Buying a used car long distance

Quote: AZDuffman

If I do it and there is interest I will post an article on how it all works in case anyone else here wants to make a deal. At the least a nice trip to Florida for a few days.

I am very interested in how this turns out for you. Please keep us posted.

Quote: AZDuffman

I have found a place called Off Lease Only

No price negotiation. Razor slim markups. WARNING: Read the fine print about GPS tracking devices!!!!

>there is a new breed of dealer who is selling just over cost
This is an outgrowth of the Florida trend a few years ago of "Tent Sales" wherein dealers rent a shopping center's parking lot for a weekend, move a fleet of cars onto it and advertise: we will sell these cars rather than drive them back to our lot.
During the sale, any cars they take in trade in... they look up the wholesale trade price, add 100.00 and will sell the vehicle on the spot that day.

Finally dealers realized that truly moving the merchandise fast was the new way to sell used cars.

Quote: Fleastiff

No price negotiation. Razor slim markups. WARNING: Read the fine print about GPS tracking devices!!!!

When you BYOF they have no reason to track you.

Quote: Ayecarumba

I am very interested in how this turns out for you. Please keep us posted.

Will do, might be this time next year so stay tuned. I want another 10Gs or so in my emergency fund to cover things first. Plus July is 10 years on the car I now own, 10 years in one car is kind of a neat mark to hit and even more in a cheapo car that you get the best money out of from any car you ever owned.

I will be happy to put it down in my normal way more than normal detail. I do figure that the folks on this board might use the same method to save thousands.

Quote: AZDuffman

When you BYOF they have no reason to track you.

Whey you BYOF they have no reason to track you. Agreed.

HOW do you BYOF?

The dealer gets his down payment and the balance at X percent he either sells to a finance company or he carries it himself. What do you do? Give the dealer the NPV of the paper he would be otherwise be carrying on you? Or some percentage of it?

Quote: Fleastiff

Whey you BYOF they have no reason to track you. Agreed.

HOW do you BYOF?

The dealer gets his down payment and the balance at X percent he either sells to a finance company or he carries it himself. What do you do? Give the dealer the NPV of the paper he would be otherwise be carrying on you? Or some percentage of it?

You bring a sight draft which the dealer calls in for approval, then drive off the lot. Or set up a wire transfer, though that takes a few hours.

Actually the way it more works is a dealer has a relationship with several sources. The source says they will finance at x, y, or z with a kickback, errr, commission to the dealer for whichever level he sells. The polite term is "spiff." At this point the dealer will get his money as the financier has committed to send a check.

Last car I bought I had my financing in place, just had to call in the number and pick up a check. Salesman asks if I need financing, I tell him "no." He says at least give him a chance to bid on it. So I say "sure" but pulled out my finance calculator and say, "give me the rate and principal, I will figure my own payment." It was my way of saying, "I'm no 20 year old high school dropout waitress so don't play games." And the games they play! Went on a date with a girl from high school I didn't remember and she told me when she was younger the salesman told her she could not finance a car with A/C--and she believed him and bought the car!

If you do a BHPH (Buy Here, Pay Here) lot the dealer will put a tracking device in as he is on the hook. Prime lenders will not install trackers, not worth their time.

I've never bought a car long distance, but it seems to be pretty much the same as buying one across town, except you have travel costs. It's easy to figure whether it's worth it; about the only thing I would do is make sure you research. Traveling only to find a bust would be costly, so try to minimize that chance as much as possible.

I did buy my motor long distance, and I mean looooong. It came from Japan and went to Montreal, where I bought it and had it shipped to me. No idea the condition of the car it came from, no info on the motor except "Approx 60k miles". No service records, no Carfax, no history of the guys I bought from, nothing. But it showed up to my door earlier than expected, was in the condition as advertised, and took the pounding of a race season without issue. Of course, it was a Honda, so it's mostly bulletproof anyways. But it was a positive experience buying in this manner.