how do you buy a car?

plumcrazy704406 said
Who here has bought cars long distance without seeing them in person? Would you fly from east to west to look at a 20k car? One country to the next?

Your looking at a loss of aprox. 10% of the value by the time you factor in the cost of going to view the car. That 20k (high end price to start) is now 22k (including the 500.00 non-refundable, lol). To insist a buyer shows up in person (whoever posted the n-r deposit) is really the icing on the cake. I don't think I'd get past the first phone call with you.

You can have it looked at by some very knowledgeable people if you are serious, but the seller has to be thinking outside the box. This is an new age of buying and selling that is still in it's infancy for most part. Sometimes it's better to have a 3rd party opinion then losing time and money that you can never get back on a car that will not appreciate in value like some others may.

I bought my Valiant without seeing it in person. I'm in CA, the car was in Washington state. I only saw photos of it (multiple photos) and had several phone conversations with the seller. I could tell he was a stand-up guy and was not going to screw me. We made a verbal "handshake" over the phone and he sent me what amounted to a purchase agreement in the mail. He also emailed a picture of the odometer and agreed not to drive it anymore. I sent payment in installments until it was fully paid. Then he sent the title in the mail and I arranged shipment.

I sold my Barracuda to a guy who had not seen it in person. He sent me a money order deposit after we made a verbal agreement and he picked it up a few days later. He was thrilled with the car. It's a reasonably easy thing to do IF you get a good feeling about the person when talking to them.

If you don't get a good feeling or you get the run around or they don't return your PM's, then you don't want to deal with them anyway. Some people don't get it and should be avoided no matter how cool the car is.