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This is my personal check list for one I trade/buy.
INTERACTION: First thing when engaging into a deal or trade with someone is to make FIRST HAND contact. Generally the phone being the best source because then you know you are dealing with a real person. But don't stop there. Corespondance through email is a plus as well. Pay attention to how well their grammar and sentence structures are. I am sorry but most of the scammers out there are NOT of American English nationality and their sentences are poor. They also usually beat around the bush a lot and do not want to talk on the phone much. Stay away from sending a deposit or more money than necessary.
RESEARCH: Second thing is get the VIN and do a CARFAX!!!! Very imporant to do this.
PICTURES: Third thing to do next is to get recent pictures. If they send pictures or a link, thats fine, but ask for brand new pictures. Anyone willing to sell or trade should be willing to take brand new pictures for you. Make sure they are brand new. Ask them to put a colored piece of paper on the vehicle somewhere with that days date and snap a photo of it.
DISCLOSURE: I ask the person I am dealing with, ARE YOU THE OWNER? IS THE TITLE CLEAR? IS IT THE ORIGINAL TITLE? You will come across alot of people that just title hop. Meaning that they will trade around so much that they will not bother with registering the vehicle. Usually someone that has a vehicle for only a matter of a few days, might have a reason they want to get rid of it. Perhaps it might have some problems??? But get disclosure on anything and everything possible
Now as far as disclosure goes. Undoubtedly and unfortunately there are people out there that will not disclose or tell all the problems about a vehicle for the simple fact that they want to dump the problem off on someone else and not have to worry about it. It sucks. It has happened to me before, but its all apart of the territory with trading. Being the person on the receiving end of a deal, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to check out anything and everything on the vehicle that you possibly can. Once you "receive" the vehicle and sign the dotted line, its yours. NO MATTER WHAT.
INSPECTING THE VEHICLE. What I generally do is take a look at the vehicle all over, preferrably in a well lit area. I will look at all the body lines. Look down the sides of the vehicle to look for any hidden dents dings and uneven body lines. I will pop the hood. Pop the trunk. Open all doors. And then close everything and repeat the process just to make sure. If it has power windows and locks, play with them for a second to make sure all the windows roll up and down and the locks function normally. While the car is sitting there, get look underneith it from all sides to visually inspect for leaks at all or build up. Take a flask light and check it out. Do the same under the hood. Check the engine carefully. Pull the oil dipstick, pull the tranny dipstick. Check the radiator fluid level. Dont let the fact that an engine is clean fool you either.
SYSTEMATIC TEST: Next crank the vehicle... a couple times. Turn it on and off, so that there are no surprises. Crank the AC to full blast, and let the car sit there and idle. Let it get up to operating temperature. Check everything once again. Check under it for leaks, or any type of seepage. Next turn the steering wheel fully in both directions to hear for noises. Turn on all the lights and the emergency flashers and check all of those components. Check the gauges to see that there arent any lights lit on the cluster for problems. MAKE SURE THE VEHICLE IS NOT OVER HEATING.
DRIVEABILITY TEST: Next, take it for a drive. Check how the transmission shifts from park, to reverse, to park, to drive, if its an automatic. If its a manual shift through all the gears while holding the clutch pedal down. Make sure its shifts smoothly. Stretch it out some. Make sure the vehicle gets up to speed fine and slows down fine. Make sure that you stretch out all the gears some. Even in the 5 speed, shift slowly, and then shift through all the gears swiftly. In most cases synchronizers in the tranny may not show their problems until you try to shift swiftly.
Take a drive down a less busy street with the windows down and listen for abnormal noises coming from the vehicle. Speed up and slow down. Apply the brakes. Listen for noises. Check for vibrations. Once again work the steering wheel. Make sure you also check these same patterns, but in reverse.
2ND SYSTEMATIC TEST: Now after completing the thorough inspection and driveability test, if it passes, bring it back to the parking lot but DO NOT PARK IT WHERE YOU MOVED IT FROM. Find a new spot. If it leaks any you want to be able to see new leaks on the ground. Do not inspect a vehicle in grass or dirt. Once again let the vehicle sit there and idle and check for any new leaks or seepage after having drove the car a bit. On rear wheel drive vehicles check the actual rear end housing to see if the differential cover gasket leaks at all. Check the rear pinion seal if you can get to it. Check the transmission rear tail seal if you can get to it. Check the valve cover gaskets, check the seal where the head meets the block on the engine. Check around the water pump area to see if there is any leaking there. Check the transmission fluid while the engine is running. Listen to the engine to see if you can hear any noises. Bring a stethescope with you if you have one so that you can actually hear what the internals of the engine or sounding like.
NEGOTIATIONS: Once you have completed all of these things...make sure and check anything that you might have doubts about again. If everything checks out OK, and you feel confident that its going to be OK then you can go ahead and finish out the transaction or make any stipulations, agreement, or negotiations that you feel necessary.
Good Luck!
P.S. Generally rule of thumb. Go with your gut instinct. AND If its too good to be true, it probably is!! It cant get any more simple than that.
Oh, and if you do not have the mental capacity to perform a lot of these inspections. Its simple. Bring it to a reputable shop near where you are completing the transaction and have them look it over. They wont lie. It might cost you a couple of bucks, but wouldn't that be much better than having to spend $100s on repairs you didn't know existed?
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