Walk me through: Fly-n-drive car buying

I know some of you guys have done this a lot. What's the process? If you do this a lot and can lay down a step-by-step that'd be awesome. Also:

• How do you negotiate the price? Do you haggle before flying down? Seems like once you're down there you aren't in a very powerful bargaining position.
• Do you do a PPI somehow? Contact local shops? Use the GRM network?
• How do tags and stuff work? Can you get a temp in the state you're buying in?
• How do you do payment? Carry a few thou on the plane? Take out $6k in $20 bills from a local ATM?

I negotiate price before buying the tickets. Get a PPI if you think it's prudent (depending on the model, price and trust of the seller), send a down payment, retrieve car and drive back with temp tags if needed.

Payment via cashier's check works well, but requires you arrive when a bank is open.

I've also negotiated price beforehand - although close inspection before handing over cash could change things if it's significantly different than you thought. For something more than a couple of thou - don't be afraid to walk away and figure out another way home. For something special I would probably go with a PPI from a trusted source unless it was something like Maroon 92's boxster - that had GRMers laying eyes on it, well documented maintenance and it was sort of a known car. I've also rolled the dice buying a scruffy 911 on flea-bay. Two of my best car buys were fly/drive and total crapshoots that could've burned me - the 911 and an e28.

Similar to what others have done I would negotiate beforehand, but if it's a Ebay auction typically the price has been agreed upon. The negative is if they are trying to sell you a lemon, I would defiantly have pictures,video, and any documentation. Once I had a guy fill out the title incorrectly luckily he was a decent person and had another sent to me. Depending where you are located you might want to broker the deal at a dealership, as they can give you a temp tag and title on the spot. Money wise I have heard anything over $10k is suspicious, but I have nothing factual other then going to mexico and having to sign paperwork that I don't have that much money.

How do you go about negotiating on a car you haven't seen? Just call and ask what they'll take?

As far as being able to back out, do you just go ahead and buy a roundtrip ticket?

ShadowSix wrote: I know some of you guys have done this a lot. What's the process? If you do this a lot and can lay down a step-by-step that'd be awesome. Also: * How do you negotiate the price? Do you haggle before flying down? Seems like once you're down there you aren't in a very powerful bargaining position. * Do you do a PPI somehow? Contact local shops? Use the GRM network? * How do tags and stuff work? Can you get a temp in the state you're buying in? * How do you do payment? Carry a few thou on the plane? Take out $6k in $20 bills from a local ATM?

I negotiated the price I was willing to pay for the car before I bought the ticket. When I negotiated the price, I negotiated based on what I was told about the car by the seller. I was prepared to show up, see a bad car, and then just get back to the airport and buy return tickets (I brought my Dad). If I liked it, I had no reason to haggle, so I just handed him a check, signed the title, and drove away grinning.

We jacked up the car and I had a look at the underside and did some poking around, but the car was cared-for and only had 26,000 miles. There was no accident damage, it drove nicely, and only needed an alignment. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to ask the seller to coordinate an inspection, but I guess it depends on what you're buying.

I just took a bank check for the price we agreed on. If you take out a loan, you start accruing interest the second they write the check, but on a 20,000 car, it's probably only $20 a month max. You get the check a day or two before you fly out and if you hate the car, you return the check to the bank and they cancel it. You pay a dollar or two in accrued interest and keep looking for a new car.

For your last two questions:

I had an interesting experience. I just posted what I was willing to pay for the car I wanted on a forum and people started contacting me. A lot of them had really nice Vipers with extra wheels and modifications. They wanted a little more than I wanted to pay, but they gave me lots of advice. Ultimately I got a message along the lines of "Hey, I have a car that matches your description. I'll sell it to you for what you want to pay." I knew what I wanted and what that was worth to me, so I didn't have to do that back and forth negotiation crap. It was kind of fun this way.

Based on my level of trust from the seller, which was based on the quality and number of photographs of the car and at least two solid hours of phone conversations, I felt comfortable buying two one-way tickets to get my Dad and me out there. If I felt like he might have a reason to hide something, I might have bought round-trip tickets.

Take fun and have luck!

I flew from Philly to Atlanta to buy a Neon ACR. The seller was a regular at the Neon Mailing List (which later became neons.org). He sent me a lot if pictures and a very detailed history of the car (he was the first owner). I also went to a Dodge dealer at my end and had them giver the car's history, which matched what the owner told me. We negotiated a price and I flew down one-way with a cashier's check from my bank in the full amount of the purchase.

