Scroll the 488 listings and one will sit noticeably below the rest. It is tempting to open that one first. It is usually the one we would walk from. A price far under the band of comparable sales is not a deal you found, it is a gap someone left, and the gap is the story.
So we check the things that explain a low number. Title brands and prior damage. Service gaps and skipped major work. Seller signals that do not add up, a rushed sale, a location that does not match the plates, pressure to move fast. Each one is a reason a figure drops below what honest cars trade for.
When those questions stack up, a bargain-looking ask does not earn a Buy. It earns Check, because the price is telling you to verify before you trust it. Cheap is a warning here, not a green light, and the Deal Score is built to hold that line even when the number is tempting.
It helps that no one pays us to push the sale through. The read is buyer-side only. If the cheapest 488 on the market is the riskiest one, the value range and the Deal Score will say that, with the comp count and confidence shown so you can weigh it yourself.