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I live in Iowa, ended up flying to New York to buy my Z after looking at many cars. Many emails back & forth between the seller and I. Asked him to specifically describe the car, exterior panel by panel, engine, transmission, suspension, etc. Asked specifically if car had sustained $500.00 or more damage while he owned, etc. My experience has been that most sellers answer very specific questions honestly, but get less so the more general the question is. Tried to get two different NY Nissan dealers to do inspection, but neither would touch it. Both said their liability outweighed profit from inspection (it was NY). After three or four very specific emails, asked seller if he would pay 1/2 of my airfare + refund 100% of my deposit and release me from buying the car if not as he described or better. He agreed. Ended up buying car, but he had to reduce the agreed on price a few hundred dollars for some minor inconsistencies in his email description. Anyway, I'd recommend asking very specific questions, printing out copies of emails and requiring the the seller to stand behind if not as described. Pay your $10.00 for a complete Carfax report (but understand they aren't a replacement for a thorough inspection), and another very helpful trick if you have a good relationship with your car insurance AGENT (don't ask the company, they'll flat refuse) is to ask them to run a claim report on the car by VIN. Tell your agent you don't want a copy of the report nor anything in writing from them. Just ask the agent to verbally confirm what the seller has told you (no accidents). I've almost bought several cars in the past 10 years that the sellers claimed had never been scratched (dealers included), only to find out cars have been in accidents, airbags have been deployed and replaced, etc., etc., etc. Take your time to find the right car, document your conversations with the seller by sending email questions through e-Bay (so they have a record), require that the car be in the condition described or better and tie the refund of the deposit to the accuracy of the description (regardless of the ad saying non-refundable deposit), and I'd say you've covered everything you can. Good luck. Bill
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