Opinions wanted: Purchasing a car online

[Def]

I'm starting to really look for an E36 M3, and some cars for sale online are looking really nice.

My options if I decide to go with a car like that would be:

1. Purchase a round trip plane ticket just to check the car out, test drive and take it into a local BMW dealership for a checkout. Then I would have to buy a 1 way ticket to drive the car back.

2. Get a local 3rd party(I guess a willing volunteer from a forum), to check out the car and then tell me what condition they thought it was in. I'd be pretty weary of this one, but it saves me the risk of potentially wasting money by buying a plane ticket and getting the car checked out.


If anybody has actually purchased a car online, I'd be interested to hear your experiences.

Thanks guys.

[Tom Sederburg]

Hi Def,

I've bought my last 3 cars off autotrader.com (they are listed in my sig) (2 in flordia and one in cali.) The best way to do it is to just fly out there and check it out for yourself. Plane tickets are mad cheap and if you are a busy person the drive back home is kind of like a mini vacation. :)

I did #2 for someone on this forum b4 and I guess he was satisfied. The car i question was in less than fantastic condition and I guess I save him a trip and some dissappointment, but IMO its always best to check the car out firsthand.

Regards,
Tom

[ajsapp]

Bought my M3 on line (AutoTrader) 5 months ago.
First ran the serial thru CarFax, second,had seller take car to BMW dealer and I paid dealer to inspect and fax results directly to me ...$90...Then negotiated price based on results..Drove to see it in person...( had used 200 mile radius max in selecting cars to choose from).. liked what saw,then trained to DC and picked it up. Sems like a lot of work looking back.. I got a great new toy and saved a bunch over retail prices I had run into....
I'd do it again in a heart beat...
Just one happy man's opinion...

[Stockman]

You can pay car inspection companies to check out the car before you buy

they usually range from 80-150 dollars..
they go out and spend about an hour checking the car out.. they are fairly extensive from my experiences