Cross country car purchase

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I’ve come into alittle dilema. I found the car I wanna buy but it is cross country. My new job leaves me unable to fly to check it out. He’s given very detailed pictures of everything and it looks clean. The car just has some work done to it so I wanna make sure it was done right and there is no drivability issues with it. What really are my options here? The car is by Seattle. Can I pay for him to like go get the car looked over or anything like you can do at certain places here then call them to find out the scoop? Let me know what you guys think. Thanks

2

have Akvile and her BF look at it for u and take some pics

3

In a situation like that, you can do things to minimize the risk like get something in writing from a local mechanic but you should probably be prepared to eat something unexpected just in case…

4

Well I bought a car out of state once and paid a shop (dealership) to look at it and they said it was super…well they were sort of right…sort of not…there are things that bothered me that might not bother someone with a casual eye and feel. The best thing is to maybe try to find an upstanding board member with no partisan to the seller that lives in his area that knows the type of car…like a mustang forum person. Z guys did it all the time and had pretty successful results. But I would want someone to visually see hte car to make sure pics are current and all of that before u invest in shipping.

5

First, what kind of car, what kind of miles? How much are you saving by buying it that far away, and how long, if you waited, would it take for a similar car to come up within a 400 mile radius?

Second, consider how much you’ll spend getting it home.

2600 miles @ 20mpg = almost $400 for 87.

  • several nights hotels
  • food
  • airfare
  • time off from work.

Or, shipping it, but cross country that isn’t going ot be cheap either. Not to mention the seller has to be willing to deal with all the BS of shipping a car (scheduling a pickup, signing all the papers, going over the inspection etc etc).

Now, if you still want to do it, you have a couple choices.

  1. Have the seller take it to a shop. Not a great plan. If the seller is dishonest enough to be trying to hide a major defect from you he’s certainly dishonest enough to slip some tech $50 to sign off on the car.

  2. Have someone impartial look at the car. This is your best bet, but it may be hard to find someone. If it’s a specific type of car maybe you know someone in that area from a forum you’re on who you would trust to do it. When I bought my truck in MI I had a friend living about 45 minutes from the dealer test drive it for me. He told me it was perfect, and I put a deposit down via credit card over the phone. Even then I had an agreement with the dealer that I would get the deposit back should I get out there and find something they did not disclose about the truck.

Basically, what I’m saying is, it has to be a truely amazing find to be worth it. Or, it needs to be a great find on an almost new car that if you do find something wrong you can take it to any dealer and have it fixed under warranty.

6

meh. i just went out and bought my car. i had to do a few things to it before I drove it home, which was all right

if you’ve got some car knowledge, and the seller isnt a lying a-hole, you’re good

7

Well the car would definitly be shipped. I’ve been quoted $750. For the money it is a great find. I was actually thinking about posting on a mustang board and seeing if anybody would go check it out for me and I’d paypal them some money for their time.

Maxima, you say Akvile lives by Seattle? I’ll have to try to get ahold of her then. Thanks for the tit bit of info.

8

Bad timing for you, but shes gonna be in town for about the next 2 weeks, shes just flying out here now i beleive.

9

When did she move to Washington? lol…I thaught she was just visiting there.