Heres my predicament: I live in North East Washington state… The use car market here… is a sellers market. Used cars carry quite a premium here for whatever reason, but are a good buy because we don’t use salt on our roads.
If you travel 200 miles west, you can buy a car from Seattle, cheaper, but you have to deal with a bit more rust (so close to the coast)
OR: I can fly to NorCal or Neveda, and get a used car that has never seen rain.
There are killer deals on Craigslist… It would behoove me to get a 1 way flight (for under $300) and drive the car back.
My question is, buying a car sight unseen… is… for lack of better words… sketchy…
I’d need to do the deal online… and showing up and realizing the car isn’t what it is described as would suck… I would need to grab a flight back home etc.
SO, who has done this? And, what steps did you go through to make sure the car was what you wanted?
I’ve done this a few times with cars that were financed and cars that were paid cash. I actually just had one shipped here as a roller essentially. Is it sketchy? Yes. I’ve had a PPI done by a mechanics shop of my choice prior to changing hands any sort of funds. One time I flew to Florida to buy a car and the clutch slipped on my way home. I called the seller and told him what was going on and luckily he refunded me enough to buy a new clutch. I’d just ask for a ton of pics, maybe even videos as well.
I’ve done it twice. First time didn’t go so well, I definitely learned from that experience. I drove the car for 2 years but I had to spend a lot of money up front to even get it to pass NY inspection once I got it home. I just got back from my second trip to pick up a car and it all went great.
If you can, get someone you know or someone you can pay to go check out the car for you. Ask for pictures of just about everything. Get the Carfax. Ask for maintenance records. Basically ask every single question you can think of. Take your time with the process too. It’s better knowing beforehand than showing up to a smashed windshield, shredded tires and a cracked front bumper like I did the first time.
I purchased a car CPO from a dealer in Vegas this way recently. No issues. It helped that the make in question has a fairly robust CPO policy. I don’t know that I would gamble to much on a private party deal unless I knew exactly what I was looking for and at. That’s just me.
I bought a few cars sight unseen, on newer cars with low miles it’s much less of a risk, on older cars I have come home empty handed before, by old I mean like 30 years and older
If it’s from a private party find out what dealer they go to for service and call the service writer with the vin. I did this on at a few BMW dealers they were very helpful and told me the entire history of the car.
I have gotten some great deals on cars that are tough to find and personally I am willing to travel south for a 3 year old car that has not been through a winter
Done it twice but both times from large dealers. Lots of pictures, making sure everything was as described. Worked out perfect both times. One I did a one way rental to Troy, MI and the other was a one way plane ticket to Wilmington, NC.
Most dealers warranty a car for at least 30 days so they tend to go over them at least a little. If they’re crap they go off to auction.
I’ve done it twice. Thankfully both times have worked out in my favor. No regrets. One came from Vermont and one from Virginia, day trip both times. If it’s close enough, which I consider to be 10 hours or less each way, get a friend to drive you down and follow you back. I had a blast both times with @matt1danger
I haven’t flown for a car yet, but I imagine if something goes wrong that return ticket on the spot will carry a premium haha
Only suggestions: If you’re driving it home do the leg work to find out what is needed for a temp tag or transporter plate. If it’s a private sale make sure the dude has the title in hand.
Get as many pictures and info about the car/history/mods as you can.
If possible try to arrange a ppi at a shop. I did this neither time but defending on what you are buying it may be worth it.
It’s all a little easier if it’s a dealership cause they will do the leg work.
And the big one: DONT be too proud to walk away. If you get there and it’s not what was advertised, expected or even what you want say fuck it and keep searching. Don’t just buy it and justify it as “well I came all this way”. Better to waste some turd from the internets time and let him be butt hurt about it than waste thousands of dollars on something you’re not into.
I’ve done it more times than I can keep track of. Some I had shipped, some i drove to get, some I flew to get. At least 10 times, only 1 bad experience (don’t take the bus to get where your going).
Bought my wife’s A4 on ebay sight unseen. Had it shipped from Minnesota. I was a little uneasy about the whole thing but it turned out to be a flawless transaction. The car was exactly as the seller described. Ebay has purchase protection up to 50K, if it was private party I might of done it differently.
I’ve done it a handful of times, not sketchy if the seller comes to the table with every piece of info you inquire about. If I had any advice it would be to get pics of the random areas you don’t think about; bottom of doors, underside of wheel arches…areas prone to rust. Video should also be expected with today’s tech. Facetime the owner is possible. Also, get verbal confirmation that everything listed in the ad is accurate. Learned this lesson when picking up a car out of Cleveland that advertised heated seats, only to find no heated seats.
I’ll also add that service history has now become a deciding factor into even considering a purchase. In the cars I grabbed that had full history, not only were those the best behaved but when an issue did come up with it made diagnosing much easier. No guesswork, no wondering if that major item had been done or not.
I’ve bought tons of my cars sight unseen - some turned out great (my first Boxster, both of my water cooled 911s, my BMW 850i) and some turned out to have issues (my Range Rover, my air cooled 911) but at the end of the day if the price is right then you’ve got money to fix them, and you know they’ve been fixed properly as opposed to hazarding a guess as to what the other owner did.
I would not purchase a car sight unseen for a “fair” price - it would have to be a steal to account for the unknown factors.