Purchasing a car long distance?

[obaa996]

Hey all,
I'm 99.9% positive I will not be purchasing a car locally; the closest cars I'm most likely to buy are all at least 500 miles away. The thing is, I've never bought anything long distance before (other than mail order stuff).

A couple of the cars I'm interested in are private party cars, and I know at least one of them is still financed, so the title is being held by a bank/institution. I'm planning on paying for my car by writing a check, so no financing on my end. Depending on which car I buy, and what the weather is like, I may want to drive it back, but likely will need to have it shipped.

Is there a standard protocol to follow in cases like this? Certainly, I will fly out to wherever to personally inspect the car, and also have a professional look it over if possible. If everything looks good and I decide it's the one for me, how do I proceed? If the car is financed, the title won't be on hand. I don't have legal ownership of the car without the title, right? I'm hesitant to hand over a large chunk of $$$ without having all the loose ends *******. Other than title and registration, is there any other paperwork I would need?

If the car needs to be shipped, I'd have to schedule transport of the car. How does pickup of the car work out? Do the seller and transported just work out the pick up of the car? Do I need to be there?

Finally, what sort of things originally came with a GenI Viper? Granted, it'd be a used one, and various things might have been lost along the line, but what should it come with? I'm guessing (bear in mind: newbie here):
2 keys (is there valet key for the trunk?)
remote (2?)
owners manual
radio manual
warranty manual
video for top (?)
binder for paperwork (?)
window sticker
other paperwork (?)
side curtains
soft top
bags for top and side curtains
jack
toolkit (?; if so, what would be in it?)
anything else?

Thanks! Hoping I'll join your ranks as an owner soon!

 

[Ron Hickey]

Whatever you do, don't change your mind and consider buying a Viper sight-unseen. A friend of mine bought a car long-range from a supposedly reputable broker and discovered -- to his dismay -- that the car was not in the flawless condition the broker had said it was. Most VCA officers or members will be glad to check prospective cars out for you, but before finalizing the purchase you need to check it out yourself.

Get a Viper tech to check out the car. Make sure that the car is put up on a lift and the frame inspected for any damage or repairs. Look at the bottom of the side-sills, the bottom of the front fascia, and all the lower edges of the body. A lot of scrapes or damage indicates that the car was not well-cared for. However, a perfect front fascia underside is almost impossible -- unless the car wasn't ever driven anywhere.

Since you're looking at a Gen I car, have the Viper tech check for anti-freeze marks on the engine -- a possible sign of common head gasket problems. Check fluid levels and quality of the fluids. Dirty brake fluid, coolant, and/or oil are again signs that maintenance was not a priority of the previous owner. I remember looking at a GTS in a small used car lot (not a good place for a Viper) for a prospective buyer. When we looked at the coolant, we couldn't find any. Not in the overflow or in the radiator! Needless to say, we encouraged the buyer to pass on that car.

The purpose of all this is to identify any potential problems so that you know exactly what you're buying and so you don't overpay.

Good luck!

 

[ceieio]

Have the owner take it to a viper certified dealer for inspection. You can call DC to find the nearest certified dealers and check with this board for best pick if there are choices. (You will pay for the inspection of course). There are other inspection services out there if you want to search them out (Hemmings is a good source). If a VCA member gives it a thumbs up and you get some kind if inspection you are probably OK.

I have bought long distance before. In one case the car was financed and I wanted to pay cash. It turned out that there wasn't a good way for me to guarantee the title would be delivered to me. Legal costs seemed high, so what to do? I went to a multi-state bank that had branches in the state where the car was and also where I was. I got a loan with a no pre-payment penalty. I let the bank sort out the titles at their expense and then paid the loan off. If something had gone wrong, you can bet the bank would get it sorted out! I told the loan officer what I was up to and she didn't care. IT worked fine.

Best of luck.

 

[obaa996]

Thanks for the feedback.
My local Viper guru was kind enough to show me the underside of a Viper he had on a rack, and pointed out how
the sheetmetal (floorpan?) would get bent up if the car were
wrecked or went over something. Is there a checklist of things to look for that I can go by? Do the Viper Techs have standard checklist they go by? I'll be giving DC a call first thing in the morning...
The title thing does definitely concern me... I know one of the cars I'm interested in is financed via credit union, so I believe they'd only have local branches. Most likely, though, the title would probably be available at one of the
credit union branches. I think one of the other ones is financed through DC; I don't know how payoff on that would work...

