[rrich49132]

I was wondering how many of you have bought a car that was not local from a private party and had it shipped and how you managed all of this. Say I find a car that appears to be a good deal and find a local BMW place to do a PPI and pay them directly and after the inspection figure out I want to buy the car? What is the next step? How do I get the owner money and feel like I could not be scammed or vice versa as the owner will not release the car till they get full certified payment? Also then would have to deal with shipping the car. Can any of the shipping companies be the middle man for this where they can hold the funds and release it to the owner when they pick up the car?

Need to figure out how this would work as I have found a few very good deals that are too far to drive to see.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[2strokecoldsmoke]

My advise is that if you find a car you are interested in, you need to go look at in person.
Doesn't matter if is a dealer or private party.
If its far away, might be worth paying a couple hundred bucks for a PPI to make sure its not a dud.
But you really should lay your own eyes on it.

There are plenty of stories just on this board of people buying cars sight-unseen and not getting exactly what they thought they were getting.
Pics only tell so much.

For example,the front end of my car looks great in photos, you can't tell at all that the front end could use a respray due to all the road grit that's blasted it over the years.

Just my opinion.

 

[jgfabs]

My advise is that if you find a car you are interested in, you need to go look at in person.
Doesn't matter if is a dealer or private party.
If its far away, might be worth paying a couple hundred bucks for a PPI to make sure its not a dud.
But you really should lay your own eyes on it.

There are plenty of stories just on this board of people buying cars sight-unseen and not getting exactly what they thought they were getting.
Pics only tell so much.

For example,the front end of my car looks great in photos, you can't tell at all that the front end could use a respray due to all the road grit that's blasted it over the years.

Just my opinion.

I agree for what its worth,nothing better then you looking at it.
Sorry to be nosey,but how far is the car away from you?

 

[rrich49132]

The one I was interested in was in CA. Upon further emails the car had a salvaged title. I would like to expand my search outside the Arlington, VA area and want to focus on private party cars. Just not sure how I could buy and ship and get a piece of mind from both me and the seller that it goes through smooth. I have heard people wiring money but I always thing worst case scenario that the seller could just take my money and never ship the car and such.

 

[IRISH M5]

+1 on seeing the car in person. I know of several people who bought based on outstanding pictures to find out the car looked worse in person.

Having a car shipped will almost always cost way more than the cost of flights and gas to go pick up the car.

Here's how I bought my car:

1. Had a local PPI done
2. Flew to location with Bank Check in hand (already gave the seller all the check information so he was able to confirm with Chase Bank in advance that the check was good.
3. Did personal inspection of car and handed over check upon receipt of signed title and bill of sale.
4. Went to local DMV and got transportation tags (under $3 I think)
5. Drove almost 600 miles home only stopping for gas:hihi: wishing the drive was longer.

 

[rrich49132]

That sounds like a plan.

Can I ask you how much you paid for the 2003 you have? There is a nice one local with 75K miles which is a bit more miles than I would like and the price is on the high side at $23500?

 

[IRISH M5]

...Can I ask you how much you paid for the 2003 you have? There is a nice one local with 75K miles...at $23500?

I bought my car just over 4 years ago with 40k on the clock and a few months remaining on the manufacturers warranty so not a good comparison when comparing a 4 year old car to an 8 year old car with almost double the miles and 4 years later.

You really need to check current pricing and remember "service history" is king.

 

[TurboCarrera]

I recently sold a Cayman sight unseen to a guy in Toronto. He had it PPI'd at my local Porsche dealer - he paid for it, I drove it there. When he was satisfied, he wanted to wire me the money directly and then fly down and get the car. I asked him to send the wire to my lawyer and have him put it in escrow - that way if he got here and wasn't happy with the car, his money was safe and easily returned. But when he showed up of course he loved the car - it only had 5k miles on it - so he called my lawyer, released the money to me, and drove home. Yes there are fees involved, but no stress for anyone.

