Yep, they made this mistake with flight search also. Let everyone know about a service with crappy data, then everyone thinks it is crappy and never go back to it. Brilliant, from the minds of geniuses. It worked for Gmail because users didn't need data to begin with, but it doesn't work for services that require a lot of data to start with to be viable. And even if you have data, it better be good; ask Apple about their maps.

> If you're buying a car on CL...

I disagree completely. I've bought and sold numerous cars on Craigslist and always got exactly what I expected. I take the car for a drive, take it to a mechanic I know well, then get the mechanic to run down the list of "issues" with buyer and seller present. The mechanic usually says something like "I wouldn't pay more than $x based on the issues".

99% of the time that's the price we agree on, and that's that.

I personally have sold 2 used cars on Craigslist, each for $5-6,000 cash (blue book values). From my standpoint, it was fabulous. I paid no seller's fees, was able to schedule the test drives at my convenience, and sold both cars within days. If anything, the demand was shockingly good.

And, I sold good cars. So I knew no one was being scammed.

I couldn't disagree more, Craigslist is where all the best deals are, most sites like Auto Trader (and my own http://www.AUsedCar.com) are mostly dealers. So yes, there are less scams, but you also get less deals...

Interesting how your anecdotal evidence is so uncommon. Maybe you live in an area where scammers use Craigslist more than other buy/sell methods to perpetuate their scams?

I think you are missing the target market - this appears to be exclusively a new car thing. Used car market is very different.