A mechanical problem prevented us from closing the sale. I slept in his spare bedroom overnight and bought another one-way ticket home. 2 weeks later he called me back, having had the problem fixed, and I flew back and successfully bought the car. We figured the extra flights were about a wash with the extra maintenance, and kept the price the same.

I would definitely do it again. In fact, I bought my E46 sight unseen from a dealer more than 2 hours away. They sent me lots of pics, and a disclosure sheet. We negotiated price and financing before the trip and I had my nephew drive me up. Got there, spent an hour inspecting the car, and found a few flaws. They sent it through the shop quickly to make the corrections while we signed the paperwork, and drove home that evening.

I've done it w/ a rally car. Flew there prepared to take the greyhound back if it was a bust. Had the bank transfer funds. It all worked fine. Be prepared for weirdness and delays but hope for the best! Got to drive a registered rotary rally car up the coast for two days and had a blast.

In reply to confuZion3:

I bought a car in Indianapolis with a Chase bank loan. They made a stink and wouldn't hand me a check without them getting the title from the owner. Since I live near Chicago I arranged the closing at a Chase bank in Indianapolis near the seller.

I kept asking Chase how I'm supposed to get plates without a title. 3 days later Chase fed exed the title back to me to get my plates with some paperwork so they would hold the title.

In reply to Duke:

Was that bedroom thing awkward?

I have done it three times. Once, I flew and rode the bike back. Once, rode the train and drove back. And once, I never laid eyes on the car, just shipped it to me. I was least happy when I hadn't personally inspected the car, no surprise.

I would definitely negotiate price before arrival, then be prepared to walk (fly?) if things aren't as expected. I've used the GRM network a couple times and it's a big benefit. If it's iffy in any way, a PPI by a shop is small change for such a big risk. For tags, I have just driven back home without. And for payment, I have done cash, a bank check, and a loan check.

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

I think I worked with a copy of the title e-mailed to me by the previous owner. He scanned it, I gave that to my bank, and that convinced them that I wasn't trying to defraud them or something. Everybody was happy.

I just bought a car that didn't sell on ebay last week.

I emailed the guy prior to the auction ending and told him I was interested if it didn't sell. He emailed me and I had gave him my best offer, he accepted it. I gave a $500 paypal deposit. My offer was below his reserve amount and I couldn't do the $2,000 deposit in 24 hours that his auction required.

He was out the country and didn't feel comfortable with his wife picking me up at the airport, so I rented a car and drove 400 miles to buy it and then drove it home. Luckily the car was in storage less than 3 miles from an Enterprise rental store.

My credit union gives me a check that allows me to buy any car, motorcycle, or powers port vehicle under a set amount as long as it is less than 10 or 15 years old. I scanned it and sent it to them so they could call the credit union if they wanted to.

I went during the week so I could get the title done and temp tags. I live in Ohio and have always wanted to buy a motorcycle in some place like Texas or California, fly out and ride it back.

Datsun310Guy wrote: In reply to Duke: Was that bedroom thing awkward?

Not at all. It was something the PO couldn't have predicted, and he busted ass trying to get it fixed that day. It was just one of those things.

What happened was, the clutch cable broke as I was driving him back to his house from the airport. He had the car flat bedded to the nearest biggest dealer, and paid a tech extra to stay and get the job done immediately. Surgery was successful, and I was getting ready to leave his house when it suddenly started rattling like crazy and the engine locked up. It sounded catastrophic, and we were both exhausted from the day's previous events, so we basically looked at each other and called it off.

After he'd had some time to get into it, turns out the only problem was the washer from the end of the old clutch cable had fallen into the bell housing when it broke, and then later it had taken a few laps around before wedging itself between the starter pinion and the flywheel. As soon as he dropped the starter the mangled washer fell out and the car was fine, so he called me back. I drove the snot out of that car for another 5 years and 60k miles with almost no problems.

I've done this 5 or 6 times now, included one car bought off of a forum and had it transported from WA to FL before I ever saw it. I've also had to drive myself back to the airport in a rental car and figure out the best one way ticket home. In general, I either feel comfortable over email and phone or I don't. Enthusiasts with legit cars will puke information all over you and bend over backwards to take enough pics, document stuff and make you happy. The WA guy gave me a list of other forum members local to him that would vouch for his character. I emailed three and all of them said "I'm fanatical and his car is way better than mine." In general I know what I am willing to pay for a good car and that's how it's negotiated. Most deals I'll do in cash if I'm going to go see it before purchase. Still, like the time I had my road trip all planned and had to abort, sometimes you'll lose this game. But it's enough of a thrill that it's worth the risk.