How should you buy a car that's over 200 miles away?

[KansasKid]

I realize that I have a habit of making new threads with stupidly long first posts. I'm going to try to keep this one brief.

I'm looking for a new car, and am annoyingly picky about what I want. That means the cars I'm considering purchasing are REALLY far away from where I live.

How should I go about trying to get a car that's like 200-1000 miles away? I'm completely unfamiliar with how the process for schlepping cars around the country works, and how I should approach a dealer that wants to charge a butt-ton of money to ship a car that I haven't even test-driven yet.

My initial thought was to pay one of my pilot buddies to fly me out to one of these potential purchases. I would pay for the gas in his airplane (which should be cheaper than shipping a car to me; depends on the distance) and we'd go check out a car I'm considering buying. But there are drawbacks to doing this like me not liking the car that I went to check out, and trying to haggle with sales people who are wanting to con me into paying the listed price, in an entire state that I'm not familiar with.

I realize what I'm considering is pretty crazy, but should I try to fly out to test drive a car and drive it home? Or perhaps I should just take the safer, and probably priceier route of having it shipped to me?

[Woodie]

I realize what I'm considering is pretty crazy, but should I try to fly out to test drive a car and drive it home? Or perhaps I should just take the safer, and probably priceier route of having it shipped to me?

Not crazy at all, especially if you have a buddy who will fly you there.

You need to be flying to Austin TX right now, this car meets most of your criteria, heated seats can be added. http://www.kizashiclub.com/forum/viewto ... =10&t=3342

[KuroNekko]

I'll answer your question by example:

I traveled over 200 miles one way to purchase my Kizashi. Washington DC suburb to Jersey City, NJ. The deal I found was too good to pass up so I drove there alone to check out the car. I planned to buy it if it was as good as it looked online. It was and I bought it. However, I refused their pathetic trade-in offers on my Mazda. Consequently, they stored my purchased Kizashi for 2 weeks until I could have my dad drive up with me so I could drive my Kizashi down. I later sold my Mazda for about double what the dealer offered as a trade-in.

I see something like the 200~300 mile range as totally do-able in a day. If you have a friend or family member who can give you a ride, I think you should consider a car in that range. I found that for something like the Kizashi, you really need to expand your range to find the car you really want. If you plan to trade-in, it's really a one-man mission.

[bmw&kizzyownr]

Here's how I would do it based on quite a bit of experience doing ... the same thing on several previous vehicle purchases. I would negotiate as much as possible by phone first. Make sure you can buy the car in the 'ballpark' price you're looking for. Assuming you can, I would shop for the best 1-day car rental price (economy car) with 1 way drop-off available in a town near where you want to purchase the vehicle. If the on-site negotiations don't work.... just drive the rental car back to where you picked it up from. I drove from Ohio to NY (can't remember the mileage...maybe 400 or so miles) to pick up my kizashi and this process worked well. Only paid $65 for the rental (yes, gas was extra) but I found it a very cheap way to go if you don't mind driving. The one way rental varied dramatically (from $365 to 65 per day) so you may to really shop for the best price.

Good luck and don't forget to negotiate over the phone (might want to use the "I want the car very much but need the best price in order to travel the ..... miles to the dealership/private owner"). Also, see if you can find a similar car on autotrader (in your area) and test drive it first to make sure you like the vehicle dynamics, etc. before you travel the miles...

Take care & again good luck!

[bmw&kizzyownr]

Well,

Did you buy a car? Did you fly or drive there? Did anyone's advice help???

[KansasKid]

Update:

I have not been able to get another car yet, but I do appreciate all of the advice. There was a short stint when I was bidding on a 2013 Dodge Dart with moderate hail damage at a salvage lot outside of Denver, but I was outbid pretty easily. That whole escapade was sort of a waste of time and energy, but I did learn a lot about online auto auctions. Besides that, this whole car shopping endeavor has sort of been making me depressed, and I realize I shy away from the Kizashi forums when I'm overly stressed/depressed. Sorry about the tardiness of my response do to my sudden sabbatical. It's been a pretty crazy couple of months.