If you are dealing with a very honest seller and you are going to have a car shipped, you might be able to do something like this. If I were the seller though I would insist that the escrow be written such a way that the money would be released to me automatically in 15 days if the new owner did not formally contact us and ask to return the car.

 

[freerider238]

+1 on seeing the car in person. I know of several people who bought based on outstanding pictures to find out the car looked worse in person.

Having a car shipped will almost always cost way more than the cost of flights and gas to go pick up the car.

Here's how I bought my car:

1. Had a local PPI done
2. Flew to location with Bank Check in hand (already gave the seller all the check information so he was able to confirm with Chase Bank in advance that the check was good.
3. Did personal inspection of car and handed over check upon receipt of signed title and bill of sale.
4. Went to local DMV and got transportation tags (under $3 I think)
5. Drove almost 600 miles home only stopping for gas:hihi: wishing the drive was longer.

This is just how my purchase went down as well and it was a great experience. No regrets.

 

[ard]

Some good advice above. To critical issues:

Control the money
Verify the item

And this applies to every single purchase, right?

Physically closing the transaction is the very best. You can control the money by using a cashiers or bank check, and it allows the seller to 'pre-clear' and verify the check in advance, yet still allow the buyer to retain it until the goods are verified.

Using an escrow (attorney, or even a car dealer) is one way, and if you cannot physcially take the car would be the only way I would do it. It'll cost afew hundred. This controls the money as well.

Physical inspection allows YOU to use your own criteria on the item. A "PPI" cannot replace your own inspection. A PPI is usually mechanicals, etc... but just cannot replace your own sense of paint quality, upkeep, etc, etc. Once you move away from YOU looking at the item, you are substituting someone else's judgeemnt ... someone that you've spoken to on the phone... There is no "PPI" that can replace your judgement. Remember that.


There is pretty much no place in America that you cannot get to and back in 36 hours....Many in the same day. By air. If you are within 800 miles of a car, you can get there and drive back in a day. If you have the time make arrangements to arrive, inspect, drive to the shop for a PPI, close the sale and drive home.

Good Luck

A

 

[Blackrain]

I flew from Boston to Baltimore, inspected and drove the car, gave the owner a deposit, flew home in time for dinner. PPI, bank check, title, plates, one way flight, and one memorable 478 mile drive home. There is no substitute for seeing, inspecting, and driving the car yourself. Good luck.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[sneal4600]

I bought my car sight unseen from a Porchetech in Oakland, Ca... and I'm in Michigan. Was there an element of risk? Of course. However, this car was brought to the board by one of the mods (Ard) and he described the car objectively as a disinterested third party. That is not what sold me on the car, but it helped. The owner and I spoke for hours over several conversations and all of my questions were answered. There were many pics and although I know pics do not always tell the story, I liked what I saw. So the question was... do I spend an extra $800-$1000 for airfare, hotel, rental car, and food? Or do I just go with my gut instinct and buy the car on the information I had at my disposal? I talked to several other sources like the dealership that the car was serviced at (all records provided via email) and even a previous buy of an X5 from the same seller. By all accounts, the owner was very meticulous about his cars and had the facility (Porsche dealership) to work on them if needed.

If you want to follow the thread, go into the "for sale" section and search for 2002 Bluewater M5

 

[rvt1000]

i did not ship mine so cant help you there, but did make 2 trips prior to see/buy my car. Once for the PPI couple of things came up seller would fix, paid him a deposit and fixed a date fro delivery. Then flew out again with family and made it a nice roadtrip. Thats the only way I would do it if I had to do it again, my trip was from CA-MSP, nice wat to learn your car also.

 

[NousDefions]

I'm currently in the same boat.

It seems that all of the nicer M5's are located in CA, which is quite a ways for me. Flying out to check out the car is one thing, but my schedule doesn't really allow for a 2000 mile drive home. Shipping the car home is probably going to be the only solution unless I can get some time off for a road trip... although 33 hours of driving isn't my idea of the best way to get to know a new car.