Nothing's a waste of time to me - if it's a target car of interest to me.

I am building a case of assessment - it's a used car. I want all the information I can gather to build my case on whether I want the car or not.

Of secondary interest to me is the perceived credibility of the seller. Some are clueless, some are liars, and some are helpful, honest, or trying to be. I am there to assess the car and it's price - not the seller.

By the time I get to see the car in person, it only takes seconds assessing if it was as described or as pictured. That is the time the car takes over my focus - what the seller is saying becomes noise. The time to assess the car by letting the car do the presenting is all important. Typically, I don't need to crawl around under a car before deciding that I'm still interested in it. Most everything I see and hear above the rocker panels will tell me whether or not I want to even drive it, or have it hoisted up on a rack, after the test drive.

When I am in the hunt for a particular used car, I'm not typically interested in wasting any more time than is necessary doing it. Mountains of pre-qualification has already been done on the Internet and by telephone. So, when I do arrive - it had better match-up to it's depictions.