Craigslist car sales are cash, local and final. Once the money is handed over there is rarely anyone to complain to. Enter the VIN from the listing or the seller to see what is on record before you meet.
Salvage, rebuilt, flood and junk brands from every state, including a brand applied before the car was re-titled somewhere that did not carry it over.
Readings from titles, inspections and sales. A reading lower than an earlier one is a rollback, whatever the dashboard says.
Active theft records against the VIN, plus the decoded year, make and model to compare with the car, which is how a cloned VIN is caught.
Whether loan or lien records are on file. Paying a seller who still owes the bank leaves you with a car you cannot title.
Listing and auction photos previously published for the VIN, on 70% of our reports, often taken before a repair.
How many owners, how long each kept it, and whether it was a rental, fleet or taxi vehicle.
Get the VIN from the seller before you agree to meet. No VIN, no viewing.
Run it here. The free preview shows whether loan, theft, title brand, odometer and photo records exist.
Meet in daylight, ideally at the seller’s bank, and match the VIN on the car to the title.
Pay with a cashier’s check only after you have seen a title in the seller’s name with no lienholder, or after the lender confirms payoff.
The FTC has warned about ads for inexpensive used cars posted by people who do not own them. The VIN and the title, checked before you travel, are how you find out.
A salvage car re-registered in another state can come back with a title that looks clean. The original brand stays on the VIN’s history.
Worn pedals and a sagging driver’s seat on a "low-mileage" car are clues; the dated readings on record are evidence.
Most Craigslist car deals are paid in cash, so there is no chargeback and often no way to find the seller again. The check has to happen before the money moves.
The preview is free and shows which records exist; the full report is $19.99, one payment, no subscription. It tells you that loan or lien records exist, not who holds them, so ask to see the title for the lienholder’s name. If the report shows nothing, nothing was reported in the sources searched. That is encouraging but not proof, so have the car inspected too.
See a full sample reportGet the VIN, run it here, match it on the car and the title, check the title is in the seller’s name with no lienholder, and have a mechanic look at it. In that order, so you can stop early if something is wrong.
Partly. NMVTIS-based checks and NICB’s VINCheck cover some title and theft records, and the preview here shows which other records exist for free. Odometer history, photos and loan records are in the paid report.
Re-titling a branded car in a state whose rules do not carry the brand over, so the new title reads clean. The earlier brand stays in the VIN history.
Cash leaves no trail and cannot be reversed. If you pay cash, do it only after you have seen the title in the seller’s name, with no lienholder, at a bank or another safe place.
With the bank means a loan is still on the car. At home means you should not pay until you see it. Either way, run the VIN for loan records first.
Enter the VIN to see which records exist. The preview is free.