Hey Scotty,
Thanks for all you do.
I want to buy a used work truck from a seller outside of my home area. I know i should have the truck looked over by a mechanic. How do I do this without needing to travel back and forth too many times? Can become expensive.
Is there a service that exists where you can hire a mechanic to do the legwork?
Thank you in advance for the advice!
Howard
Whenever you're doing something like that, you would only do that in one day. If you wish to buy a car that is a far distance (100+ miles) or out of state and want to have a mechanic look it over, you have to make sure that you want the car. It's not worth having you and a mechanic both drive that long to see a car that you may or may not want.
In addition to googling in that area for specialists of the brand, I'd talk to them and ask for references... I would also prefer staying away from franchised places because they don't pay well and great mechanics don't hang around there long. A specialty shop for your brand is *usually* better. I have done something similar and found that the website and "reviews" can talk about the greatness of a mechanic, but talking to the guy indicates that he doesn't understand the basics. One guy even said that synthetic oil is fine to go over 10k between changes and that there's no need to change transmission fluid for a 2018 Rav4 because it's a sealed system (no exaggeration)! Ding, ding, ding - Mechanic eliminated!
By the way, if someone has a bunch of 5-star ratings closely bunched or immediately after a bad review, be suspicious. I've even seen employees reviewing their own company. Be suspicious of someone who has 28 reviews and a 3-star average on Yelp full of three paragraph reviews and 38 5-star reviews on Google by a bunch of 1-review people who write 4-word reviews. Detailed reviews may be boring, but they add so much insight to the reviewer and the reviewee.
I would never buy an out of state car anyway. I can always find something where I live. If I can't find it where I live, I don't want it.
I shopped online for a car in Oregon... Ended up buying in Southern California and driving it there for my daughter. The selection was thin and pricey up there. 🙂
Ive bought plenty of OoS cars
For the most part its been fairly smooth experience
In todays market its a little tricky (rolling back odo's seems almost common place today)
If you buy thru ebay u have a some assurance that u are getting a vehicle as advertised
If not, ask for a "Walk around" video (with car running and driving)
You definitively want to have pics of the underside (If rubberized undercoating is present = a bad sign)
You also want PLENTY of pictures
If you see something missing ASK!
Forum members will often help out an Out of State buy (if the car has any type of following)
I do believe there exists a buyers service (ebay?) that will do that for you
Otherwise a mechanic in the area will probably offer that service for a fee if they are not too busy
hth
