Bought A Car Online, Site Unseen.

[Skillet83]

Never thought I would have done this in a 100 years. Had been looking for a late model E-450 Coupe for the Mrs., just not much out there searching 500 miles out. Vroom had a unique color combo, low mile car that I liked (Navy exterior, damn near white interior). Remember, chick car.
Sent an email regarding vehicle, had a return phone call in 15 minutes. There was no negotiating price, price is price. I was good with price. Within about 30 minutes I had placed a deposit on car. Next day wired funds. Day after that received email with docu sign docs. Day after that, received Fed Ex with papers to sign, signed and sent back.
There is an additional $700.00 or so added for shipping and also had to pay TTL upfront, they will send tag and plates in mail. Anyway, once they received my docs via fed ex, I received a call to schedule delivery. Driver called the day before he was in town, met him the next day around the corner and took delivery. The driver was professional and courteous. Car was better than advertised.
To make a long story short, process took about a week from start to delivery, Vroom kept me in the loop daily with status update emails, very little hassle, would do again.

[unclebilly]

My first 911 (still have it) was bought this way. I bought my 2002 Indian Chief from a guy in Boston sight unseen and had it shipped home. My unimog was this way too from New York.

I only got screwed once (on the second unimog that I bought from the guy who shipped unimog #1 to me). He is doing 12.5-78 years for theft by deception now so there’s that...

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.wnep.com/amp/article/news/local/snyder-county/keiper-sentenced-in-snyder-county/523-550ab5e6-b12b-419b-9cb3-fe5a39230922

[Chocaholic]

Glad it was a good experience. If buying a late model car, ideally under warranty, I’d probably do it.

[stevej37]

No photo either?

I bought both of my 911's sight unseen.....except for photo's.
Still have both after 20 and 25 years. Excellent cars.

[HardDrive]

I bought my first 911 that way, a 1982 SC.

It worked out great. After I gave John Walker $2500 to fix all the sh(t that was wrong with it.

[fred cook]

Once! About 6-7 years ago I bought a Jaguar XJS convertible off of Ebay after only seeing some pictures. The car was in NE Alabama and we live in S. Georgia. So, not a huge trip but still a few hundred miles. We got to the location, met up with the owner, took a good look at the car and decided to go ahead and buy it. I've had to do some work to it over the years including installing a new top. Still, all in all, it has been a good purchase! Would I do it again? Dunno.

[recycled sixtie]

I take my hat off for anybody that buys a car unseen. It is s gutsy move.

[ckissick]

I bought my Tristar without seeing it in person; it was in Germany. But the seller, Lars Nuefer of Tristar Connection, had a good reputation among those in the know. It took 9 months to get delivery, since it had to sit on the dock for months waiting for an EPA inspection, and then months with the registered importer. I knew I would eventually get the car. I just had to be patient.

[Arizona_928]

I've bought a lot of vehicles that way.
Cab's 7.3 power stroke. M1038 hmmwv through govplanet and maybe 6 more trucks through the subsidiaries (which I highly do not recommend buying any vehicle through them or ritchie bro), suzuki carry from Japan that was advertised very nicely with even YouTube videos of the undercarriage.... Extreme due diligence is needed not to get burned

[red-beard]

I bought the "101 Projects 911" on Ebay from Wayne...

[Zeke]

In 2003 or so I bought a non running 71 911S 2000 miles away after seeing pics on the FS section here. I even sent a check ahead of time. I had a previously unknown guy from GA drive up to KY to pick it up and bring it to CA in exchange for a rust free 914 that I acquired in partnership with a Pelican who wanted the 2.0 engine. We paid $1000 for the 914, half each. The guy with the S showed up with my car a few days later, dropped it off, drove to Sant Monica and picked up the 914 he had never seen and headed home.

His plan was to put a V8 in the 914, Everyone was happy with no hitches or disappointments. That will NEVER happen again in this world.

[URY914]

It's like a blind date. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by URY914

It's like a blind date. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

A hellova lot more at stake than a mismatch of personalities. A huge amount of good ol' American trust that does not exist in today's world due to the intervention of scammers proliferated by an overactive Internet.

