Long Distance Dealer Purchase

[GimpyMcFarlan]

I've found an CPO 2010 X6 @ Richmond BMW that looks like a promising replacement for the X3, however; I have never negotiated the purchase/trade-in via telephone or email before. Anyone have pointers based on previous experience?

[JST]

I briefly thought about trying to do a long-distance trade-in on my M3 when I bought the wagon CPO in Michigan last year. Ultimately, I decided the hassle of doing that simply wasn't worth it, because I couldn't come up with a way that I'd get the assurance I needed prior to setting out that the price they'd give me on the car would be firm.

I sold mine locally at Carmax and then flew out to MI to pick the other car up. If you can do something like tht, it might be worth exploring.

As far as the new car purchase went, it was as smooth as any other. I negotiated the deal over the phone and had them send me the paperwork. When I got there, it was a simple matter of driving the car, making sure it was what they represented it to be, handing over the check and signing the final papers.

I was fortunate to have a friend in the area who was able to look at/drive the car and give me a thumbs up before I did the deal. If you don't know someone in the area, you could see whether there's another dealer or reputable shop in the area and pay for a PPI. I suppose the dealer's willingness to do that would depend entirely on how many other offers they think they'll get on the car.

I was a little concerned about the whole interstate titling thing, but the MI dealer had no trouble with charging me VA tax and getting the license and registration done. It was easier than some local dealers I've used.

[GimpyMcFarlan]

Had not thought of the Carmax option for selling the X3. Thank you for the feedback JST! The interstate registration does give me pause but I'd hope most dealers are used to dealing with it. I don't know anyone in the area so I would taking a risk on the condition of the vehicle.

[equ]

I did it with my carrera-for-cayman trade from 500 miles away. Sent detailed pics, received same as well as overrev report. Gained confidence in the sales guy (who happened to be a decent one). Agreed on price. Helped that both cars were sub-10k miles and less than two years old, essentially perfect.

[lupinsea]

We bought our used ZHP site unseen and without a test drive from over 1700 miles away. Then had it shipped out to us on a car hauler.

It was a CPO with a lot of warranty left on it otherwise I wouldn't have done it. The deal with down without a hitch but there was some time delay with some back and forth with the paperwork. Basically, we found what looked like a decent CPO ZHP at a comparatively good prive through the BMW website, called the dealer up and basically said, "if you can include the cost of transport to Seattle we'll by the car at asking price." The guy thought about it for a little bit, checked with his manager and the deal was done.

They coordinated getting the car out to us on the transport.

We worked with a local credit union.

I gotta say, it was a little weird and there was more than a little trust from all three parties (us, the dealer, and our lender) that was needed.

It was probably the least comfortable way for me to buy a car but it turned out well and the dealer didn't try to screw over.

I'd really prefer not to do that again but at the time we were buying the ZHP there was literally nothing on the used market anywhere within 800 miles of Seattle and the one at that distance (San Francisco) were marked way up.

Now? They are much more common.

Good luck.

My only advice is to streamline this as much as possible. So, sell your current car now so you don't have to fart around with a trade-in, too. Keep it simple . . . JUST the purchase of the new car.

[GimpyMcFarlan]

Lup,
That is impressive! I would have never guessed the dealer would have covered the cost of the transportation. How did the local credit union submit payment to the dealer? FedEx a cashiers check? Was all the paperwork handled via email? Fax? FedEx?

I'm very curious to find out how much warranty is left on the X6. Since it is listed as a 2010 there could be a lot left on it. This in combination with the lower than average price point interests me greatly. I'll definitely consider selling the X3 beforehand although that could complicate the timing of the transaction since it is my only vehicle.

[kognito]

I hae done a few out of state purchases, and my Volvo truck is being sold right now to a guy in CA. He is flying up here next week to pick it up, and I am letting him use my registration and insurance to get it home.

Faxes or e-mails with documents attached and wire transfers are the way to go IMHO

[lupinsea]

Originally Posted by GimpyMcFarlan

Lup,
That is impressive! I would have never guessed the dealer would have covered the cost of the transportation. How did the local credit union submit payment to the dealer? FedEx a cashiers check? Was all the paperwork handled via email? Fax? FedEx?

I'm very curious to find out how much warranty is left on the X6. Since it is listed as a 2010 there could be a lot left on it. This in combination with the lower than average price point interests me greatly. I'll definitely consider selling the X3 beforehand although that could complicate the timing of the transaction since it is my only vehicle.

It's been a while but, IIRC, there was a lot of overnight document Fed-Exing. Well, maybe not a lot but there was some.

We already had the credit union lined up and they knew we were interested in buying a car. I don't know how they paid for it, though. I can't remember if it was an electronic funds transfer or if they simply cut a check. Funny enough, we were dealing long-distance with everybody. The credit union is "local" but was about 160 miles away from us so their documents were fed-exed, too.

For some reason, nobody really wanted to mess with electronic documents. No PDF attachments, no faxes. Everything was on original papaer and just Fed-Exed back and forth. Keep in mind this was about 6 years ago, back in '06. I can't remember the details, sorry.

No doubt it's probably different these days. When my wife and I have refied our mortgage it's all done by PDF pretty much. The PDF is printed out, signed, rescanned and sent to the next person.




As for the cost of transportation. I figured they'd go for it. Dealers price things high so they have room to negotiate price. The cost of the transport was ~$1k or about what I figured the dealer might come down on from his price. It took maybe less than 5 minutes for us to agree on the deal over the phone and there was virtually no negotiation involved.

Did we over pay? Dunno. . . at the time we bought it there weren't a whole lot of ZHPs on the used market. And even fewer within our price range. And even less as CPO's with their extended warranty stuff. I figure it was reasonable all around.

The point was, there was going to be a cost involved in getting the car:

1. Me taking some paid time off, buying a plane ticket, gas to drive home, plus some hotel stays along the way.

Or

2. Have the car loaded on an auto transport and shipped to us while I kept on keeping on at work and sleeping in a nice comfy bed and not driving 1700 miles and keeping ~3 days or so worth of paid time off for later in the year.

It made sense for us to do the auto transport. But if you're not *that* far from where the car is, say a day's worth of driving, it might not be worth the auto transport.

And I wanted the dealer to handle the auto transport issue since they were a lot more familiar with it than I was. The transport was open air which I didn't care about. The car arrived dirty from being on an open air trailer but big woop. One car wash later and it was all nice and clean again. Not worth the enclosed transport costs.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by GimpyMcFarlan

Lup,
That is impressive! I would have never guessed the dealer would have covered the cost of the transportation. How did the local credit union submit payment to the dealer? FedEx a cashiers check? Was all the paperwork handled via email? Fax? FedEx?

I'm very curious to find out how much warranty is left on the X6. Since it is listed as a 2010 there could be a lot left on it. This in combination with the lower than average price point interests me greatly. I'll definitely consider selling the X3 beforehand although that could complicate the timing of the transaction since it is my only vehicle.

The car fax should tell you how much warranty is left ...

I have bought and sold many cars sight unseen on the internet and haven't been burned yet but some advice for you to feel comfortable ...

Since you are dealing with a dealer are they willing to give to you in writing that the vehicle never had paintwork or been in an accident ?

If so that is great, if not you can hire an outside service to go over the car ... check out some websites I beleive edmunds.com and carfax have advertisers that do this. They usually over examine the car which is a great thing for the buyer ...