How do I know if this is not a scam?

There are a lot of scams on craigslist, but then, there are a lot of scams everywhere, and there are a lot of good deals too. I just bought a $400 item from a guy for $40 through craigslist this weekend.

Don’t just hand over 26,000 for a set of keys. Get the VIN (from several different locations on the car) and run it through Carfax. Then make sure the title looks legitimate and is clean. If the title shows that there is a loan on the car, then walk away, or set up the transaction so that the seller only get’s the difference between what you agree to on price and what is owed to the bank (call the bank to get a payoff amount) . You then pay the bank youself rather than trusting the seller to do it. You sure don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a car only to have it repo’d by the bank.

Make a copy of the seller’s driver’s license and ask if you can have the car independently checked by a mechanic first. Verify the address of the seller by initially meeting them at their house. Run a credit check on the seller if you still have doubts, and also contact the police to make sure it isn’t a stolen vehicle. None of this is hard or expensive and you can do it all in a couple of hours.

26,000 for an 06 doesn’t sound that cheap. I’d check edmonds or some other source to make sure the price is fair.