We found a great deal on a 2008 Toyota Prius. The car was advertised on the Internet by a private seller. It had 110,000 miles (which isn't that much for a car of this quality) and was listed at $5,200, which is a very good deal for this car (the market value is around $7000-$7500). The seller was the second owner and had it for three years. She was getting rid of it it because she wanted to buy a truck. We test drove the car and it drove fine. There were a few oddities (i.e., the hybrid battery had been replaced, which normally isn't necessary for a car that young, and the license plate number indicated it was much newer than three years old, but these were worth overlooking, given the great price). The car came with a clean title and the owner told us it had never been in a major accident, so we made an offer. We negotiated the price down to $4700, which made for an even better deal! We gave her a check (just as a placeholder) and agreed to meet up the next day, upon which we would take back the check, give her cash, and drive away in our newly-purchased car. Normally, we'd take a used car to a mechanic and get it checked out, but we were sure the car would sell very quickly, even at the original listing price of $5200, so we wanted to grab it before someone else did. Even if it ended up having a few mechanical issues, it was worth the risk, as the repair costs probably wouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars. As soon as we left we realized we forgot to get the car's VIN. I messaged the seller to ask for it. She was out doing chores and couldn't get it to me right away. I bugged her again a few hours later, and then once again in the evening. She finally sent it. I looked it up in CarFax and, whoa!!! The car showed a last odometer reading of 330,000 miles! Thinking that must be a mistake, I purchased the full report and went through the service records. For each entry, the odometer reading gradually increased to 330,000 miles, at which point it went to auction. It had been purchased by a private buyer just a few weeks earlier. No, the seller had *not* had it for three years. This also explained the new license plate, and the high mileage explained the need to replace the battery. We immediately called the seller, who did not answer the phone, and left a voice message asking her to call us back. She never did, and we never met the next day to buy the car. Because of the CarFax report, we escaped getting ripped off by an unscrupulous seller who had rolled back the odometer and lied about the car. CarFax, thanks for helping us dodge a bullet!