The CarGurus Blog

Daily coverage of the world of cars.

Car Minded

What Happens When a Buyer Never Registers a Car You Sold?


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car title transfer

It’s a good rule in life to expect the best but prepare for the worst.

Most humans on Earth are good people who want to live the best life possible, but a few are set on breaking the rules for their own benefit.

Selling a car can be a profitable venture, but it can also provide opportunity for unscrupulous humans to use the seller’s good name in a crime. It’s rare, but it can happen.

When you buy a vehicle from a private seller, you take the transferred title to your local DMV and register the car in your name. All the paperwork is taken care of for you if you buy from a dealer.

Sometimes a private seller will sell his or her car, but the buyer won’t ever register it. Any parking tickets or driving infractions caught on camera will be under the seller’s name. If any crime is committed in the car, it’ll be the seller in the crosshairs of law enforcement.

Here’s how to make sure this doesn’t happen to you. Continue reading >>>

10 Cars to Buy When You Get Promoted


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2015 Mazda MAZDA3

Hard work pays off. With luck, you’ll get out of a job what you put into it. If you’re a hardworking person, you’ll likely receive an opportunity to move up in the world. So maybe you’re moving on to something new, or you’re replacing someone who has left a position above you. Either way, moving up can be pretty awesome. So with your newly accepted promotion, you’ll want to spend your more generous new wages appropriately. So why not buy a new car, something that will really show the world your hard work has paid off (literally). People often say “you should dress for the job you want.” So why not drive a car for the job you want?

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New Mercedes-Benz G-Class Raises the Question of Car Color


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Despite how it might look, this is not a post about the new Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Very few of us will ever test-drive or purchase Merc’s veritable luxury performance off-roader, and even fewer will step foot into a G63 AMG or G65 AMG.

However, the new G-Series has caught my attention not because of the G63’s mind-numbing 5.4-second zero-to-60 time or the G65’s 621 horsepower, but because the color choices are as ridiculous as the car itself. Orange, lime green, magenta, and bright yellow complement the traditional choices.

I bring this up because just yesterday a friend asked, after reading our article about look-alike cars, why more color choices aren’t offered on new cars to set them apart. Here’s what she asked:

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Can a Hyundai Be Better Than a BMW?


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2015_hyundai_sonata_limited-pic-8680423485392394084

There’s something seductive about the idea of buying a used luxury car.

Getting a car that will make friends and family swoon is exciting, so why not cruise around in the kind of style only a used Jaguar or BMW can offer?

Stepping a few model years into the past can get you a car that costs less than an entry-level new car. Plus, used luxury cars usually have better driving dynamics and possess way more brand panache than your average new Hyundai.

However, buying older luxury can cost you more than you might realize, and not just in maintenance costs.

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Will Your Car Last 200,000 Miles?

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2015 Honda Accord

This used to be a fairly common rule regarding car ownership:

Get rid of it before it hits 100,000 miles.

In fact, I once knew people who firmly believed in trading in their cars before the 60,000-mile mark. They were a strict Chevy family, and experience told them that anything over 60K meant trouble.

Of course, that’s just silly today. Cars at 60,000 miles, regardless of the make, are barely broken in and can easily pass 100,000 miles and even hit 200,000 or more.

A recent list from Consumer Reports rubbed me wrong, because it announced the 10 cars most likely to make it to 200,000 miles. They all had one disturbing thing in common:

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