Has anyone purchased a car out-of-state?

[MigAce312]

I'm findind very good deals on the car I want.....only problem is they are all about 1000 miles away from where I live, Miami, Florida. Have any of you bought a car that far away or know someone that has? I really dont have anyone in those places to test drive the cars for me. All I can do from here is run Carfax reports and look at pictures. Also, what would be the best and cheapest way to get the car delivered to me? BTW, the car I'm looking for is an VW MKIII GTI VR6

 

[Rogue]

Are you talking new or used here?

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Well most of the time you dont need to use carfax for new cars.

 

[MigAce312]

Originally posted by: Rogue
Are you talking new or used here?

Used

 

[Rogue]

DUH! Guess you're right on the Carfax thing, give me a break, just got home from 12 hours of work. Anyway, you usually will have to arrange transport for the car of some kind, which can get expensive. If it's really worth it to you, I recommend traveling out there and purchasing the car and driving it back.

 

[pandapanda]

Take the Greyhound to where the car is...get the seller to meet you at the station, drive home. Might have to spring for a hotel room also.

 

[ElFenix]

theres a bunch of tax issues on it

 

[Zenmervolt]

I've done it before, but I've also made extra trips to test drive the car and to look it over. Personally, I think the best thing to do is rent a U-haul car trailer (flatbed) and find a friend with a truck to pull said trailer, then make a road trip out of it. Just be sure that you have everything notarized that needs to be notarized, the title transfer process for an out of state car can be a bit of a test.

ZV

EDIT: This is all based on my experiences in buying a car in New Hampshire and trailering it back to my home in Ohio.

 

[MigAce312]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
theres a bunch of tax issues on it

Oh man..I forgot about that. Which tax do I pay? Florida tax or state-where-car-was-purchased tax?

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: MigAce312

Originally posted by: ElFenix
theres a bunch of tax issues on it

Oh man..I forgot about that. Which tax do I pay? Florida tax or state-where-car-was-purchased tax?

You pay the tax when you transfer the title to a Florida title (at least, I paid Ohio tax on my car and not NH tax). You do not pay tax in both states, only the state in which you reside and register the car.

ZV

EDIT: Tax is based on the price listed in the bill of sale. Make sure to have the bill of sale notarized, if you don't get it notarized, it can become a huge hassle.

 

[BillGates]

I bought my motorcycle ($7000) from a dude in Ohio.......approx 800 miles from Wisconsin. I asked a lot of questions before hand to get a feel for the guy and he seemed very "real." He took specific photos of things I wanted to see up close and gave me lots of contact info. I searched for him by name and reverse-searched him by number on a number of different sites and all looked good. I pretty much stalked the dude before sending him a $1000 money order a week before going to hold the bike for me and picked it up the following week.

Overall it was an excellent experience. I got a great deal, the bike was exactly as advertised, and the seller was 100% legit. I really feel good about the whole process.

It definitely could have gone a lot worse.

 

[kami333]

I bought my car while at college in PA and drove it back to Utah to get it registered, etc. It was from a dealer so I didn't really have to do anything, the only hitch was the actual title which they had to mail to me a couple of days later but by that time I had already left so they overnighted it out to Utah at no charge. And you only have to pay tax when you register it, which in my case was in Utah.

Though personally there is no way you are getting me to buy a used car without first looking at it and test driving it unless I know the seller personally, it's a rare car, or it's an extremely good deal.

 

[Ly2n]

I was looking at a couple of cars on Egay, of all places, and asked the sellers a lot of questions. But first I would go to my local moter vehicle office to see what paperwork I needed to do the deal. Some states have temporary plates that would allow you to drive the car home. That is what I was looking for. Some of the sellers were willing to go to the MV office with me to help me get the temporary plates. One seller talked me out of their car because they didn't think the car would get me home.