Buying a used car

[kunkstyle]

I'm looking at buying a used car from the US in the next month. It's a private sale but it's about 3000 km from where I live. Has anybody here done this before? Do I have any protection if I leave the guy a deposit before I pick it up? Any help or tips would be appreciated. I've only bought used cars locally before.

[lovemyraffe]

My brother bought a car off e-bay 2 years ago and that went ok, but also had e-bay backing it. It seems kinda funny to me to pay for a car without actually seeing it.

[WaveAction]

funny story.my buddy from work happened to find a mint condition truck that he really wanted to buy, only thing is, it was in cali.so eventually he did go down, he flew down from Hamilton to cali, and bought the truck and a trailer that came with it(he's a race car driver so wanted a trailer to haul the car and stuff). after leaving cali he went through arizona and was gonna buy yet another truck to bring back aswell, well the original truck he bought from cali died on him and there was a few things wrong and it woulda cost him quite a bit to pay for..so all in all, he left both trucks and the trailer in arizona someplace and flew back home..so he lost about $4000 over nothing..just make sure when/if you do see this car, take it out on an extended road test, like city driving and highway driving. he never did this and got screwed over cause of it.

[chevelle_lover]

I have not bought any cars that would be suitable for the road. They were both parts cars and when we brought them through customs that is what they were labelled as and the VIN was basically listed as perminantly unfit for the road. Check with customs I think that all you have to do is the applicable taxes and safety it for the Canadian roads.

[kunkstyle]

Yeah, the importing seems fairly easy, the only thing is I'll have to be down there for 72 hours before I can bring it up here. It's more the long distance purchase that concerns me.