Purchasing Out of State Car??

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 9:52 am

(Sorry such a long post, I have nothing better to do this morning.)

I've bought two cars out from out of state, E36 M3 from an individual via his leasing agency in Chicago, and E36 328is from a dealership in OH. In both cases, I was told by the seller that their state did not issue temporary tags to out-of-state buyers (based on Mike's post above, it appears at least the OH guys told me wrong). So in both cases I brought with me a NC tag from my existing car and put it on the 'new' car to drive it home, then registered each 'new' car in NC. I knew I was taking on some risk with the chance of being pulled over w/an unregistered car, but I had my trusty radar detector and kept my speed within 10 mph over to reduce the risk. Also, I figured having a valid bill of sale with me should help me wiggle my way out of major problems if the unfortunate police encounter did happen. Luckily, both drives home were uneventful.

A few lessons learned in the process:

1. Be absolutely positive to bring a payment method the seller will accept in order to hand over the title to you before you leave. The M3 seller told me a certified check would be fine, but when I got there with a certified check, his leasing agency informed me they could not give me the title until the check 'cleared'. This was extremely frustrating and turned out to be a bigger problem later - even though the certified check 'cleared' within 24 hours, it took the leasing agency over a month to send me the title. I saw the title when I was there for the purchase, so I know they had it in hand and should have sent it right away. They were just idiots that didn't give a crap about me after they had their money. Of course, this meant I couldn't register the car for over a month, and it really sucks owning a (Dinan Stage 5) M3 and not being able to drive it. After a week or so, I decided to take it for a quick drive around my neighborhood, and as luck would have it, I got pulled by one of Cary's finest and got a ticket for driving an unregistered vehicle.

2. If it's a relatively high dollar value car, before committing to the purchase, be sure the seller will cooperate with having the car inspected by a reputable mechanic in his area in order for you to make a fully informed decision to purchase. This means you locate a reputable mechanic, make the arrangements, and pay for a pre-purchase inspection (usually around $100), and the seller makes arrangements to get the car to and from the inspection location. I did this with the M3, but decided not to with the 328is (but wish I did - more on that below). If the seller is unwilling to do this or tries hard to talk you out of it, run from the deal.

3. If you plan to drive the car home over a long distance, consider buying a round trip airline ticket to the nearest city. I did this with both purchases. Round trip tickets are typically no more expensive than 1-way, and they give you the option to walk if you have any significant problems with the car or purchase when you get there. I almost had to use the return ticket w/the M3 (due to #1 above) and probably should have with the 328is (it turned out to have a bad Check Engine light bulb and a pile of codes/problems that I didn't expect).

In hindsight, I'd do it all again, but only if the right car for the right price was only available by travelling out of state. In fact, I was planning to do it again when I bought my STi - I was in process of making arrangements to buy one located in NY, but then one became available in Asheville in time to back out of the NY deal, so I ended up buying the one in Asheville (sigh of relief).

MarcusMcRae · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 10:00 am

I had not thought about having a mechanic check it out. I will have to ask about that.

Thanks

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 10:11 am

MarcusMcRae wrote:

I had not thought about having a mechanic check it out. I will have to ask about that.

Thanks

A good seller will have no issue with having the car inspected. I agree with Keith, walk from the deal if the seller balks. I did not have either the R package or 1LE inspected. They are hard to come by and it would have been difficult to walk away from.

I have done both with plates. Used one of my other plates driving back from Miami. And left the Illinios plates on the Camaro (although only the rear plate). Neither is a great option, but I wanted to get in and get out, especially with the R package in Miami, a hurricane was coming that day!

Figure the cost of the airline ticket and any lodging you will need into the over all price. Plus figure your drive time as a cost.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

I agree w/ a lot of what Keith says above. I should mention that both the M3 and the Subaru were purchased directly from honest-to-god car enthusiasts. The guy that sold me my M3 roadraces a Mustang, does rockcrawling in a Tracker, has a Turboed Civic drag car, and is a chief tech at an Acura Dealership. That and I had Lee Grimes inspect the car for me.

The Subie came from a guy who now owns an STI and used to do hillclimbs in a T1 prepped Camaro before his divorce.

I have passed on a LOT of seemingly good deals from out of state car dealers and other places. In every case that I was able to talk to the seller for a half an hour on the phone about autocrossing, roadracing, etc the purchases always went great!

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 11:11 am

Keith Quistorff wrote:

(Sorry such a long post, I have nothing better to do this morning.)

I've bought two cars out from out of state, E36 M3 from an individual via his leasing agency in Chicago, and E36 328is from a dealership in OH. In both cases, I was told by the seller that their state did not issue temporary tags to out-of-state buyers (based on Mike's post above, it appears at least the OH guys told me wrong). So in both cases I brought with me a NC tag from my existing car and put it on the 'new' car to drive it home, then registered each 'new' car in NC. I knew I was taking on some risk with the chance of being pulled over w/an unregistered car, but I had my trusty radar detector and kept my speed within 10 mph over to reduce the risk. Also, I figured having a valid bill of sale with me should help me wiggle my way out of major problems if the unfortunate police encounter did happen. Luckily, both drives home were uneventful.

