and sight unseen. Man, how do you guys do that? Have a fellow maxima.org member look at it? Massive amounts of pictures? I can see where carfax might give at least some confort, but it's not the end all thing either. I assume you guys would have a local mechanic look at it also.

Then if it's okay, you guys arrange shipment of the car etc..

Do you guys typically arrange some type of special warranty if the car ends up NOT being how it was described?

 

getting a new car are we?

 

Not even that, just trying to replace the one that got wrecked.

 

escrow, baby... don't give the money directly to the seller and they don't release it until the buyer has a chance to inspect the item to make sure it's 'as described'

 

I bought my '92SE off ebay. It was in Florida and I'm in Illinois. It had only 62K and carfax gived with the milage. The pics were good, but I was on a plane the day after the auction ended. The VTC's clattered like the ****'s they are, but all in all it was a good experience.

I would never send money sight unseen unless there was some sort of escrow thing going on. I would have refused the car if it was not what I was expecting.

Also, in my case we're talking about a $4500 car. No $30K or something. If it went bad, it wouldn't hurt for years.

 

I bought mine out of state, but not sight unseen. I drove from Buffalo to Cleveland (7hrs or so), spent the night in a hotel, met the guy the next morning with the car, liked it, bought it!

I didn't feel the need for a tech inspection. I can't imagine there would be a lot that a dealer could tell me that I could after a quick overlook of the car.

Dealing with the DMV's from the two states after I bought the car was a royal pain the *** though!

 

I picked my car up for in Green Bay, WI and I live in Northern Minnesota. It was a five hour drive. I called the dealership and they told me everything about it. Found the car on autotrader.com. I figured if the car turned out to be a peice of junk, it was a fun road trip but my car couldnt of turned out any more perfect. just drive there with a friend.

 

Family members and I have bought three USED cars using my autobroker sight unseen along with 5-new cars including my Maxima.

When it is delivered to your door, if you don't approve, you can refuse it. Autobrokers make DAMN sure that doesn't happen though, because then THEY now own it and have to get rid of it.

The $300-500 I pay in commision has been worth every penny. All of the vehicles have been ABOVE expectations once they arrived.

 

I bought mine sight unseen, except for a bunch of pictures. Do you know anyone out of state Jeff? If you can find one near someone you know/trust then you could have them go look at it for ya, or have the person take it to an independant mechanic for an inspection.

 

Its funny because I just did this for my 02, 6 speed. I bought the car without ever having seen it in person until I went to pick it up 4 hours away. What you can do it have the guy take it to the dealer for an inspection. Costs about 80 bucks or so, and have them talk to you directly about the results. If you like you can drive down and pick it up from there.

 

jeff... the carfax you ran for me was a 90 jeep i just picked up in mass sight unseen. granted, that was a sub $3k purchase so it wasn't too big of a concern but for anything more expensive i would absolutely make a trip to inspect it myself before paying. it makes a fun trip and breaks up the normalcy!

 

Unless the car were a collector's item, like a M3 Lightweight, there'd be absolutely no reason to agree to buy a car without seeing it. Most of us guys aren't in the habit of going out with women without checking them out first, why would we do that with a car? There are 100000's of ladies around here and probably over a million used cars. It makes a lot of sense to see what you're getting.

 

Thanks for the many replies. I have no idea where the mustang thing came in though. heh.

Looks like lots of pics, independant inspection, escrow, maybe if a local maxima guy can look at it, and some luck.

Frank, this is the whole point of this thread. Other than pics, it's quite difficult to personally see a car out of state.

 

Well, if you find something in TX or around here, lemme know. I'll check it out cough* buy it before you *cough and get back to you on it.

 

I flew from N. Ca. to look at and drive my car before buying it. I found my car on E-Bay, but asked to buy it outside of auction.
It was in Phoenix, Az. I would have had to fly home if it was a POS. I checked Carfax, called dealer where car was sold and asked about repairs ( they can look them up using VIN).

I also checked up on seller, since I was not going to his house. I checked his ID before buying the car. We e-mailed back and forth and spoke on phone a few times. He was a good guy, and not a shyster. I lucked out I guess. Whole deal could have ended up in crapper. I had to drive it 1100 miles home too.
Do yoru homework, have car inspected by independent mechanic if possible, and look it over top to bottom yourself. NEVER buy sight-unseen. Take a flashlight.

Look up TSB's to help spot trouble. Buy a manual and read it. For instance, you can make the climate control run a self test on A/C if car has the auto climate control unit. It will test the whole A/c and heater system for you.

Test the computer for reported codes.

Go to Edmunds.com and look up how to buy a used car. They have checklist.

Good luck. You'll need it.

 

That must have been one hell of a deal.

Mind saying what was worth all that?

 

Where is it...ask a fellow org member to check it out.

 

Most people have only seen pictures of Britney Spear's and I'm sure most would prolly tap dat a$$ in a heartbeat. Thus, pictures can do a car justice if its quality pictures. Go look at an auction that Anton (Sweetsound) puts together.

I wouldn't buy a car sight unseen unless it was some car I just couldn't find locally, but if that was the case I wouldn't have a problem if the car was from a reputable seller with good pictures and records.

 

Over the Miata board we do it all the time. Ask someone in the area to do a look over and recommend a shop to do a mechanical. Most shops charge an hour or so of shop time for this. Miatas are not rare but unless you're in a reaaaaal small town theres usually Maxs around.
Oh yeah, the Miata guys are a little wack anyway, they'll take their digital cams and upload pictures of EVERYTHING, including every VIN on the car.
slumlord