Mslone

I'm getting ready to purchase a vette and wanted to ask the folks with experience buying cars long distance how you hande the payment.

Do you pay for the car all up front? and then hope the guy sends the car or do you pay a portion of the car and then the rest once the car is delivered? I imagine that doesn't fly with the dealers...

Has anyone had issues with paying for a car and never seeing it?

any guidance would be great!

Michael

PRNDL

Dealer or individual?
Never buy a car without inspecting it first.
Don't believe anything they tell you, dealer or individual.
There are many many scammers out there that will take your money and deliver no car.
Once you address these very very basic issues, we can discuss payment methods.

LGHTSPD

My Corvette was bought long distance from an individual. After all of the due diligence stuff was taken care of, it all came down to trust. Our agreement was that I would wire the full payment to his bank and he would FedEx the title to me when his bank confirmed receipt of payment. We were both true to our word and the deal went through perfectly.

I know that there are scammers out there but there are also still good people whose word can be trusted. You must feel comfortable with the person that you're dealing with and the car you're considering buying. Wishing you the best with your deal.

Mike

Pusher

I do a lot of car deals, actually so many that the state made me get a dealers license. I've always flown out to do the deal and then either ship the car or drive it. A plane ticket is a small price for piece of mind. Where is the car located? If it's in my area I'd be willing to help as I'm sure other members would also.

HamadUP

I just bought my vette from a guy here in this forum. Things went very smooth for both of us. I asked Ken from The Vette Net to help me handle all the inspection/paper work/fund transfer/ and finally shipping the car to me.

It went like that, I called the seller and asked him for some details and pics, then I negotiated the final price, then I told him that all pending the final results of the inspection to finish the deal, I called Ken and provide him all the info about the car and pretty much he did everything else to me, for a very reasonable charge.

I really recommend you to contact Ken from The Vette Net, he is a very nice guy, and he is very professional as well. The seller was also a very nice and honest guy, maybe I was just lucky!

Like everybody else here, DONT send your money to anywhere outside your country unless you know to whom you were dealing, for my case, The Vette Net was a supporting vendor for CF and that was enough for me to trust them.

Good luck for your purchase.

Happy New Year for all.

Hamad

brdd

I bought both my corvettes out of state. One I sent $1000 deposit and the other I paid in full, both to dealers. Both had minor disclosure issues but nothing huge. Typical car dealer BS. Would I do it again? Yes. Was I lucky? Yes. Is it a risk? Yes.

Try to have a forum brother check out your prospective purchase....

Tim81

I bought my car from a guy in Georgia. "I live in Ohio". We first decided on a deal and we met each other at a half way point for both of us. He was honest about the condition of the car and after I looked it over we went to the bank and completed the transaction. Went really nice. Tim

Midwest Muscle

EXACTLY! You have to trust your gut, and a couple of decades of experience isn't a bad thing either. I've bought about $100K worth of cars in 2006 sight unseen, sent all the money, and the cars arrived just as advertised. I ask VERY specific questions though, not the "what condition is it in" general stuff.

I've sold over $170K worth of vehicles this year, most of which were also sight unseen. Not a single one left until I had 100% of the money. And every transaction resulted in a happy buyer that said it was good to find someone that was honest to a fault.

Yeah, there's scammers - Your gut (if you listen to it!) will alert you.

Mike M

capevettes

I always fly out or drive a rental car to inspect the car. Pay for it in person and take possession of the car and either drive it home or arrange reliable shipping. I have two rules:

1. Don't buy a car without inspecting it
2. Don't send money to someone you really don't know.

Good luck

WESCH

Hi

Never sent high amounts of money b4 hand.

I sold my 68 Vette from Luxembourg to Sweden and the seller didn't want to bring this high amount of money along when picking up the car.
He inspected the car, we went to my bank and he called his bank from there and did the transaction. The Swedish bank than sent a fax to my bank with the transaction confirmation and all was fine.
I did not accept a check, not even a bankal one because those take a few days to confirm.
I had plenty of ( I suspect ) scam offers of all kind including the tricks with sending checks with more money as I asked or so called Western Union transactions and more. There are many, many ***...les around trying to steel either your money or your car.
I asked the seller on the end if he felt humble about me not accepting his checks and he confirmed that trust is just not good enough for this amounts of money. I also offered him to sent me his money before he came over in order for me to see the money and also get all aperwork cleared for the export of this car. He also didn't trust me, so we both where cautious.
I think for onnest sellers/buyers, it is normal to be cautious and not too trusty and both parties will understand this. Only scammers get pi..d off about this.

Good luck. Günther