Pelican was and is for the most part, a club. Anyone can join. And anyone can be ignored. But we don't call each other trying to rob other's savings thru some scam. Those that try are quickly sussed out.

Buying a w/o a thorough investigation is surely inviting the worst outcome. You can read in the rototiller thread about somebody's grandfather putting a bit of sawdust in the gearbox before selling. That sihts been going on forever.

To add to my story, I bought the 911 on a bill of sale only with no title. I got it titled properly in CA so it must have cleared the system. I wouldn't even think about trying something like that today. I have to see the seller face to face.

As someone said, "You are buying the seller as much as you are buying the product."

[DRONE]

I bought my Factory Five Cobra that way,seller sent pictures of the car with that days newspaper in each photo I listened to the motor over the phone, I contacted other builders in the area thru the Factory Five forum asking what they thought of the quality of the build (all positive) sent half the asking price money to have it delivered from Wisconsin to California upon arrival I sent the remainder Had it for 10 years and sold it for more than I paid for it, I hear it is now in Germany

[Scott Douglas]

My son did this just recently. He'd been looking for a replacement for his Denali which was getting long in the tooth (150k+ miles) and leaking oil. It wasn't going to work for hauling his soon to be twin boys since it had capt's chairs in the second row. My granddaughter suffers from car sickness so putting her in the third seat wasn't going to work.
He had an alert working on cars he was interested in pop up and he jumped on this one when it came up.



He's an engineer and so is his wife so all the tech contained in the car doesn't really scare him. He said he spent about 20 minutes on the phone total buying it.
He got a warranty thru 2025 on it too. Has a baseball glove like interior which he really likes being an ex-ball player.
I can tell you it's not your run of the mill baby hauler.
They drove the car to his house and drove his Denali back to the dealership as he'd traded it in.

[LakeCleElum]

It's a roll of the dice.

I've bought 4 motorcycles long distance w/o viewing. 3 good, one bad.

One of those, the owner trailered it from Chicago to Seattle area at no cost only because he wanted to take a vacation out this way. He even had to buy the trailer for the trip. Would only let me buy him dinner and put them up one night. That was good.

Another good was when I flew to New Orleans and bought a year old bike from a Catholic Priest. Still have it 16 years later with 154,000 miles.

The bad, I paid to have shipped from Fla......It was obviously assembled out of mismatched parts and smokes like a crop duster airplane.
I

[stealthn]

I bought my Cayman the same way (before all the car apps), Florida to Calgary, but I did get a PPI at the local Porsche dealer in FLA.

[NutmegCarrera]

I bought my 996 from a PCA member in LA.
I live in Wisconsin, so an in person meeting would be tough.
The car was extremely low miles and well presented. I spent some time on the phone with the seller - which I think is an extremely helpful way to screen a seller.
Of course, I’m from Wisconsin, and we can be somewhat trusting.

The car was listed on the PCA site - which is also a positive. Don’t think I would have done the same thing with a Craigslist car.

I’m very happy with the car.

The ‘85 that I sold was TO a buyer from LA. I had a number of text and email offers prior to him. Had a guy drive down from Minneapolis (6 hour drive) to look it over - he declined.
The guy who bought my car came in (with TWO buddies) to look it over, and drive it back to LA.
They took a red eye, closed a bar in Milwaukee. I picked them up bright & early the next morning, and off they went.

He converted the car into a safari and later sold it on BAT for big $$$. Good for him.

[RNajarian]

You are one brave dude. That would have made me very nervous.

I would not have a hesitation buying from a long time Pelican, but a Newbie with 2 posts . . . no thanks .

[porsche tech]

I always thought I could never buy anything sight unseen then we bought our retirement house that way! A considerable distance out of my comfort zone as I analyze everything to death. The market in 2005 was similar to today so we had to act based on pictures. We saw it a week later and loved it. Rented it out long term until 2012 then retired and moved into it full time. Sometimes you just have to roll the dice.