So I live in Tacoma Wa. Trying to find a M37 with more than the base package with 100mi has proven difficult. If I search AutoTrader I can find several M37's with many more options.

What are your feelings to buying long distance? I would hate to take a plane to get a car and find it was a dud when I got there. Or am I just crazy for even thinking in this direction?

Ask tons of questions and pictures b4 u travel out there.

I went 4000 miles. And all worked out.

with the m u have to look long and hard to find what u want. Not many sold every year.

Frog wrote:Ask tons of questions and pictures b4 u travel out there.

What kind of questions should I be asking?

I would only buy if there is time left on the 4 year warranty. I would check Carfax t make sure the car was not in an accident. I would run the VIN number by a local dealer to check the history of the vehicle. I would make sure that I have many pictures of the car to assess it condition.
PS did you ever try Car Max. if you don't like it you have 3 days to return it.

I don't have a Car Max close to me, but there is one in driving distance to me at least.

My last two cars were bought sight unseen on eBay, including the M. However I would never buy one out of warranty this way.

I actually went through this process almost a year ago. I live in Minnesota and purchased a vehicle sight unseen which was a nerve racking experience but I had some tools that weeded out a lot of bad candidates.

• Online Car Reports
  
  Carfax and Autocheck are the two most popular services. While Carfax does show a good amount of the car's history of ownership/registration and also car maintenance. I noticed Carfax did not show some reported accident and as well as frame damage when a car passed through regional auction houses. Autocheck seemed much more thorough and reported more issues with the car than Carfax. If you can get your hands on a Carfax and Autocheck report it wouldnt hurt to examine both reports.
  
  Local Infiniti Dealership Service Dept
  
  Once you get a cars VIN number it never hurts to contact a service adviser at your nearest Infiniti dealership. If the car has ever been serviced at any national Infiniti dealership all that information is shared in the same database. This source can be a huge source of information. It will report all the repairs and maintenance that were performed on a vehicle.
  
  At the same time it will report all the issues/complaints that the car's previous had the service department investigated. I was interested in a car at a midwest area dealership and based on the car's maintenance history it was reported that the previous owner had struck a snow bank; damaging the front grill and front adaptive cruise control sensor. I had the re-assurance that the damaged parts were replaced with genuine OEM parts. In another instance, the previous owner kept bringing his car in for issues with his battery constantly draining.
  
  Contracting a 3rd Car inspector
  
  Once I had the car's history report (AutoCheck/Carfax) and everything checked out on the car's maintenance history I contracted a national car inspector. I hired Aim Mobile Inspection (http://homepage.aiminspections.com/serv ... spections/) and had a great experience. At $129/per car inspection the reports they generated were very thorough. It saved me from purchasing cars that had a lot of hidden issues and also made me aware of things to expect if I went through with the purchase.
  
  Make sure you get consent from the dealership to have a 3rd party inspector stop by and inspect/test drive the vehicle on your behalf. Most dealers will require a deposit to hold the car until the car inspector to arrive. Essentially I filled out an electronic request on AIM's website providing detail information about the car that was to be inspected as well as the contact information of someone at the dealership. AIM contacted the person at the dealership and scheduled an appointment for their inspector to come out. Once that was set, I received confirmation of the date and time. Within 48 hours of the scheduled appointment I received a very thorough inspection of photos and a checklist that was at least 15 pages.

Armed with all this information i had to make a decision to go through the purchase. Also I was able to use this information as ammunition to negotiate the price of the car. I know this was a long read but I hope this will help everyone purchasing a vehicle out of state.

I have purchased two cars from out state, the M was in Louisiana and more recently a G37 IPL from Florida, both worked out perfectly and driven back to Texas without any problems.
Do your research on the car you are inquiring about, ask for the Carfax, have the seller take additional pictures and video of all the stuff you would check/look for if the car was local and in front of you.
Tell the seller you are willing to put a deposit down if you are satisfied with all the additional information the seller provides. This will show the seller you are not just wasting his/her time.

I bought one of my M37s from Beepi.com. It was a great experience. They delivered the car to my house about a week later. You get 10 days to return it if you do not like it. I took the car and had it inspected. Everything checked out. The car was in near perfect shape with a clean title.