Since then, I've loosened my standards significantly, and started prowling Craigslist pretty much every other day. Just a couple days ago, I stumbled across an ad for a cheap, manual 2009 Subaru Impreza literally 1 mile from my house. I am presently in negotiations with the owner and will post something if I have get a new addition to my family. *fingers-crossed*

For about 30 minutes, I was considering getting a super cheap vehicle (preferably AWD) for the wife so I could try to just trade Azumi for something with a stick, but the wifey shot that down pretty quick. Turns out she's more attached to Azumi than I thought, which suits me just fine. I didn't REALLY want to trader her anyways, unless it was for another Kizashi.

[bmw&kizzyownr]

No problem/worries (as my Aussie buddy would say). I was just curious.

Sorry it hasn't worked out so far but good luck on the Subaru.

BTW; I know I'm showing my age (50s, insecurities, bias, etc) but please be careful when dealing with anyone on Craigslist. I know there are millions of successful transactions every week using that website. However, I've been hearing about a lot of criminals who have used that forum recently to sell items on line with the intent of robbing (or worse) their victims/buyers. Be safe & again, good luck!

[KuroNekko]

No problem/worries (as my Aussie buddy would say). I was just curious.

Sorry it hasn't worked out so far but good luck on the Subaru.

BTW; I know I'm showing my age (50s, insecurities, bias, etc) but please be careful when dealing with anyone on Craigslist. I know there are millions of successful transactions every week using that website. However, I've been hearing about a lot of criminals who have used that forum recently to sell items on line with the intent of robbing (or worse) their victims/buyers. Be safe & again, good luck!

Definitely need to be safe with Craigslist, but it's still a good means to sell/buy stuff. I actually sold my former Mazda3 to a young woman on Craigslist.
Here are a few tips:

1) Don't take all potential buyers seriously. Some are just browsing and have no serious intent on buying. If they ask questions to which you already answered in your initial posting, it's a sign they're not paying attention and aren't serious. Don't give up your phone number on the listing. If people are serious, they should initiate an email correspondence. After that, you should provide a phone number to arrange a meeting.

2) If buying, keep in mind the famous saying: "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is." There are many listings in Craigslist that are questionable. A 2014 Lexus IS with 10,000 miles going for $8,000 would be an example. Many of these listings are flagged for removal, but still beware.

3) If selling, insist that payment be in cash. Avoid checks. Only accept a cashier's check if you see them go get it at a bank (but then again, this would make getting cash easier). If you do take checks, take down their driver license number and date of birth for any check.

4) Insist on meeting at a public place covered by surveillance cameras. Large gas stations, fast food restaurants, shopping malls, etc. are probably good locations. Police officers and security personnel also often frequent/patrol them.

5) Offer terms and conditions because some people are simply stupid.
Example: I once sold a large armoire to a woman who did not have the means to pick it up despite my many warnings of its size. I was selling it because I was moving out of an apartment and needed it off the apartment property. Despite paying me in full, she failed to pick it up in a timely manner so I set a deadline for her and told her if it was not taken out of my parking space by the deadline, I had arranged for the maintenance man to take it for free. She was not pleased, but I told her I needed it out or I'd get fined. The terms and conditions set a fire under her ass.

[KansasKid]

Yeah, there's a grocery store about a block away from where he's marked his location at in the ad. I figured that'd be a pretty good place, since my bank is in the same parking lot as well. When I got in touch with him, he tried to say that he wasn't going to do any showings until this weekend because he'd had a lot of responses so far. The Subaru is $300 under KBB, and has a new clutch and tires (Michelin's, unknown model). I tried to goad him into letting me see the car before this weekend on the off chance he's not bluffing by not low balling him like I want to do, but I don't know if he's going to bite.

[DesRado]

I bought my car from out of state, but due to work I could not go retrieve it myself. I ended up having it shipped to me from Pennsylvania for around $500, but after they couldn't find a shipper on time for my window of pickup I got after them. Car ended up being delivered on time, but they had to find someone willing to trailer it to me in 1 day. lol Car came at 9pm and was around 29 degrees outside, but I had my Kiz!

Not sure if I'll do it again because technically I bought it site unseen, just went by the pictures on the website (huge risk ). Paid off though, only a couple things that weren't shown in the pics are on the car. Nothing too serious either, although the wheel chipping thing is going on.

I used this site. You put the price you're willing to pay and a shipping company may or may not accept to ship your car for that price.

https://www.uship.com/interview_listing ... f6d85&est=