need a toy

Where do you live? This newsgroup goes worldwide...

Your best bet is to look locally in the newspapers for a private party sale - that's about the only way to get a car with a known service history and at a fair and reasonable price nowadays.

If a car dealer touches the car (trade-in or purchased on the wholesale auction market) they have to bump the price up a lot to cover their costs. And 98% of the time they have no idea about the history of the car, even if they BS you that they do.

Worse, there are brokers and intermediaries in the used car wholesaling game that do things from rolling back the odometer to very dubious temporary fixes to big problems designed to artificially inflate the value of the car.

(Good Ol tricks like sawdust in the rear end gear oil to quiet down a worn-out gear set, lasts long enough for your check to clear...)

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