So I can't find a decent third gen near me and am considering having one shipped. Have any of you used a shipping service that you were happy with? Also how did you do the title situation? Assuming I will not be going to look at the car, how did you pay and handle the title situation so that everyone involved felt good about it? Sorry if this isn't the right forum didn't know where else to post it at.

 

I live in Canada, where F bodies are horribly overpriced. So I bought one from California and had it shipped by Dependable Auto Shippers to Detroit where I picked it up.

After convincing myself that the car was good, I wrote up a bill of sale that both parties signed. I used that agreement as a basis for the current owner to mail me the title. When I recieved it, I had the money wired to his bank. Then he shipped the car - I made all the arangements, he just had to drop it off at the shipper's yard.

It took about 3 weeks from the time I sent him the money until I actually saw the car. The waiting was a little hard on the nerves, but it turned out the car was as good as I expected.

The key in a long distance deal is checking out the car's history matches the owner's story, and tons of high resolution close-up pics.

 

If it's worth the money to ship it, it's worth a plane ticket to see it.

I had the guy I bought my car from (TGO member, great guy) meet me halfway, driving it. If the owner trusts the car for a road trip, you usually can too. My 2 states away RS did around 12 hours of road tripping the day I brought it home. If its too far away thats obviously not possible, but if you can arrange that it will help your nerves and make the seller less likely to BS you on it.

The key is the bill of sale, it needs to spell out all the important issues and quibbles and conditions, sign it, notarize it, send it back. From there you are both bound by that contract. He has to meet his obligations and you have to meet yours. If its well done you should both be able to protect your own interests fairly.

We set it up with a bill of sale explaining that I paid half before, and half when I met him to get the car. You can ask that the bill of sale stipulate that the car is delivered in some sort of reasonable condition of your definition, etc. I inspected the car, made sure everything was kosher (check for painted over vin numbers and other such oddities), we both went on our merry ways. Our bill of sale actually had me cover gas on the car itself for the first half of the trip to meet me, though he changed his mind and told me not to worry about it when I actually met him to get the car.

Some people may be less agreeable, who knows. Just know that when it comes to buying something this expensive over the internet, if you're not comfortable, bail on it. Dont tolerate red flags.