Has anyone here bought a car out of state recently and had it shipped? I was wondering if anyone could provide any insight into any good shippers which offer the best prices on shipping cars. I'm also looking for a 3rd party to inspect the vehicle on my behalf and didnt know if anyone knew of any good companies which provide those services.

8/15/2011 9:56:45 PM

Car shipping can be a pain in the ass. I've done it before with no problems, and I've had it where I waited a month to ship the damn thing before giving up and just flying down to pick up the car and drive it home.

When you sign up to ship a car, you aren't negotiating directly with a shipping company. You are essentially going through a broker to make a bid to all the shipping companies. The offers the brokers give to you represent what they think that they can successfully get a shipper to move your car for you and still have some money left over for their cut.

If no shipper accepts your bid, they might increase their bidded amount a little (i.e., at the expense of their cut) to get it shipped. In my experience, though, they'll sacrifice $50 or a little more, to get it shipped, but if that doesn't work, they'll demand that you pony up some more money. What you'll run into are companies (brokers, not shippers) that will bait you with a very attractive price to get you to contract through them, but you will never actually get the car shipped for that.

It's a really stupid system, and completely unnecessary in the internet age. It's a fucking mafia.

8/15/2011 11:50:48 PM

eBay is the dumping grounds for private party sales of cars with slipping transmissions, howling rear ends, bent valves, and recurring electrical gremlins. It may actually be worse than the dealer auctions. Consider yourself warned.

[Edited on August 16, 2011 at 12:09 AM. Reason : s]

8/16/2011 12:09:27 AM

^I bought 3 cars on ebay (three M3s) and never had any problems. A car that's arguably more abused than an average car. I don't think you really generalize ebay any more than you can autotrader/craigslist ...whatever.

8/16/2011 1:13:04 AM

I bought a truck on ebay, flew to orlando and drove it back.

8/17/2011 11:26:08 AM

I bought my cherokee on ebay... flew there and drove it home.

No problems.

8/17/2011 11:31:52 AM

Congrats?

I never said every car on eBay was a wreck, but I have personally heard so many stories about people getting some poorly repaired junk or something with cleverly hidden major issues that I'd have to get an insanely good deal to justify buying site unseen. Saving $1k or so wouldn't justify the risk IMO.

8/17/2011 11:52:20 AM

I think that's the case any time you're buying a car sight unseen.

I bought my z06 on eBay...flew to FL and drove it back. I actually bought it while stuck in a transient tent in kyrgyzstan, haha. I only bought it because I got such a good deal that I could have had the engine or trans rebuilt and still been ok.

8/17/2011 11:59:40 AM

^ I think you just said it. If the price is good enough that you can drop a few grand on repairs and still break even then go for it. Just consider it a fair warning that there is a pretty good chance you'll end up paying close to retail for it if things don't go the way you're expecting. I know that can always happen with a local car, but I think it's far more prevalent on sites such as eBay. The old adage "if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't" comes to mind.

Most of us TWW garagers have sold plenty of cars in the past....What would drive you to pay money out of your pocket to put it on eBay and sell it for a few grand less than you could get locally on Craigslist?

[Edited on August 17, 2011 at 2:11 PM. Reason : s]

8/17/2011 2:09:59 PM

Quote :

"What would drive you to pay money out of your pocket to put it on eBay and sell it for a few grand less than you could get locally on Craigslist? "

eBay can make sense for some really niche market stuff where you need to reach a broad audience to find that needle in a haystack buyer, and that buyer is willing to search far and wide for some weird shit that he isn't likely to find across town. I sold either my turbo Miata or my supercharged S2000 on eBay...can't remember which one. I think it was the Miata. Oddball racecars, kit-car Sevens, maybe some rare and/or antique stuff...eBay can be a viable forum for things like that.

I think maybe wholesalers who are looking to move shitloads of volume at small margins can do well on eBay, too. Come to think of it, I bought my Evo IX on eBay, too, from a used car dealer in GA who primarily dealt in high performance/rare/specialty/very high end stuff. It was 1 year old with a clean title, a factory warranty, and something like 7000 miles...I got that one for a steal, too, and wasn't worried about getting burned on it.

8/17/2011 7:07:35 PM

Quote :

"What would drive you to pay money out of your pocket to put it on eBay"

eBay Motors gets over 13 MILLION independent hits every MONTH. It is a fantastic way to get exposure well beyond the range of a local craigslist or even auto trader. Have you sold cars on eBay? Have you bought cars on eBay? You are way off base.

8/18/2011 2:45:16 AM