National car sales giant CarMax has a nifty transfer system that lets you take the car you want, from far far away, and toss it in your general direction.

When I called to learn more about the process, my main concern was a car driven by a smoker. The car in particular I was looking for was a good couple thousand miles away, and $800 to transfer a car is no small sum. Even though the car was a good deal, if it stunk of smoke… that could turn into a bad deal quickly.

The pre-transfer checklist protects you, actually. You craft a list of questions to ask the CarMax dealership that has the car. They go out to the car and check things out, and report back. If the transferred car doesn’t match what was on the list, you get the transfer fee refunded. In theory. I hopefully won’t have to put this to the test.

So, I quickly came up with an amateurish list of questions to ask the dealer. I know a bit about cars, but wanted to make sure on these things:

1) Are there any smoke or other odors anywhere in the interior?

2) The G8 has lower-quality paint. Please make note of any swirls, scratches, or other cosmetic issues on the exterior or interior of the car.

3) Some G8s have had early ball joint issues, so does the car make clunk, rattle, or clicking noises when going over speed bumps?

4) Does the steering wheel rattle at high rates of speed? (~50 to 60 mph)

5) How much has the car been repainted?

That was the list for my car. You should do some research on the car you are interested in, and see what things there are to look out for with your make/model/year/generation in question.

In the end, I did not buy from CarMax. The car I was seriously interested in, turned out to be a smoker’s car. Thankfully, the pre-transfer walk around noted noted this, and I was able to avoid paying $849 to transfer a car that stinks.