https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb/englisch_bgb...
While cash is the settlement vehicle of choice for dealer-less used car sales, certified checks (only legally issued by the federal bank) are preferred or even mandated for in-person government (surplus) auctions.
If you talk to the dealer in advance, to make sure they know about these certified checks, I'd expect them (over here, in DE) to hand you the title in direct exchange for the check, within an hour of you first setting foot on to the lot (assuming you called in advance so they have time for you and the car you want).
Our banking system here sucks ass.
What you say about certified checks is, in theory, possible here. In practice the sales drones who handle these transactions have never heard of this and will treat you like you're trying to scam them out of a car somehow.
Also the title is never physically at the location where the car is sold from; the processing of titles for dealers has been outsourced to a handful of large companies who effectively act as warehouses for the physical title documents. Even if the sales drone wanted to go along and had enough clout to make it happen, it would still take an overnight-shipping delay to get the title to the buyer.
I know, it's kinda sad, tbh. Get yourself a taste of SEPA to see what you could have/use instead of ACH.
Nice to hear. And yeah, that's why I mentioned needing to call ahead to make sure that someone who can legally sign the contract is gonna be there and has sufficient understanding of how these certified checks look like/work.
Fair. Is that only for new cars, or does that include (independent) used car dealerships?
"make sure there is no fraud" takes a LOOOONG time.
It is the reason why a car bought from a dealer drives around without plates for a month. That's how long it takes the dealer to be totally sure the payment wasn't fraudulent.