When purchasing a car remotely, it's essential you have the car checked out, and it must be a place you choose, not one the seller selected. Ideally they would also be able to check for paint/bodywork issues since Carfax is only as good as what is reported. The stories I could tell of unreported damage ...
I purchased my car from a private seller in Ohio, and I have documented here on the forum how I found a local BMW shop for the PPI that had good ratings. I called spoke to the head guy and from the way he answered my questions I knew the shop understood BMW's and what issues to look for in an E90.
The seller agreed to take it there, and the car passed with flying colors.
At any point the seller could have balked, could have told me he had a another buyer, but within a week everything we agreed to happened and I rented a car and drove to Ohio and picked up the car.
As others have said, you cannot get this car without a PPI from a place that you choose, and if the seller gives you any pushback at all, you must run, not walk away from the car.
Good luck!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Petlizard
Thank you all for the feed backs. For those who are curious, the asking price for this car was $85k and we agreed to $83k for a rare AMG with clean car fax, but no service records since 2017, as the current owner informed me that he does his own services at home.
I'd also asked about passing safety and emission for his state. He let me know that his state (NJ) requires bringing in your license, insurance, and registration for annual inspections. The registration is renewed by mail, and due to Covid, he hasn't received the registration back yet so the car is not currently passing state inspection/emission or up to date on it.
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