A few lessons learned in the process:

1. Be absolutely positive to bring a payment method the seller will accept in order to hand over the title to you before you leave. The M3 seller told me a certified check would be fine, but when I got there with a certified check, his leasing agency informed me they could not give me the title until the check 'cleared'. This was extremely frustrating and turned out to be a bigger problem later - even though the certified check 'cleared' within 24 hours, it took the leasing agency over a month to send me the title. I saw the title when I was there for the purchase, so I know they had it in hand and should have sent it right away. They were just idiots that didn't give a crap about me after they had their money. Of course, this meant I couldn't register the car for over a month, and it really sucks owning a (Dinan Stage 5) M3 and not being able to drive it. After a week or so, I decided to take it for a quick drive around my neighborhood, and as luck would have it, I got pulled by one of Cary's finest and got a ticket for driving an unregistered vehicle.

2. If it's a relatively high dollar value car, before committing to the purchase, be sure the seller will cooperate with having the car inspected by a reputable mechanic in his area in order for you to make a fully informed decision to purchase. This means you locate a reputable mechanic, make the arrangements, and pay for a pre-purchase inspection (usually around $100), and the seller makes arrangements to get the car to and from the inspection location. I did this with the M3, but decided not to with the 328is (but wish I did - more on that below). If the seller is unwilling to do this or tries hard to talk you out of it, run from the deal.

3. If you plan to drive the car home over a long distance, consider buying a round trip airline ticket to the nearest city. I did this with both purchases. Round trip tickets are typically no more expensive than 1-way, and they give you the option to walk if you have any significant problems with the car or purchase when you get there. I almost had to use the return ticket w/the M3 (due to #1 above) and probably should have with the 328is (it turned out to have a bad Check Engine light bulb and a pile of codes/problems that I didn't expect).

In hindsight, I'd do it all again, but only if the right car for the right price was only available by travelling out of state. In fact, I was planning to do it again when I bought my STi - I was in process of making arrangements to buy one located in NY, but then one became available in Asheville in time to back out of the NY deal, so I ended up buying the one in Asheville (sigh of relief).

Oh, and I went through all of these steps with the RS EXCEPT for the round trip ticket. That was going to cost another 200 extra... blech. With all the expense associated with traveling, it can sometimes be worth your time to spend a little more on the car and not have to travel as far, as well.

Also, timing works out in a lot of this as well. If you find a REALLY good deal on a car at an enthusiast site, you have to be ready to pounce, and most sellers want cash in hand... so, with lat minute airline tickets, you can get really poked on pricing... at least that was my experience.

- dow

MartynWheeler · **Joined:** Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:30 pm **Posts:** 303

Brian Herring wrote:

With the old owner's plate on the car, the plate is registered to the car, so it isn't illegal in any way/shape/form. In my understanding, he just let you take it on an extended 'test drive'.

I had heard that opens the seller up to serious liability exposure in case the buyer gets into something nasty on the way home. I've also had to report tags as lost when the buyer did not return the tag and couldn't be contacted later. So there are definite reasons why the seller might not want to do that.

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 12:14 pm

MartynWheeler wrote:

Brian Herring wrote:

With the old owner's plate on the car, the plate is registered to the car, so it isn't illegal in any way/shape/form. In my understanding, he just let you take it on an extended 'test drive'.

I had heard that opens the seller up to serious liability exposure in case the buyer gets into something nasty on the way home. I've also had to report tags as lost when the buyer did not return the tag and couldn't be contacted later. So there are definite reasons why the seller might not want to do that.

Completely understood. I do not disagree there is quite a lot of 'trust' left in the agreement. However, for some cases, you either close the gap as much as you can to limit liability, or you pay out.

In my case, if the seller would not have worked with me, I would not have bought, but that is just one consideration to keep in mind. For what it is worth, I overnighted his plates back to him

- dow

Kevin Hoff · **Posted:** Thu May 25, 2006 7:40 pm

Keith Quistorff wrote:

3. If you plan to drive the car home over a long distance, consider buying a round trip airline ticket to the nearest city. I did this with both purchases. Round trip tickets are typically no more expensive than 1-way, and they give you the option to walk if you have any significant problems with the car or purchase when you get there.

Another good reason to get a round-trip ticket is to minimize your harassment in security. Apparently all the 9/11 hijackers used one-way tickets...

(It's odd that Brian's one-way was $200 cheaper than a round trip ticket. I've rarely found cheap one-ways.)

--Kevin H.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 6:42 am

Kevin Hoff wrote:

Another good reason to get a round-trip ticket is to minimize your harassment in security. Apparently all the 9/11 hijackers used one-way tickets...

(It's odd that Brian's one-way was $200 cheaper than a round trip ticket. I've rarely found cheap one-ways.)

--Kevin H.

The one way ticket thing has always been the case. When I worked at ValuJet, traveling one way got your bags tagged with a bright orange tag. If you got on, then the bag did also. If you decided to get off, we had to pull your bag too. Those Jackholes on September 11th only made things worse.

