Bye car remotely with cashier's check?

More importantly, I would test drive the car and have your mechanic inspect it before any money changes hands. You are wise to be uncomfortable with mailing money to a dealer.

Face to face deals are best.

Thanks. I'm just not going to fly and do all that and drive back a 12-hour drive if I can have it shipped for six hundred bucks. I had an independent mechanic look at it already. I would not buy a car without having that done. I spoke to one other dealer about a different car and they also said they only take cashier's check or personal check from a National Bank. It's just hard for me to believe that people regularly send over $10,000 in what is essentially cash without having anything in hand at all.

Thanks. And I suspect dealers certainly already know what I learned about Paypal, which is that the buyer can stop payment pretty easily it seems. I'll never sell a vehicle by Paypal again. And it looks like CarGurus only provides a secure transaction service for private sellers; not for dealers. I do have a high probability that the dealer (it's really an auto shop with about 7 cars on the lot) actually exists and is an established business. So I might go on and send twelve grand down their way on good faith. Seems pretty unwise. But it's either that, or I don't get the car it looks like.