After I have inspected (or not) the vehicle and am ready to buy it, what do I do next?

Well, you have to make sure that the seller has proper title of the vehicle and that there aren’t any liens against it. This is not an easy thing to ascertain, because all U.S. states have different forms and different practices. You may want to go to a lawyer to confirm the validity of the document, but always make sure that you have “picture” I.D. of the person selling it to you. Perhaps they are selling you a stolen vehicle with a stolen title and claiming to be the owner on the title. How will you actually know?

If you are buying the vehicle unseen, you have another problem – how do you know that they will ship the vehicle to you? They may take your money and the vehicle may never arrive. Or perhaps they send it to you without a current and valid title certificate. Without this, you cannot bring the vehicle into Canada and it is essentially worthless.

Sometimes sellers will ask you for a deposit and when you arrive there, the vehicle is not as described and they refuse to refund the deposit. You are pretty much hooped, because you can’t turn around and sue them – you have a country and distance barrier to deal with. Consider your deposit lost… Other sellers will suggest that you use an Escrow Agency, to protect your interest if you aren’t happy with the vehicle later. They may recommend the agency or suggest you take a look in the Yellow Pages or the Internet. Often, especially in smaller centres, there is only one agency and it is in cahoots with the seller or possibly even owned by the seller. So you send the money in good faith and everyone disappears afterwards.

Many buyers use eBay because there is “protection” for the buyer and “insurance” on products and their “Dispute Resolution Process.” This is not always totally true and eBay will not step into the middle of a battle on most problems and in fact, eBay’ers have discovered the hard way that if there is a dispute, they won’t actually do anything to help the purchaser recover their funds. Once again, you may be on your own, out thousands of dollars in deposit money or actual purchase costs.