Hi everyone,

I've been looking around on ford websites trying to see if anyone has any advice for buying out of state. I need to get the car professionally inspected--- I heard about a couple mobile inspection companies such as AiM Mobile Inspections who will go on-site to the dealer and perform a pre-purchase inspection for a small fee. The report includes a 150 point inspection, test drive, etc.

Has anyone ever used them before or any other similar services. I was hoping to get a second opinion before I went ahead with this. Thanks guys!

 

California I see.

I hope you've gone here first:

Before Buying a Vehicle From Out of State—Be Sure You Can Register It in California (FFVR 29)

Sales tax, smog, all the joys....

 

Haha yea we definitely have to jump through a couple of hoops here in CA... But it never rains in southern california so it's worth it

 

If you belong to AAA or another service, I would suggest calling them. In fact, Ford Roadside Assistance is all over the USA. Call them and ask if one of their service people would be willing to go to the site and inspect the vehicle and you will pay their costs. That way you will/should get a reliable technichian and you will have to accept their findings. Good Luck!

 

Most of that only applies to new vehicles. I foud this out when buying my F250 that wan not sold new in California, but rather originated from Utah and did not have the California Emmissions sticker. But as the nice lady at the DMV told me, as long as it's used and whatever emmissions equipment it came with are in good working order, it's legal in Califormia. So as far as jumping through hoops, it's the same as is the car were bouight here in California, just pay used tax and registration fees, get it smogged and provide and odometer reading and your good to go.

 

Not able to help but buying out of state is a hassle. I've been looking and found a 350 but it's more than a 6 hour drive to get there. six hours there, six hours back just to look at it. Then another trip when you bring the money. Or I suppose you could bring a second driver along, stay there and have the money wired to the seller. Whew, just such a hassle.

 

Hmmm, that just sounds like you doing it the hard way, it's not hard at all buying long distance. I bought my '04 from Logan, Utah which is over 1,000 miles from me. I bought from a reputable dealer and after getting a couple vehicle checks online based on the vin# and asking the right questions about the condition, I gave then a deposit over the phone and booked a flight. I left here at 6:00 local time and after swapping planes in Los Angeles (and meeting Cheech Marin in the airport!) I landed in Salt Lake City around noon (11:00 our time), rented a car and an hour and a half later was standing in the car lot. All the paperwork was done beforehand and after a breif test drive, I was on my way home. I drove 8 hrs to Winnemucca, Nevada the first night and 8 hrs home the next day. I don't consider it a hassle at all. I got a truck I love to drive, had a lot of fun on the trip and enjoyed some nice scenery along the way. I spent less than $500 total on the trip, including plane fare, one-way rental car, motel room, gas and food and was only away from home from 6:00 am one day until 4:00 pm the next day. I was off work then anyway, so what did I miss? Something good on TV I don't know about? I got to see the sunrise at the old Mustang Ranch near Reno! I mean when else can you eat beef jerky and Mountain Dew for breakfast except on a good road trip? Anything you do in life is what you make of it, you cal it a hassle, but to me it was an adventure.

 

I enjoyed my 12 hr round trip, I turned it into a little vacation, (even took a ferry across lake MI) haggled the price over the phone, and brought a cashiers check in the event I was buying it.

 

Sand Man, would you follow the same process with a private sale?

 

Sure. But you have to be prepared for the worst. I once drove 12 hrs one way to buy a '68 Mustang fastback, despite my best efforts to flush the truth about the car, it was a pile. So I ended up driving 24 hrs total in 48 hrs (with a rented car trailer) for nothing. Was it a waste? Maybe, but it was still better than buying it and living with a roach, so I call it a $500 lesson. Same with my truck, but with less risk. I mean, first it was a late-model, one-owner truck that was being sold by a dealer with a reputation to protect and a clean bill of health from CarFax and Oasis. But the risk was still there and if it had been a turd, I would've driven back to the airport and came home. A little poorer maybe, but still with a good story for my buddies and a lesson. Life is a risk, so if you never do anything, where are the good stories gonna come from?

