can't imagine anyone selling letting a stranger take a 10+ year old used car for a day to test drive!

 

I agree, probably not gonna let me remove engine cover, plug on packs and spark plugs either. It looks like a lot more than it really is.

 

They will let you take it to a mechanic though, and a good mechanic who knows these cars will know what to look for.

 

True but few and far between

 

Not really. It’s a pretty straightforward car.

You just have to have the expectation that there will be things you will need to fix and address.

 

Use your imagination.

 

If it were me, you can do it at my house--predicated upon you're willing to buy based on it being in good order. If you go to a shop, that I take my car to (you can decide, is the shop going to lie for me? no), they can do that. Of course if a tire kicker, then no. If I found this is important to other buyers, I'll leave the covers off.

Business is business, pretty routine that NDAs are signed and pilots/POCs are free, but there has to be some skin in the game too, such as pilot is successful, commitment is agreed to, and spelled out in advance.

 

good and fair attitude

 

If I was selling my car, no way I'm going to let a buyer himself disassemble it or drive it for an entire day. Thats just not a reasonable request when talking about a personally owned vehicle. To have it inspected by a certified mechanic, sure thats totally different.

People are not dealerships, an individual has no insurance or protections for allowing someone else to drive their car for an entire day.

 

I understand your view about not letting someone disassemble, that's the POV I first espoused, however i'd say my mechanic skills (and many other individuals) are probably better than at least 50% of the so called certified mechanics out there. Of course as a seller you could not know that, nor the qualifications of any unknown (to you) certified mechanic.
As for insurance? I don't think there are any insurance prohibitions against you letting someone else drive your car, ultimately you are responsible, for example an accident resulting in death/severe injury and likely suit in the millions and your policy only covers to it's limits.

 

But the seller has no way of knowing that other than you saying thats so.

The vast majority of private sellers just aren't going to allow either of those things, for good reason IMO. Dealership isn't going to let you disassemble their car either, and a mechanics shop isn't going to do anything too invasive for fear of causing issues and liability.

Its kind of like selling your house and letting somebody take the drywall off to look inside the walls and spend a week living it it to get a feel for it. Some things are just unreasonable requests.

 

To be honest, let's just talk about a LS430, since I own one. For you to want to remove the plastic covers top and bottom is somewhat reasonable--if you were a serious buyer, I'd take them off for you. There is absolutely no way you'd see that the front corners of the valve covers are leaking and the alternator is soaked in oil, or the rack is leaking PS fluid, with the covers in place. The leak has to be big time for this car to leave a spot on the driveway. If you said that's fine, but I want to remove the plugs to see what condition they're in, I may say hold on, my car has 125k and I just did them at 118k myself--I don't mind if you bring a scanner and check for misfire codes, but I can tell you from having done the plugs myself and showing you pics from my phone, they're fine. If you insist well you're hiding something I want to do it myself, yes, I may say no. Because my car is going to sell for well under 10k if not 5k. But if this were a 40k used car purchase, and you say you're ready to buy if these things pass muster? That's another story. We're not dismantling vehicles for fun, we're trying to spot obvious areas that need work. That's all.

There's no way I would buy a 2013 S63 AMG from anyone who won't let me take the vehicle to a AMG specialist. And that's gonna take a full day back and forth. If they have another buyer lined up, they're going to say sorry, I can't let you do it. That's why it's a market. But if they don't have a buyer lined up and I have $35k cash ready to buy, they may decide to let the car go to a shop.

Look at legit street car's M5 that he took to a specialist--that's what I'm talking about. They didn't break or dismantle anything in doing the inspection.

 

Removing plastic covers is fine, but you're not removing my spark plugs in my driveway, even if you're going to buy my $100k car. We can take it to a professional of your choosing for an inspection, you can hire a professional used car evaluator, or you can move along.

 

There is absolutely no way you'd see that the front corners of the valve covers are leaking and the alternator is soaked in oil, or the rack is leaking PS fluid, with the covers in place.

So is the average mechanic down the block gonna see this either? I've read about these problems on this car and would be more attuned to looking for them than the service station guy. If I had my telescoping mirror or flex shaft borescope and sent them right to trouble spot would I see the leaks? Also is your parking spot covered in oil?

 

Any mechanic who is halfway decent would check to see if the valve covers are leaking on any car they inspect.