I've posted a similar thread on Pelican after uncovering facts on a couple of cars I was interested in.
While there is no reason not to take someone at their word, it is always in your best interest to "verify".
It's become pretty common to use Carfax or Autocheck these days and I for one am a proponent for these services IF you are dealing with a 17 digit VIN.
Not all of the cars I've been poking around are Porsches. Yes, Virginia, I am a back-slider when it comes to sticking with one brand. There are a lot of cars
that I haven't owned but have been on the radar for many years. And I still like Corvettes.
Over on Pelican and Rennlist,where you will find more modern cars for sale, imagine my surprise when I uncovered 3 cars in 2 days, 2 of which had salvage history and one had a honest to goodness salvage/rebuilt title. Before you take up for the cars (which are innocent) you should know that one was claimed to be "minor" and the other one (a Rennlist sponsor) made no mention of it at all.
As for "salvage title/rebuilt title," understand that an insurance company has determined the damage to the car to exceed roughly 75% of value. For example, a car worth $53,800 would take $40,000 damage to total it. This would seem to involve more than "a fender, door and bumper" as described by one of these sellers. Another interesting fact about that car was that it was involved in a second accident as well.
Note: Once a car makes it into the category of a roughly 90% loss it is marked as "Parts Only". It is not to be rebuilt.
Not wanting to start a fire, I politely PM'd the owner regarding the issue, as I did have a genuine interest in the car. I mentioned the data that I had discovered and got a very cryptic note stating "SOLD". I followed up the "for sale" thread on the car and the seller thanked Pelican for the exposure (I guess) and nothing more came from him. I saved his ad and the Carfax and Autocheck in PDF format. I'm guessing this car will be seen again.
As for "where to buy", Pelican is a free for all and anybody and his brother can sell a car there. I expected a little more from Rennlist but one figures that a bad apple might slip by every now and then. Can't say for sure that the seller there knows, but he should if he's done his homework. Nothing worse than an unearned reputation for hawking bad wares. I contacted him and await his reply.
On a good note, I did uncover a Carfax clerical error for one gentleman. He's attempting to fix what I found and hopefully CarFax will do the right thing and take care of it. His original Carfax (of which I have a copy) had no mention of the issue regarding the odometer reading. He ordered the original report before he bought the car a few years ago. At $53,000 I wouldn't think anybody would miss out on the opportunity to use any and all means to "vet" a car. I received an e-mail from him with his letter to Carfax and his original documents. Without getting into too much detail, the car was brand new when the odometer foul up, which was clerical in nature, occurred.
Keep your guard up folks.
Tom