 

This thread has got me thinking about the risks of long-distance buying. Remember the Mustang I mentioned? Here's the whole story: I was looking for a '67-'68 fastback at the time, and they are tough to find to say the least. I actually found one that was a real dream find: it was owned by a 93 year old lady who bought it brand new, it was garaged it's whole life until she moved into a rest home 2 years prior. It was 100% original and aside from some minor rust under the battery, it was a very nice car to start with. When I saw it, it was parked way out in BFE at a city-wide car show in my hometown. I spoke to her grandson, who had brought the to town to sell it for his grandmother. I looked it over, my wife wrote down the number and I agreed to call the next day. Unfortunately, my wife wrote the number down wrong (she says it was an accident), and when I called the next day, it was the wrong number. Bummer. But I moved on and a week later I found another fastback on the internet that was a bit rougher, but $2000 cheaper! Since I was building a Shelby clone, the fact that it didn't run and needed total restoration was fine, I just needed a solid body. So I talked to the guy, he sent me some blurry photos and I saw what I wanted to see and a few days later I was off. But first my wife had to go to the local U-haul and rent a trailer, and my Dad went along to help with the trailer and help an elderly family freind pay her bills. My wife called form the rest home and told me that the first Mustang I originally wanted was in the parking lot! I assured her the car we were going to get was a better deal, since it was cheaper, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, she wrote the number down again (correctly this time) just in case. After work she picked me up and we were off, driving 12 hours to get the cheaper Mustang. Along the way, the A/C on the Suburban quit working, but since it was only 110 degrees, we pressed onward. The seller was adamant about cash, so I brought a pistol and several thousand in cash. The cash I could have left home, and I dearly wanted to use the pistol on the seller after seeing the POS I drove all that way for. The thing was so bad, I never even offered him less money, I just left. The trip home was quiet and fast, and full of Wal-Mart stops for marital repairs. My wife loves Wally World, and although I despise the place, what could I say? She had been patient for the first leg of the trip, but now it was payback. We ate at a nice steakhouse, found an over-priced motel, and I got my hand slapped for trying that nite. On the way home some hippy in a worn-out Honda Civic was attempting to pass on an uphill. I don't like to hold people up, so I stayed in the right lane, but as the passing lane ran out, she stayed right alongside the rented trailer running the same speed. As I passed the "Merge Left" sign, I looked in the mirror, and after three blinks of the signal, I turned left. The rust-eaten Honda screeched, swerved and I could read several four-letter words come out of her mouth as well as a one-fingered salute and her questioning my parent's marital status at the time of my conception. For the first time in the whole return trip, I grinned. "Feel better now?" my wife asked. Yes I did. I came home, returned the trialer and ended up buying the local car. Now you see? That's the kinda stuff that while painful at the time is all part of the car experience, and worth every dime I paid. After all, you gotta do something on your weekends, right?

 

Good story, thanks for sharing. Yeah, you gotta do something on the weekends. We were going to head there this weekend but I have an entire weekend of training. At least it has been raining and we aren't sitting in the classroom missing a beautiful weekend. Maybe we'll get away next weekend but haven't even looked at the schedule yet. I just want to make sure my wife, I'll call her Melissa cause that's her name, isn't set on no, it's too long of a truck. Right now she is on the fence so we'll see.

 

if you feel good from who your buying it from, go to uship it and have someone else either drive it or trailer it if you dont have the time.

 

Nice story reminds me of a truck I went to look at a couple years back, except it was only a 3 hour drive, outside of the truck was clean and rust free...underside had never been cleaned in the 15 years of its life and was falling apart rusty, walked away...bought the wife a nice lunch.

Living in NY I've been slowing watching for a 1980s to 1997 or so F350 4x4 and the biggest problem here is RUST, which I think will push my search south out of NY to: PA, NJ, MD, VA, NC?, quickly looking same price range yields some very nice near rust free trucks...BUT I need to figure out with a private sale out of state how I can drive it back home without making 2 trips. Insurance is easy, all I need is a VIN, but plates/registration I'm going to have to talk with the DMV about. In the past I've always bought stuff where if I like it, rent a u-haul trailer locally and then trailer it back and worry about plates later, but now I'm in the market again for an occasional hauler/tow rig so I can't tow something that big yet...

 

I had a dealer from out of state email me about my truck for sale the other day. With all the risks of buying from far away, I didn't think people were doing it all that frequently.