Buying a non-local car...wise?

[airman86]

Hey all, I'm looking to buy a car from someone here on nicoclub who lives in PA (about 10 hours away from me - SC here). he's agreed to meet me halfway, mainly because he's picking up a car around the same area that we're meeting anyways. He offered to have it shipped at first which would have cost me an extra $500, but I declined to have that done because i'd like to see the car in person before i hand someone a wad of money.

My parents are worried (i still live with them) that the guy's a crook, he'll steal my money or the car is stolen. Keep in mind i'm a 20 year old college student, paying for the car with my own cash. I know, i'm sure everyone's tired of hearing that from some teen who hates their parents because "ZOMG THEY WONT LET ME BUY IT N I HATE THEMMZ GRR!!!" type of thing. I hope I don't sound like that :P My parents bring up a good point though, and I don't disagree with them. Anything can happen and i truely don't know who the guy is.

The car is a '91 240 hatch with i think 140k or 160k miles, brand new clutch, clean interior, NO CRACKED DASH, a clean carfax and in good mechanical condition for $2800, which is great considering most of them in this condition go for about $3500-4000.

For my and my parents sake, what can I do/get from the guy beforehand to make sure that he and the car is legit?

[Pirate_Freder]

I think the only you can do is a written contract if you want/he's ok with that. But that's tricky cause if a problem arises it wasn't necessarily noticeable or present before and so on and so forth.

I drove 3-4 hours to buy my S13 and I found a few things wrong that I didn't know from talking to him but wtv, got a good deal and made it home.

[airman86]

i have no doubt the car is in good shape. aside from the clean carfax, title in hand, i have seen a good number of pictures of the car, it has maybe one or two spots of rust and a rust-free undercarriage. i've even seen videos of the car running, engine bay videos, interior videos showing it's clean.

what kind of stuff would be in the "contract"?
Modified by airman86 at 8:18 PM 3/5/2009

[glitched]

I would just make sure the seller understands that if anything has been misrepresented, and is not as described. You reserve the right to bail on the deal and return home empty handed.

I even did that when i won an auction for a car on ebay and drove 6 hours for it.

[mattblancarte]

I would just make sure the seller understands that if anything has been misrepresented, and is not as described. You reserve the right to bail on the deal and return home empty handed.

I even did that when i won an auction for a car on ebay and drove 6 hours for it.

Bingo. Set this expectation. Also, chat him up on the phone to get a little history on the car.

See if you can set up an appointment to have the car examined by a legit shop in the area that you're meeting him. Have him meet you at the shop. It shouldn't take a shop more than a hour to check the car out. If they give the car a clean bill of health, then and only then should you purchase the vehicle.

I bought my car by flying out to another state, so it can be done. Just don't cut corners, and don't be afraid to walk away from a bad deal.

If the guy is shady with you AT ALL prior to purchasing the vehicle (i.e. won't respond promptly via email or phone, tells you more than one story, etc.) don't waste your time. If he is a NICO member, it probably couldn't hurt to check out his postings.

The last guy that ignored my advice got all excited and cut corners to buy his car. He got SSCCCREEEWWWEEEDD. Just a heads up.