Howdy all....

Reading the post below about the difficulties one guy had with a Fla car lot raised the question of how to be a smart car buyer from long distance. Say you found a car on the Internet that was 3,000 miles away, how do you satisfy yourself on the car, negotiate price, safeguard the money?

If there's a thread, could someone please steer me to it?

If not, I'm sure there should be plenty of advice here


Thanks for any and all suggestions.

 

Here ya go. I did it and lived to tell the story.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...in-person.html

 

I would imagine most places would work hard to sell you the car. Beware of potential damages during shipping (see some of the issues Caddy ran into).

 

I bought my car from Lexus dealer that was 900 miles away. Gave them an immediate $5k deposit over phone with credit card and got them to agree to refund if car was misrepresented when I flew in for pickup. I was able to fly on a FF award ticket 4 days later. Here is the difficult part as I see it.

1. Ideally you need to pick it up personally so you can inspect it carefully. Distant second choice is to have it inspected locally and buy it and ship it in sight unseen - too much risk for me.
2. Much lower risk with buying non-local car if it is ultra low mile car because it is more likely to be in great shape. As miles go up, the wear and tear and dirt/grime factor rapidly go up and without personal inspection it is difficult to rely on a 3rd party to describe wear and cleanliness.
3. I recommend buying form Lexus dealer if you buy non-local. My experience is that they are the least likely to misrepresent a car because they are very much afraid of complaints to Lexus HQ. Other dealers and 3rd party independents can operate with different levels of integrity - some percentage cannot be trusted for a non local sale - and some in extreme cases are just basically white collar thieves.

 

I've purchased vehicles on Ebay. 2004 LS430 from Annapolis MD, 2001 DTS from Carrolton TX & a 1970 Cutlass CV from KS. I would reccomend an inspection from a company called Carchex. I used them each time, think I paid about $125-150 for the detailed inspection which included 15-25 pictures, road test etc. or you can have a local mechanic set up to look @ vehicle when you get there. The LS, I flew out & drive back (GREAT TRIP) the DTS was delivered ($700 shipped), picked up the Cutlass in Flint MI.

Main thing is YOU have to feel comfy. Dont let the seller stress you about making a move unless YOUR comfortable. Make sure any deposit is refundable (in writing no doubt), use credit card for possible disputes. Overall my 3 long distant vehicle purchases went well. You can also ask the seller to take additional photos for you, but DEFINATELY an INDEPENDENT inspection

 

My parents bought our Escalade and GX470 from dealerships that were out of state. The Escalade came from a Cadillac dealership in Ohio. The experience was good except for the back window got blown out while it was shipped to us, due to them facing the vehicle the wrong way on the trailer.

The GX470 was a pretty bad experience to be honest. We had it shipped a few months ago from a Lexus dealership out in Maine and we had a ton of issues. It took over a month for them to ship us the car and it also took a while to go through the paperwork to buy the car since we weren't physically there to purchase it. The car had a broken cup holder and the dealership was supposed to send us a new one, but made us jump through all sorts of hoops to get it.

I personally would not recommend long-distance car buying unless you or someone you trust can see the cars in person and inspect it. My parents were able to negotiate the price over the phone and through e-mail. We never actually saw the cars in person or went to the dealership to buy the cars. We did put down a deposit on the cars too.

 

... really appreciate it.

 

i had my mr2 shipped from or to ga and it was damaged.the rear window spoiler was blown off due to the car backwards on the trailer.beware that the shipping company has a iron clad contract that they are not responsible for any damage during shipping.basiclly its a shipper beware.

 

I think ya gotta keep it at under 1000 miles or the shipping will kill ya. I see casr in Cali I write off as 1800 miles is a long way to haul a car money wise and things can happen on the truck.