There’s a saying that ‘there’s a butt for every seat’ or something along those lines. Every car has at least one person who is madly in love with it, and that person may be willing to travel long and far to get that vehicle. How far would you travel to buy the right car? What travel antics would you go through for your unicorn?
One of the worst parts about living in the Midwest is that everything corrodes. Even brands known for longevity like Toyota cannot beat ol’ rust. This sucks for car enthusiasts because fan-favorite cars like Mazda Miatas and BMW E39 5 Series cars begin rotting out before you can get to them.
You’re left with two options: You can repair the rust or fly to a part of America that doesn’t know what snow is.
I’ve frequently chosen the latter option. I don’t mind buying beaters and daily drivers from the Midwest, but my forever cars come from the South and the West Coast. Most recently, I flew 1,200 miles south between hurricanes to buy a 2009 Smart Fortwo Passion Cabriolet. I then drove the car back home in the road trip of my dreams.
In 2021, Sheryl and I drove 1,200 south into Texas so I could buy my 2002 Nova Bus RTS-06. We then turned around and drove the bus and her car 1,200 miles back home.
Perhaps my most ambitious car purchasing trip thus far was when I flew out to Los Angeles, bought a brand new 2016 Smart Fortwo Edition #1, and then drove that back to my home in Illinois. It was a 2,200-mile trip that was supposed to take 31 hours. I cannonballed it in 36 hours, which is accounting for all fuel stops and even a nap.
That trip was rivaled only by the trip I took to pick up my Honda Best. I drove 2,200 miles to pick up the car before turning around and driving 2,200 miles back home. I’m not sure I have a limit to how far I’ll go for a cool car.
I don’t think I’m done yet. Next year, I want to fly out to Europe to drive an Audi A2 and perhaps some of the other cars I want to import.
What about you? How far and just how adventurous are you willing to go to get a sweet ride?
Flew from Connecticut to LA, picked up an 05 Volvo V70R, then spent five days driving it home.
I search nationally and look for the cleanest example I can that is closest.
For both of our current daily drivers were fly & drive.
In the now ‘older’ one, 2012 Prius Plug-In, it came from OH and was an 800 mile trip back.
The ‘newer’ one is a 2017 Prius Prime (also PHEV), I found it in KY and drove it home, also about 800 miles.
1x I also had a car ‘shipped’ about 6 hrs. bc it ended up being cheaper than driving w/empty trailer + loaded trailer back.
As far as tips for buying at a fair distance, it is a lot of what I recommend for buying closer to home.
1. Check out the seller as best you can. This is a lot easier if the seller is a dealer. I steer clear of dealers that have a bad reputation or lots of online comments about unethical or shady sounding practices, like running your credit w/o applying for a loan, holding your keys, etc…
2. Lots of great pics of the vehicle online or not.
3. Finding option b and c close(ish) to the fly in location
4. Use a certified check from a local bank.
5. Travel pricing, check out both pricing on 1 way and round trip flights. 1st time I flew and drove round trip tickets were cheaper, 2nd time 1 way tickets were cheaper
#2 “option b & c” are about what.is my fall back 3nd and 3rd car choice in the area I’m flying in to, if my option 1 doesn’t work out.
The 2nd time I flew and drove my option #1 was sold just before I got there, so I ended up renting a car and driving 2 hrs. (Early morning the next day) to my 2nd option, which I already had set up an appointment to see before I flew in in case option #1 didn’t work out (which it didn’t in this case)
Oh and have a ppi completed, or at least take it to an independent professional mechanic to inspect it, if it is expected to be a dd or you expect it to run & drive.
IMHO it is important to have the ppi conducted by an independent 3rd party that has zero vested/financial interest in the transaction. So someone thet is not you or a mechanic that works in the service dept. of the dealership from whom you are buying (if buying from a dealer).
I am in the interesting position where the whole country is basically a line, and all the good cars are far away. Also, EVERYTHING rusts. I looked at cars all over the country, but I guess the only ones realistically were ~4 hours away. Anyway, in the end I bought my first car from under 10 minutes away on foot. Not too bad for a car that is basically unique here, even though it doesn’t start.
I’ve taken the monorail to get cars from Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and by gum I’ve put them on the map!
I’ve always gotten cars locally, but would not be averse to go anywhere in the country to get one
These cars you guys travel to buy …. do you purchase ahead of time? haggle when you get there? take them to a mechanic ????
Short answer: yes
Longer amswer… (note I replied to myself above with a few other tips that are unique to flying / driving.
Though I don’t consider having a PPI completed to necessarily unique to a fly/drive scenario, though it is practically speaking a bit more immediately important to help reduce the risks towards a successful drive back home.
