There's often a ton of communication between me and sellers to determine things like:
- mileage
- automatic / manual transmission
- whether car has been in any serious accidents
- whether there's any major upcoming maintenance
- whether the driver smoked
- whether the title is Clean
Then I need to get the VIN and run a CarProof (Canadian equiv. of CarFax).
Then, assuming it checks out, schedule a test drive.
Then, assuming the drive is good, get a mechanic's inspection done.
Then, pay and sign papers.
It's a royal pain, compounded by the fact that CL and Autotrader individual sellers seem to be a generally sketchy or uncommunicative lot: no email replies, missed appointments, lying about the title, etc. are all common.
Car buying won't be done like it currently is in 10 years from now; glad to see you're doing something to improve the experience.