I am in the same geographical area as you (the O.P.), and I literally looked for over 6 months to find the right car locally. Finally, one came available at the Mercedes Benz dealer in Fife, where it was a one owner local trade in. Point being, you say you are in no hurry, so take your time, and do it right/do it once.

I'm in the exact same process right now as well living in Portland which has even fewer decent options than the great white north in Seattle. It seems 90% of the decent options are on the east coast. I would like to add to the questioning here and ask of those of you who bought sight unseen (Infiniti or otherwise), did you have it shipped to you or fly and drive it back? I love the idea of spending some new quality time with the car driving it a thousand plus miles home but am wondering if it kind of ruined the whole new car thing if all your expectations weren't met and it was just a really long drive home.....

jameskjensen wrote:I'm in the exact same process right now as well living in Portland which has even fewer decent options than the great white north in Seattle. It seems 90% of the decent options are on the east coast. I would like to add to the questioning here and ask of those of you who bought sight unseen (Infiniti or otherwise), did you have it shipped to you or fly and drive it back? I love the idea of spending some new quality time with the car driving it a thousand plus miles home but am wondering if it kind of ruined the whole new car thing if all your expectations weren't met and it was just a really long drive home.....

I drove back both cars (M37 and G37) and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It helped me reassure that the choice was a great one.

CRV_33 wrote:I actually went through this process almost a year ago. I live in Minnesota and purchased a vehicle sight unseen which was a nerve racking experience but I had some tools that weeded out a lot of bad candidates.

• Online Car Reports
  
  Carfax and Autocheck are the two most popular services. While Carfax does show a good amount of the car's history of ownership/registration and also car maintenance. I noticed Carfax did not show some reported accident and as well as frame damage when a car passed through regional auction houses. Autocheck seemed much more thorough and reported more issues with the car than Carfax. If you can get your hands on a Carfax and Autocheck report it wouldnt hurt to examine both reports.
  
  Local Infiniti Dealership Service Dept
  
  Once you get a cars VIN number it never hurts to contact a service adviser at your nearest Infiniti dealership. If the car has ever been serviced at any national Infiniti dealership all that information is shared in the same database. This source can be a huge source of information. It will report all the repairs and maintenance that were performed on a vehicle.
  
  At the same time it will report all the issues/complaints that the car's previous had the service department investigated. I was interested in a car at a midwest area dealership and based on the car's maintenance history it was reported that the previous owner had struck a snow bank; damaging the front grill and front adaptive cruise control sensor. I had the re-assurance that the damaged parts were replaced with genuine OEM parts. In another instance, the previous owner kept bringing his car in for issues with his battery constantly draining.
  
  Contracting a 3rd Car inspector
  
  Once I had the car's history report (AutoCheck/Carfax) and everything checked out on the car's maintenance history I contracted a national car inspector. I hired Aim Mobile Inspection (http://homepage.aiminspections.com/serv ... spections/) and had a great experience. At $129/per car inspection the reports they generated were very thorough. It saved me from purchasing cars that had a lot of hidden issues and also made me aware of things to expect if I went through with the purchase.
  
  Make sure you get consent from the dealership to have a 3rd party inspector stop by and inspect/test drive the vehicle on your behalf. Most dealers will require a deposit to hold the car until the car inspector to arrive. Essentially I filled out an electronic request on AIM's website providing detail information about the car that was to be inspected as well as the contact information of someone at the dealership. AIM contacted the person at the dealership and scheduled an appointment for their inspector to come out. Once that was set, I received confirmation of the date and time. Within 48 hours of the scheduled appointment I received a very thorough inspection of photos and a checklist that was at least 15 pages.

Armed with all this information i had to make a decision to go through the purchase. Also I was able to use this information as ammunition to negotiate the price of the car. I know this was a long read but I hope this will help everyone purchasing a vehicle out of state.

Very helpful thank you!

Quick follow up, would you suggest staying away from cars from the Northeast and upper Midwest due to potential rust and/or damage from salted roads?

jameskjensen wrote:Quick follow up, would you suggest staying away from cars from the Northeast and upper Midwest due to potential rust and/or damage from salted roads?

Not really. I bought my 2012 M56x through Carmax. It originally came from Pepe Infiniti in White Plains, New York, but it ended up in Tennessee, which is where I had it transferred from. It did have some minor surface rust underneath but no damage that I could tell. It was serviced regularly and in excellent condition with 51,468 miles. No issues here.