[Big Dave 928]

I bought out of state. I live in Northern California and alot of the cars in this area are higher mileage cars because of the great weather and roads. I was looking for a low mileage car and found one in Texas on the Rennlist classifieds.

If you find an out of state car and you need a PPI done there, ask this board for recommendations for a good shop in the car's area--that's how I found Jones Autowerks in San Antonio. They were great and I bought the car unseen with their recommendation.

It cost me $1200 to ship the car in a covered truck the 1900 miles from Texas. If I had gone with an uncovered truck, it would have been around $600-$800 depending on the carrier. I used a covered truck because between adding mileage to the car, road damage, time spent, and one way airfare to Texas I figured it was worth it for a low mileage near perfect car to arrive in the condition it left Texas in.

Be careful with the cheaper uncovered carriers. Be sure to find out EXACTLY how long its going to take to get the car to you once they pick it up. I've heard stories of "warehousing" the car that resulted in parts being swapped from your car. "Warehousing" means that they drop your car at their warehouse for a day or two and then another truck going your way picks it up. Light fingered warehouse workers get busy with your car and stuff gets swapped or stolen.

Bottom line--find a good shop to do the PPI and they'll make your life a whole lot easier.

Also--when it comes time to hand over the cash for the car, ask the PPI shop to act as the intermediary and hold the cash for you. You send them the cashiers check, the owner drops the car off at the shop, and after a quick final inspection they hand over the check to the now previous owner after he signs all the paperwork over to you. The shop sends you the paperwork in the mail and the truck picks up your car at the shop and you're done. Worked great for me.

Happy hunting.