first you sample the road at a reasonable pace. then you go back and drive it at full tilt.

Mexico?  I’ve done 149 on a dead straight section of new pavement (yeehaw highway 2 rebuild in Sonora).  marked speed limit is 100 or 110 km/h so ... half that.

2004 V8 Mustang.

I just like to listen to the engine run, the wind whip, and the transmission possibly separate itself from the frame.

Ferrari? par for the course.

Ferrari? par for the course.

you ask the dealer to take the car to your shop. tell them it’ll be a couple hours. (clear it with your shop first of course to make sure their schedule is viable!)

I always meet in a public location for these various cash transactions. for cars, it is at my mechanic’s shop. we each put our license on the hood of the car and take a picture for our records (aren’t mobile phones great like that?) and then I do the test drive with the owner passenging - if I am happy, my mechanic…

my receipts end up in six different places because I’m sloppy with them.  I know I can always call up my mechanic and get every service record since 2011 (longer ago than any of the vehicles in my current fleet).  I did that when the IRS audited me; my insistence that they write down the correct odometer reading at…

what the fuck?  no. potential buyer pays for the inspection; that’s how society works.

the generic bill of sale that the California DMV website provides has as-is verbiage.

yeah I want my damn title and registration, and this being California, my smog paperwork as well. there are so many decent cars out here for good prices (hooray desert climate!) that I can just pass on one if any of the paperwork is out of order, and find something similar in 15 minutes.

oh fuck no, I’d insist on the smog.  I’d tell him “look it’s 50 bucks for a smog check, how about I don’t try to talk you down an extra 100 at sale time and you give me clean papers so I get no hassle at the DMV?”

hm, I barely know where my mechanical records are. in the glove box? under the seat? in the box of receipts I keep for tax purposes? lining the bird cage?

I meet at my mechanic’s shop - I trust him to be sufficiently competent in his inspection that even if the car is warm, he’ll find issues.

I’m fine with assholes.  I always meet up at my mechanic’s shop.  got cameras all over, and the owner is 6'5, 300, and can go from jovial big dude to bouncer in 0.3 seconds as needed.

people like off-roading in the many neato corners of Utah.

my main line of defense is that I insist on taking a photo of the seller’s driver license. I give the same courtesy - we put the two licenses next to each other on the hood of the car and each takes a photo with our mobile phone.

I meet at my mechanic’s shop. we take a drive and if I like it, the mechanic gives it the inspection. he’s also happy to make sure all paperwork is completed in an orderly manner. (it helps that he is 6'5, 300)

we’ll see what happens if I ever sell my Mustang for more than scrap. it’ll probably be down to the bone (already got 232k on it - ‘04 GT and I can tell the engine isn’t as fresh as it was 100k miles ago) but I’ll happily tell any potential buyer that I got it at 129k and loved it to pieces.