Buying a car on Craigslist? Check the listing first.

Why Craigslist is different from Marketplace

Craigslist gives you less to go on than Facebook Marketplace. There is no seller profile, no join date, no mutual friends, and replies go through Craigslist's email relay rather than the seller's own address. Craigslist is also explicit about what it does not do: its own scam page says it is not involved in any transaction, does not handle payments, does not guarantee transactions, and does not provide escrow or buyer protection. Every safeguard is yours to provide.

The upside is the same reason people still use it: private sellers, local cars, and prices that have not been through a dealer. The work is in telling the private seller from the flipper and the real ad from the fake one before you spend an evening driving out to see it.

Read the ad like a mechanic

• 1.The price is well under the market. A price far below comparable cars is a classic lure in a fake ad, as PrivateAuto's breakdown of Craigslist car scams explains. When Avturo finds enough comparable listings it shows what they are asking, so you can see how far below the market this one sits.
• 2.The seller has several cars. One person with many ads is in the car business, and one who poses as a private owner without a dealer license is a curbstoner. Search their phone number or the ad's phrasing across Craigslist before you reply.
• 3.The story is doing the work. Military deployment, a sudden move, a relative's car being sold on their behalf, a car that has to be shipped to you: these are the standard scripts, and PrivateAuto's scam guide lists the deployment and urgent-relocation stories by name. A real seller wants you to see the car.
• 4.The photos and the words disagree. A description that says "no accidents" over photos with mismatched paint or uneven panel gaps is a mismatch to raise with the seller and check in person. Avturo reads the ad's words from a link; it only sees the photos if you upload screenshots of them. Stock photos, or the same photos appearing in another ad, usually mean the car in the ad is not the car for sale.
• 5.The VIN is missing. Ask for it before you do anything else. A seller who will not give a VIN is often hiding a history, a title problem, or the fact that there is no car.

The five Craigslist scams that still work

1. The fake buyer protection. An email offering "Craigslist escrow" or "Craigslist buyer protection". Neither exists. Craigslist says so directly: it offers no escrow and no buyer protection of any kind.
2. The car that has to be shipped. The seller is out of state, the price is wonderful, and they will ship it once you pay. There is no car. Verified.org describes the same script on OfferUp; the platform does not matter. Never pay for a car you have not stood next to.
3. Title later. Lost title, duplicate on the way, will mail it after. Verified.org flags a missing title or a bill-of-sale-only offer as the sign of a stolen car or one with a loan still on it. No title in hand, no sale. The one legitimate exception is a title held by the seller's lender, and that deal closes at the lender, where the loan is paid off.
4. The vehicle report you are told to buy. A "buyer" or "seller" insists you get a history report from one specific site they link to. The site takes your card and there is no report. Fox News reported the pattern. Buy any report from the provider's own site, never from a link in a message.
5. The deposit to hold it. "Others are interested, send a deposit and it is yours." A deposit sent by app, wire or gift card is gone. Craigslist's advice is to deal locally and face to face and never to wire funds; that covers this one entirely.

Before you drive out: three free checks

• Open recalls, by VIN, free. NHTSA's recall lookup shows safety recalls that have not been repaired on that VIN, from the major manufacturers and the last 15 years. A recall repair is free at a dealer, which is a negotiating point, not a reason to walk.
• Stolen or salvage, free. The National Insurance Crime Bureau's VINCheck tells you whether the VIN has been reported stolen or declared a total loss by a participating insurer.
• Title history, for a few dollars. The federal NMVTIS title check shows the title brands (salvage, flood, rebuilt) reported by state motor vehicle agencies, through approved providers for a small fee. Then match the VIN on the report, the dashboard plate, the door sticker and the title. All four must agree.

Avturo adds a fourth check: the model's known problems, the ones a history report cannot show because they have not happened yet. For many popular US and Canadian models they come from our documented problem pages; for other cars the report searches the web and shows the pages it found. How to read a VIN and what a salvage or rebuilt title means for the price are covered in their own guides.

The meet

• Daylight, public, busy. A shopping-centre lot or a service station, or better, a police-station lot set up as a safe exchange zone. Carfax's Craigslist guide recommends exactly that. Bring someone.
• ID against title. Ask for the seller's driver's licence and compare the name with the title and the registration. If they do not match, the person in front of you is not the owner.
• Drive it properly. Cold start, city streets, a highway stretch, hard braking, full-lock turns in a lot. Avturo's report lists the model's known problems, so you know what to listen and look for.
• Then an inspection. An independent mechanic's pre-purchase inspection is the best money in the whole process, per GoodCar's scam guide; prices vary by shop and car, so ask when you book. A seller who refuses one has answered your question. What an inspection covers.

Paying and paperwork

Agree the price at the car, then finish at your bank. Carfax suggests leaving the money at home while you negotiate and meeting at the bank to hand it over: everything that happens there is on camera, and many banks have a notary who can witness the sale documents where your state requires it. A cashier's check drawn in the branch, or cash counted at the counter, is the whole list of acceptable methods.

• The title, signed by the seller in the places your state requires, with the odometer reading. Some states require a notary; your bank may have one.
• A bill of sale with both names, the VIN, the price, the date and the mileage, signed by both of you. Keep a copy of the ad too.
• A lien release, if the title shows a lender, before any money changes hands.
• Sales tax and registration are usually paid when you title the car at your state's motor vehicle or county tax office, and most states charge the tax on a private sale too. Rules and rates vary by state, so check yours and budget for it before you agree the price.

The cars you will see most, and what to check on each

Each guide covers a documented failure point, what it costs to fix, and the check that catches it in a driveway.

All documented problems by make

Frequently asked questions

Buying somewhere else? Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp have their own guides. Before you go: is this a real private seller?, how much to offer, and what an accident on the history report means.