Blackhawk, meet Blackbird

After searching the internet for used car deals, we've finally made the purchase and have now graduated from a "one-car family" to a more normal (at least for this area) "two-car family."  Wow - I feel like I'm back in high school with a newly minted driver's license and permission from the 'rents to drive the family station wagon.  It definitely feels good to have a sedan and not feel like I have to burn through 2 gallons of gas to get 'Shroom to and from school (actually with our minivan, nicknamed Blackhawk, it's realistically just under 1.5 gallons to drop off and pick up 'Shroom at school each day).

The whole car buying thing off Craigslist was a bit scary.  I believe that you gotta know your stuff or else be willing to suffer potential fall-out from being scammed.  To make a long story short, we had thought we were purchasing a car from a private seller.  The 2005 Honda Accord looked to be in fairly good condition with perhaps average mileage for LA (but I would consider it high for New England driving).  Even the mechanic said it was a nice car in great condition.

Well, as Air Boss went inside what I thought was the seller's home office to take care of the business transaction, the kids and I sat in the Blackhawk and waited in the parking lot of the apartment complex.  A few minutes later, an older gentleman claiming to be the owner of the very vehicle Air Boss was paying cash to purchase was trying to sell the car to another family (they had just walked off the street into the parking lot).

"What is going on?!" I had thought as I suspiciously watched the used car dealer charade.  Apparently the owner/seller/dealer knew something about the car because he knew the mileage and the make/model/year of the vehicle.  I stepped out of my car and simply said, "I think someone is buying that car."

The owner/seller/dealer/who-knows-who-he-is then took the family to another car on the other side of Blackhawk and proceeded to sell them ANOTHER car.  I took a quick scan of the cars in the lot and realized that our Blackhawk was perhaps the only car not for sale.  And, the building no longer looked like an apartment complex as I saw two Lexus RX300 pull into the lot (both of which had the bright neon yellow numbers on the front windshield).

Huh.  We've been duped.

So much for figuring we were buying it from a private owner.  I phoned Air Boss who was probably at that time forking over $K's to the first owner/seller/dealer/whomever inside.  We later find out that the guy's line of business is an importer/exporter of luxury vehicles to Korea.  Hmmm . . .

In the end, we bought the car (which incidentally is almost identical in color to Blackhawk, hence the name Blackbird).  It's still too early to know for sure if we've been scammed or bought a lemon.  At least we didn't fall for this scam:

"The transaction will be closed only through a 3rd party because this way we will both be protected. My time is limited due to my job in the army so I decided to use a service from PayPay which will serve as our 3rd escrow party in this transaction. To begin the transaction I'll need your full name and shipping address, I will forward the details of our transaction to PayPay and then you will receive an invoice from them. The car will be shipped insured to your location with DAS and you will have 5 days for inspection, I will pay for shipping."

Who would have "thunk" buying a used car could be so scary?