“have a ppi completed, or at least take it to an independent professional mechanic to inspect it, if it is expected to be a dd or you expect it to run & drive.
IMHO it is important to have the ppi conducted by an independent 3rd party that has zero vested/financial interest in the transaction. So someone thet is not you or a mechanic that works in the service dept. of the dealership from whom you are buying (if buying from a dealer)”
I will drive till I hit ocean for the right car. However…
The definition of “right” is not static. It is a slider that ranges between “eh, maybe” and “OMG YEEEEEESSSSS!!!” and the position varies asymptotically with distance. The slider value encodes the aggregate of purchase price, level of my desire for the model, cost of rehabilitation in time and money, likelihood of catastrophic failure in light of age/history, and availability of parts.
Maybe 200 miles for an everyday driver, but for a “Toy”, anywhere in the lower 48. Driving it home would be a great way to get acclimated with it.
’95 purple (horizon grey) civic sedan 191 miles away. It was overheating and an auto but I fell in love with the craigslist photos and $2,000 was right around what I could afford. U-haul in my town doesn’t rent pickups so a reservation was made in the seller’s neighborhood for a truck & trailer, plus they were open on Sunday.
They day started super early. Drove out to the car, drooled a little and didn’t haggle about the price. Got the u-haul stuff and went home. Turned around and went back empty. Fast too, as the u-haul guy said I had to be back by 7. 6:50 something and I made it! Drove home in my own car.
Put just under 400 miles on the u-haul. I didn’t think $267 was that bad. 780 miles total that Day. A few hundred into the eg and now, a year and a half later, it’s still being daily driven to work.
Would love to get another and travel even further, but the decent civics are now on the auction sites. C&B got an auto sedan in boring white now. C’m on Doug! What about us peasants!
Question… how do you gals & guys drive a car home from out of state? Here I need to bring the title in to the local county office for plates; and the state gives you one day to drive w/ no tags.
Certainly if you buy a car from a dealer (in or out of state) you’ll get an official temporary paper tag that is usually wrapped in plastic for a bit of weather protection that is usually taped to the inside of your rear window or fits nicely where the rear plate would go.
For the car I recently flew/drive from KY, the temp. plate permitted me to be legal for uo to 60 days until I got a real license plate from my state.
In my case it too 3 full weeks to get the title from the dealer, which if you are paying cash is a mistake, you should really not leave the dealership without the title. In my case I bought the car on a holiday and therefore their title person was not in the office and I couldn’t get a cashiers check made for the dealership bc it was a bank holiday too. So I put the max amount the dealer would allow down on a credit card and wired the dealer the remaining balance of the purchase price the next day.
I contacted my state dmv as soon as I got the car home confirmed I.had purchases a car from out of state, gave them the details of the dealer from whom I bought from as well as the vehicle make/model/Vin so they could get the ppwk started to get it registered. The title was mailed directly to my local(ish) dmv location and as soon as it arrived the dmv person I had been talking with let me know and I made an appt. To stopped at the dmv to get the plates.
Living in Austin, I’ve bought cars from Minneapolis, Tacoma, and Phoenix.
Farthest I’ve gone was Ann Arbor to about an hour south of Indianapolis.
That was for a Diesel manual wagon (Jetta). Really loved the car but the buyback was too good to pass up and my driving pattern is pretty much optimized to make these VWs pollute to the max.
Black, not brown (yuck).
I have flown across the country several times for a cool car. Being in Phoenix, AZ, I’ve bought more cars from LA than I can count, so I don’t even really count those as going out of my way tbh. I’ve got three fairly major trips I’ve done:
Fly to get the car, then drive it home 🙂
For something special – Lower 48
For something unusual – 500 mile radius
For something common – In State
For something common but old – In State preferred, out of state rust free
Just under 500mi based on my last purchase, but my search area was wider than that.
Just picked up the new ride 300 miles away and drove it home that day. These comments and your stories make me feel sane…
I’ve gone 1800 miles to Florida and back from Texas for the right car.
Flew as a family from Paris to Dusseldorf to pick a car after moving to the Paris suburbs, an used Audi A2 S-line with working OpenSky.
Then when we needed a bigger car for family adventures we flew together to Zurich to pick up a used Opel Zafira OPC.
I asked my wife where should we look next time we are thinking about changing cars and she suggested maybe Italy!
Why be simple and buy a car right here in France? Besides, it gives us an excuse for a long weekend family visit to an undiscovered city followed by a road trip!
Denver to Detroit for my ’05 GTO. It was definitely the right decision.
Lets see… I’ve flown the following to get cars:
The drive back from Denver was the only one of those that was a chore, and honestly if I were a bit older/not broke I would have made a better trip out of it instead of a 20 hour marathon back to the house.