Ron Spencer · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 8:39 am

A quick note on an earlier post on financing the car. A home equity loan would seem to make lots of sense unless...things got tough and for whatever reason you had to start missing payments. Instead of them coming to take your car its now your house that is in play.

Charlie Smith · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 10:18 am

I used an NC plate from my dad's Miata when I flew to OH to get the Type R...not sure if that is legal or not. IIRC, that is what my insurance company recommended.

Please tell me you are getting an ITR!

Charlie

Brian Herring · **Posted:** Fri May 26, 2006 3:04 pm

Charlie Smith wrote:

I used an NC plate from my dad's Miata when I flew to OH to get the Type R...not sure if that is legal or not. IIRC, that is what my insurance company recommended.

Please tell me you are getting an ITR!

Charlie

It's only bad if you get your plate ran. Then, you will get criminal charges for Grand Theft Auto, spend some time in jail, and the car will be impounded as you are driving an unregistered car, IIRC.

Not something I would suggest.

I would hope he is getting an RS so he can DD/autoX/rallyX it

- dow

BretLuter · **Posted:** Mon May 29, 2006 10:20 am

I'll admit to "skimming" over some of the longer posts, so excuse me if it's been mentioned- but it looks like none of you guys mentioned INSURANCE!!

What I've been told (by an insurance agent) is that you are better off using a plate from a car you currently have registered in NC, preferably a plate that you plan to transfer from another car to the "new" car. Call your insurance agent with the new cars' info (year, make, model, VIN, etc) and tell them what the situation is, and that you'd like them to add the car to your policy. They can do this immediately, and then you are covered in case something happens on the trip home. If the deal falls thru for whatever reason- you just call them and explain, and there should be no cost.

As for borrowing the PO's plate and relying on their goodwill- I know it's been done 1000000 times, but I would not do this as a seller simply for the liability. Say the new owner totals the car as they are pulling out of your driveway (or anywhere between the time they leave and the time they send your plate back to you)- looks like you now own a totalled car!!!

Since most folks would be picking up their car on the weekends, legit DMV temp tags are a PITA since they are closed on weekends.

Bret

Charlie Smith · **Posted:** Mon May 29, 2006 10:20 pm

Brian Herring wrote:

It's only bad if you get your plate ran. Then, you will get criminal charges for Grand Theft Auto, spend some time in jail, and the car will be impounded as you are driving an unregistered car, IIRC.

I really find it hard to believe a cop is going to arrest you for GTA once you show him the paperwork.

BretLuter wrote:

I'll admit to "skimming" over some of the longer posts, so excuse me if it's been mentioned- but it looks like none of you guys mentioned INSURANCE!!

What I've been told (by an insurance agent) is that you are better off using a plate from a car you currently have registered in NC, preferably a plate that you plan to transfer from another car to the "new" car. Call your insurance agent with the new cars' info (year, make, model, VIN, etc) and tell them what the situation is, and that you'd like them to add the car to your policy. They can do this immediately, and then you are covered in case something happens on the trip home. If the deal falls thru for whatever reason- you just call them and explain, and there should be no cost.

As for borrowing the PO's plate and relying on their goodwill- I know it's been done 1000000 times, but I would not do this as a seller simply for the liability. Say the new owner totals the car as they are pulling out of your driveway (or anywhere between the time they leave and the time they send your plate back to you)- looks like you now own a totalled car!!!

Since most folks would be picking up their car on the weekends, legit DMV temp tags are a PITA since they are closed on weekends.

Bret

I agree totally. This is the best way to handle it IMO.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Tue May 30, 2006 11:17 am

BretLuter wrote:

I'll admit to "skimming" over some of the longer posts, so excuse me if it's been mentioned- but it looks like none of you guys mentioned INSURANCE!!

What I've been told (by an insurance agent) is that you are better off using a plate from a car you currently have registered in NC, preferably a plate that you plan to transfer from another car to the "new" car. Call your insurance agent with the new cars' info (year, make, model, VIN, etc) and tell them what the situation is, and that you'd like them to add the car to your policy. They can do this immediately, and then you are covered in case something happens on the trip home. If the deal falls thru for whatever reason- you just call them and explain, and there should be no cost.

As for borrowing the PO's plate and relying on their goodwill- I know it's been done 1000000 times, but I would not do this as a seller simply for the liability. Say the new owner totals the car as they are pulling out of your driveway (or anywhere between the time they leave and the time they send your plate back to you)- looks like you now own a totalled car!!!

Since most folks would be picking up their car on the weekends, legit DMV temp tags are a PITA since they are closed on weekends.

Bret

Good points, Bret. I forgot to mention it in my already too-long post above, but in both cases when I bought a car out-of-state, before buying the cars I contacted my insurance agent to set up coverage. The insurance agency just needed the cars' VIN, and they scheduled the coverage to start the day I was scheduled to pick each car up. I definitely wouldn't consider driving a car home, especially over a long distance and/or on unfamiliar roads, without insurance coverage.

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