 

[ceieio]

I had the same issue - title held at regional bank. I just picked one that had a presence there (Wells Fargo); they knew how to work with the regional bank. I did not deal with the regional bank directly, Wells did that.

Note that some states hold the title, not a bank or individual. You should check that out before you get too far into things.

 

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

Here's a really simple way to do this, get 2 Cashiers checks for your sellor, one for the payoff balance and another for the remainder of the sale price, on cashiers checks you CAN stop payment on them. Get two fedex envelopes, enclose all the payoff information and the title if the sellor has possesion of it and the check for the payoff balance, address it to the lending institution, enclose the second fed ex envelope with return address already made out to YOU and check bill recipient, enclose a note saying what you are doing and that the title and any other pertinent paperwork be returned to YOU following lien release. Buyer and sellor go to fed ex box together, stick it in the box, give the sellor the other check for the balance, and YOU now take the car. It's not a bad idea to earlier conference call the lender with both the buyer and sellor on the phone to determine the payoff and the EFFECTIVE DATE of the payoff, go one day beyond that and the deal won't float as the institution will be looking for another months interest. Make sure the lender is on the same page and understands the contact info for both parties, try and use the name of the party you talked to at the insttution and address the envelope to their attention, just in case the sellor tries to overide anything on the phone. I actually did this when I sold my BMW, the buyer had no problems with the procedure to send his 55k check to BMW financial and hand me a 10k check. I had preprepared a contact at BMW financial (who actually suggested the procedure to me as I was worried about letting the buyer have the car without my financial obligation being relieved) She was ready to talk to him if he had a problem with it, but he bought right into it as it seemed to make great sense.
If anything goes wrong, you could still stop payment. Your sellor may eliminate that option by asking for a certified check, but many banks won't do those anymore. Make sure to get a signed bill of sale also. Three different people at BMW financial reccommended this way of doing it to me.

 

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

I Just noticed the additional shipping part of the question, you might try what my buyer did in the above example, after he looked at the car and was happy with it, he got on the phone and retained a flatbed driver who came, loaded it up and left, I would have had that all prearranged before I went, he seemed real confident he could find one on short notice, but we did waste a couple hours doing that. I would arrange it ahead of time. If you are looking for high end enclosed transport, you might see if a local VCA member would tuck it his the garage and have it picked up there. You will be amazed at what this club will do for fellow owners!

 

[obaa996]

Lee,
Thanks for the advice; that sounds like a good way to go if the lender is not local. A dealer sale definitely sports an advantage over a private sale in this regard. Looks like multiple trips might be required....

Still trying to work out if I want to ship the car back, or attempt to haul it myself....

 

[RAno Sports Car Company]

What Lee suggested is the way to go. We have done this many times. I personally do not like to buy sight unseen.
If you like the car, buy it on the spot. Do not leave it and pick it up the next day. If you do i would inspect it all over again. Good luck and if we can help please let us know.

 

[obaa996]

Thanks for the ideas on the financing. One of the cars has a loan through a credit union; I *think* the fellow mentioned that the title was being held at the branch (or at least I thought he did; could be me recalling that's what my CU does). Another car has a loan through a bank; haven't heard back from them yet. The third one is through Chrysler Financial. Would you believe that they (according to the guy on the phone) will not release the title to anyone but the guy on the loan paper, and that it would be sent 10days after certified payment was made? How the heck does anyone trade/sell in an unpaid-off Mopar?

 

[Vreracing]

The Porsche 993TT I bought came from a dealership in California. They sent it without the required paperwork that had to be notarized to establish that it was an out of state delivery.

The car came on a Sunday and I couldn't find a notary.

I finally found a notary in a pretty rough part of town.

He was a Bail Bondsman and had a sawed off shotgun under his desk.

He looked like a desparado out of a B western movie.

The guy delivering the car eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head the whole time.

I got the car okay, but make sure you have all the details worked out ahead of time.

My guess is that because of the internet and people like us that like specific cars and don't like to wait more cars will be sold nationwide.

Just don't get a car through an escrow account out of Italy or Germany.