I found a 2006 EX AWD/MT with 256K miles for ~$4K up in NY. I contact the dealer through cars.com, and it's still available. I do a preliminary credit application, and call the dealership on Saturday afternoon to leave a message that I was interested and asked about the condition of the underbody, as I was 3-4 hours away and a personal inspection was difficult.

The holiday weekend passes and I go about my business. This morning I decide to contact the garage that has seen the car a few times over the last year or so for their opinion on it. Without the name of the previous owner or the old license plate number, they can't proceed. But maybe the dealer can help? So I call them at about 8:30am and leave another message explaining the situation. I also ask the question via cars.com email.

So about an hour later I receive an email reply. To complain about my calling outside office hours. And to complain that I asked for information they'd need to go to the office to retrieve. To top it off, they questioned if the car could pass PA inspection after 18 years of upstate NY life, even though it already has a current NY inspection.

So it looks like I may be taking my business elsewhere. Sigh. I was thisclose.