Hi,
I’m looking to buy a used 2007 BMW 328i coupe from a private party. Car appears to be in great shape, odometer says 43k miles on it. test drove the car everything is fine, plan to take it to the bmw dealership to get inspected before buying to make sure no large issues with car no accidents, etc. Car priced at 20k online which is considerably below the actual value of the car (prolly valued at about 22-23k from a private party altough ive seen them for more). Only one problem, the title showed exactly 150k miles on it and this is what is hows on instavin. Title shows no other issues, never being retitled or salvaged or anything like that. You can see on carfax when he took it to the dealership that the mileage was reported at like 33k, 37k etc. The owner says he screwed it up when he transfered the title of the car from arizona to WA and i believe him because that is a ridiculous amount of miles. Also, the dealership should easily be able to tell me if the engine and the car looks like it has 150k miles or 43k miles correct? Anyways, i informed the owner i would not be interested in the car unless he fixed the miles on the title. He is in the military and living in puerto rico so 3 months later he now has the new title showing the correct miles of 43k. The title says “duplicate title” on it and also has a “prior title number” on it. When i do an instavin check ,it still shows that the car previously had 150k miles on it and is now at 43k with the new title. i know to fix the miles on a title it has to be legally certified with a notary and everything, but should this negatively affect the value of the car since anyone who searches the vin will see the 150k? This one mistake he made ruins the value of the car forever? or is there maybe something more sinister at work here that im not seeing. Please help give me some peace of mind, or tell me to stay away. it seems like a great deal!