Someone selling a 325xi for 14,200.00 should i be leary about this ?

Is this the right price for this car. The car is in excellent shape. no problems, just wondering why so low ? What are the things i should check for . Maybe car is stolen ?? who knows?

thanks janet

2003 BMW 325XI AWD Sedan Year: 2003 Miles: 59995 Interior: Beige/Tan Exterior: Black Transmission: Automatic Engine: 6 CYLINDER 2.5 LITER VIN Number: WBAEU33452PF58124 STILL UNDER BMW FACTORY WARRANTY UNTIL 06/28/2006
Reply to
janet6152
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If you are in the US, the first thing you want to do is get a Carfax report. It costs $25 (although they will give you a partial for free) but it is worth the peace of mind. If you are buying from a dealer he should give you one, and you should insist on one( and at no cost to you). Go to:

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Good luck! Fritz Wagner

Columbus, Ohio

Reply to
Fritz Wagner

"janet6152" wrote

The price is quite low. Have you run a carfax on it - I'd wonder about whether it's been re-built after a wreck. One specific thing about this "ad" worries me: US warranties on BMWs are 4-years or 48K miles, SO THE WARRANTY IS OVER as it has 60K on it.

Floyd

Reply to
fbloogyudsr

This is way too good of a deal to be true. The *wholesale* on that car would be at least $23k

It is either a scam or there is something seriously wrong with this car.

Good Luck,

-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

US warranties on BMWs are 4-years

The fact that it's a too good to be true deal notwithstanding - it could be covered by a CPO warranty.

A Carfax is definitely in order. If it's an ebay car, the seller, location and circumstances in general require scrutiny. Sounds like one of those private auction/car in Nigeria/free shipping/will deliver on receipt of half the money-send me the rest if you like the car deals/scams.

ds

Reply to
DFS

The price is low because the miles are high. The mileage is 30,000 per year for two years. That is high, and the price is discounted. I am not suggesting this is necessarily a bad thing, but the value of a vehicle is based on its expected life, or life remaining. And since so much of the total miles have already been used, the remaining life is diminished as compared to other cars of the same age. My '94 3 Series has almost 220,000 miles on it and is still going strong, so I suspect you are getting a good value, especially if you are the kind of person that turns a car over in a few years anyway.

Go to

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and plug in the information asked for, and see what the price comes back as. Since you are doing a Private Party transaction, then you should look at that pricing model. KBB will price out with Wholesale - the price a dealer will pay you on trade in - Retail - the price the dealer will sell you the car for - and Private Party - the price you pay somebody when you find a car you like in the newspaper or parked on the corner in your neighborhood.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

I just looked on kbb.com, and with the default options and the mileage you describe, the value - Private Party - is over $24,000. You need to do more research. Others have suggested a Carfax Report, I agree that this is a must. Generally, I think that a carfax report is not very useful because it will only tell you stuff that somebody has bothered to enter into the system, and it fhe sales price is properly in line with the values, then people can withhold information that would be useful to know, but when the price is so far askew from the value, then something must have happened that would be difficult to hold back.

Given the pricing you are telling us, the car may have a salvage title, this means the car has been wrecked - or otherwise destroyed - and rebuilt. The simple answer is that the 1 and the 2 are next to each other on the keyboard, and that 14k is really meant to be 24k, at which point the price is about right.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

That's odd. I just went there myself and got $21,090. And that's choosing excellent condition which is rarely the case with a car with

60K miles. In good condition, kbb.com says it's $19,675. I'm not disagreeing that the deal is too good to be true, but it's not as good as some are saying. The $23k+ *wholesale* that someone else posted is a dream.
Reply to
Marcio Watanabe

I FOUND THE MISTAKE, I used 30,000 for the mileage, not 60,000. Sorry for my confusion.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

No, I already discounted the price for high mileage and it comes up $10k short of wholesale.

Also, forget about kbb.com. Their prices are all over the map. I use the nada values same as the dealers do and it seems to be more reliable. They allow free web acces at:

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-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

It matters what zip code you enter too. Certain markets will command more than others.

-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

I used the wrong mileage when I checked.

When I corrected the mileage, I got the same $19k figure he got for Good condition. I can't imagine that having double the expected mileage can result in maintaining Excellent condition, so I only looked at the Good condition value.

Reply to
Jeff Strickland

Carfax says it's a 2002 NOT a 2003, that could adjust the price somewhat... 7 records found in our database you have to pay to get the rest of the info.

Reply to
Janet

Bullshit. Carfax is not reliable.

Reply to
dizzy

Yes, it's much better to just go into it completely blind.

-Fred W

Reply to
Malt_Hound

What's the difference, when Carfax doesn't tell you what it should?

Reply to
dizzy

If carfax tells you nothing, you know nothing.

If carfax tells you there are bunch of problems, it's worthwhile.

Taking a clean carfax report as absolution of any possiblity of problems is foolish, but it's still useful.

-Russ.

Reply to
Somebody

Someone on one of the Porsche sites has a page up which pairs a perfect carfax report with pictures of a badly wrecked and rebuilt car - Car was a total, and rebuilt - but nothing in the report to reflect that.

ds

Reply to
DFS

Your experienced mechanic whom you have cultivated all these years will drive it, put it up on the rack, and look for all the trouble areas.

Carfax is good for public records, particularly tracing changes of title. If you would prefer a one owner car, Carfax will tell you, as it told me, that the car I was interested in had originally been titled in Virginia, then Mississippi, then Oklahoma, and then was bought at a dealer auction in Ohio. That may mean nothing but I prefer limited prior ownership. The last car I sold had 50,000 miles on it when I bought it. I never thought about it at the time I bought it (I had a life back then!) but when I sold it I did a Carfax on it for fun and it had been a lease car.

So Carfax is OK for tracing title.

Fritz Wagner

Columbus, Ohio

Reply to
Fritz Wagner

Carfax doesnt show accidents in all states.

also, someone could have smacked the car up and not reported the accident in a police report. (like hit a tree) wont show up on carfax then.

always have a good mechanic look at the car on the lift. if its bought on the internet pay Lemon Detectors or someone to look at it. although someone here may want to comment as to how good they are when you arent around. guy i used was good but i was there.

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