

I am in the process of getting a duplicate. This is pretty straight forward. I have a copy of the original title. I will have a "Release of Lien" from VW (I financed the car, but paid it off last spring).

Since I won't have the title on Saturday, I will leave it up to you to decide if you still want to fly out. It will probably take 10 days to get the duplicate title.

If you are willing to wait and fly out later, I will pay for the change fee for your plane ticket.

If you don't want to go through with the sale, I will refund your deposit and also pay for your plane ticket.

I am sorry for this complication. If you can be a little patient, everything should work out.

Please let me know what you would like to do. Feel free to give me a call to discuss this.

Best regards,

Gary





So, I am asking for the wisdom of my fellow TDR members. I feel like he is being honest, and doesn’t have a reason to lie. But, what should I do?



1) Be a hard-nose (not that this idea is bad), and wait until he gets the title and let him pay me for the flight change.

2) Go through with the deal, and just write up a bill of sale, and make sure I get a copy of his driver’s license, etc. to make sure the deal is on the up and up.

3) Back totally out of the deal (I hate to do this, because the car is exactly what I want, and they are even more hard to find than CTD’s, and actually got one heck of a deal on it, $2,000 less than loan value!!)



I have bought cars before without having the title, and everything has worked out, but it only takes once to really screw you. Just some back up; I am buying from an individual, not a dealership. I would feel better about the deal if I were closer to the owner, but he is approximately 900 miles away, not too much leverage with him. But, I thought I would tap the expertise of those of you who have been in a deal like this. Let me know what you think, thanks in advance.

 

[Philip]

If you are willing to wait and fly out later, I will pay for the change fee for your plane ticket.

I would give him a chance and let him get the paper work in hand. Then fly out. I wouldn't pick it up without all the correct paper work.

 

[Bertram65]

The low price and missing title would scare me, who would not find the title before they put the car up for sale? I would tell him you want to go through with the deal on with the following conditions. I would ask for a refund of your deposit and split the difference on the flight change cost, this would put you at minimal risk if it's a scam, pay him in full when you get there.

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

I too would give him a chance. However, if you get near 30 days, inform him and contact ebay and paypal if you used that payment service) of the situation. If you wait until day 31 they will do NOTHING for you if the seller turns out to be dishonest.