Buyer’s Guide

Buying a used car is a sequence of decisions, and most of the expensive mistakes happen at a predictable point in that sequence: the listing that looked fine, the question that didn’t get asked, the inspection that got skipped because the seller was in a hurry, the payment made before the title was checked. This section walks the whole process in order — research, first contact, viewing, inspection, test drive, history check, negotiation, payment, title transfer — and shows what to do at each step and what to refuse. It’s written for people who don’t know cars and don’t want to become experts; the goal is a buyer who walks into a viewing with a plan and walks away when the plan says to. Read the Fraud Prevention Playbook first if you only have time for one guide.