Those of you who have purchased a used Crossfire from an Internet site (dealership, eBay, whatever) without having physically inspected the car...

How did it work out? Any pointers? Do you recommend CarChex?

Any bad experiences? Any dealers or shippers you'd recommend, or recommend to stay away from?

Buying a used car without a test drive and personal inspection: it's not something I'd prefer to do. But local price and local availability are poor. I'll have no real chance to travel in the near future, so if I enter the market I'm forced to consider buying a used car without looking at it.

Your experience is appreciated in advance.

- WingMan

 

Its quite a risk for the investment man. Might not be worth it.

 

I bought a bunch of cars in the last 18 months and found that Ebay cars were better than dealer cars. It seems that the Ebay sellers are worried about their feedback while dealers will tell you the car is absolutely pristine and then you go and see a rough dirty car that smells like cigarettes. The best cars are Ebay cars that are in your area that you can go see. If they are far away I would pay a service to inspect it. All cars look great in photos. Tons of swirl marks and paint chips just don't show up in pictures. Carfax is also critical IMO. One owner cars are generally better kept than multiple owner cars. When looking at photos, see if they show you a good photo of the left bolster on the drivers seat. This spot wears more than any other area of the interior and many sellers try not to photograph this area. Look for photos that show the length of the car for door dings and close up of the lower front bumper. The lower front bumper will have most of the paint chips. Hope this helps.

 

you're in CA, where's the one you're looking at?

 

Where is the car. Maybe one of us can go look at it for you. I wouldn't mind if it is in Dallas. I wil be in Denver tomorrow on business with a few extra hours to burn.

 

Search ebay; Autotrader and cars.com - looking for a roadster with either the vanilla or cedar interior, exterior could be black, graphite or silver. Found 4 that met the criteria in June of this year, Worked with 3 dealers and ended up buying my graphite roadster from a dealer in Toledo, Ohio. Only talked to the salesman; Gen Mng - who quit during the process - and the finance guy over the phone. We agreed on price, they FedEx'd me the paper work, I agreed to met the salesman in Youngstown OH (325 miles for me). We met in a Marriott parking lot - I gave him the keys to my the Jeep Liberty I leased for my sons' college car, signed the paperwork and we went our separate ways. I never saw the car till that day, only issue with the dealer is he misrepresented the condition of the tires, but did say they were original (28,000 Mile) - so from reading this forum I knew they had to be shot. - They were total shot.
Have no regrets, play golf with the guy that now owns the Chrysler dealer in town, had his staff look the car over - they found nothing wrong.
Not sure I would do it again - but this did seem to work out ok.

 

As mentioned,

If the car is nearby - I'd be willing to look it over.

I found several flaws with 'new' SRT's at Bonham Chrysler. All of the flaws were minor and quite easily repairable (minor scuffs, dings, scratches, rusted bolts under the hood, window left down allowing dust and rain inside, flat spotted tires, etc.).

I ended up with the best one on the lot with the color combo I wanted. Luckily it only had a few minor scuffs that will easily polish out, and a little bit of shipping tape/wrap residue.

HOWEVER, the salesman said all of the cars were new so they were perfect. Had I purchased one, sight unseen, and had it shipped...I would've been bummed to know there were a few nicks/dings on a 'new' car, or the tires sat with no air in them for 3 months, etc.

With that said - if the price is very 'right', you can't go wrong on a car that is well presented online. Just make sure there is some sort of satisfaction guarantee.

SQ

 

I purchased a BMW M Roadster on Ebay and it was actually the easiest car buying experience I had ever had. I was totally skeptical. I flew one way to San Francisco from L.A. and the guy picked me up from the airport. Waiting for him to pick me up was scary, but it really worked out and he gave me the opportunity to back out of the sale if I wanted due to his fear of negative feedback. I would actually recommend this over dealing with a dealer in person as long as there is some kind of satisfaction agreement and you being able to back out if the car was not represented accurately.

 

I purchased a BMW M Roadster on Ebay and it was actually the easiest car buying experience I had ever had. I was totally skeptical. I flew one way to San Francisco from L.A. and the guy picked me up from the airport. Waiting for him to pick me up was scary, but it really worked out and he gave me the opportunity to back out of the sale if I wanted due to his fear of negative feedback. I would actually recommend this over dealing with a dealer in person as long as there is some kind of satisfaction agreement and you being able to back out if the car was not represented accurately.

btw, my crossfire gets so much more attention and compliments than a silly bmw...

 

Thanks for the speedy replies, and especially thanks for those who offered to check out a car. I've seen a few dealers mentioned repeatedly in these threads (Bonham in Tx., Ahl in Ohio, others). I'm just scanning their sites, and eBay, right now to find the "right" car, so no specifics yet.

Gotta say, this is one incredible forum.

 

WingMan -
I bought my Xfire sight unseen from a dealer in Minnesota.
I paid for a Carchex inspection ($99.95 at the time - 155 pt inspection). Had the results emailed to me on the day of the inspection. Also got a Carfax report (which you can get on your own, through the dealer, or through Carchex).
Paid to have it shipped to my door.
Everything worked out well.
If you can get a forum member to check it out and drive it, etc. - that would be great. If you can't, I would recommend Carchex.
Good luck.

 

Please read my story? It might help.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=18139

 

Are you after an SRT or a limited/base model?

Bonham had more XFires than I have ever seen on a lot, and at least 30 SRT's...

But, some of them had minor imperfections (I should've noted the ones and posted them on the board).

There was nothing majorly wrong with any of them, just a little ding here or there. I worked in a bodyshop for a few years, so the slightest ding, dent, wave, ripple, or scratch always catches my eye. I feel like an idiot laying on the ground to get the right sunlight angle when looking for dents.


SQ

 

I bought my SRT6 two years ago off ebay. Dealer was in
North Dakota, I'm in AZ. I bought site unseen, but did car fax
and had a service look at the car... It was stressful. Car had
1,200 miles and paid $17K below MSRP... Everything worked
out fine. One issues was they had changed tires, had PS2's on
front and conti's on back. The conti's were in bad shape.
Dealer sent me check for two new PS2's.. As stated above,
they want to protect there reputation.