[jphughan]

A co-worker of mine just sold his M6 to an out of state buyer; he still owed money on it. Since the buyer didn't have a lot of time to be down here to check the car, he asked my co-worker to get a PPI done at the local BMW dealer prior to his arrival and send the results. They were fine, so the buyer flew down from NY to inspect the car, decided he wanted it, and gave my co-worker the cold, hard cash in exchange for the car, which he decided to drive home. My co-worker immediately went to the local DMV to release liability for the car in case anything happened, sent the payoff cash to BMW FS, got the title in the mail, and sent it right off to the buyer in NYC.

Seemed to work out fine. The car and cash were exchanged at the same time so there was never a time when a single party had both cash and car, and my co-worker didn't have liability for anything the buyer did with the car after purchasing it but prior to re-registering it. I suppose if you have an unscrupulous seller in this scenario who didn't pay off the car and mail the title, the buyer could end up with a headache, but I don't really see what the seller would have to gain by doing that.