Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion General Discussion questions about buying vehicle from out of state

I never did before. any recommendations on reliable shipping company for a van? are there additional costs other than shipping such as taxes of the sale? any suggestions or help? thanks

https://www.uship.com

I hope the van is outstanding, because shipping one sight unseen is a little risque (I've done it 1.5 times and will never try it again)

Did the sight-unseen purchase this year. From a member here as well. Got lied to and cheated. Make sure you either go through the vehicle yourself or hire an auto technician to check it out. Money well spent.
Check with the DMV in your state and the state you're purchasing in. Taxes and transfer fees differ by state. Hope it works out for you.

I would never buy sight unseen. Good luck to you.

Have van already, or not yet. If you need to ship, you can get a broker onlne. They match load to a hauler, and you pay a fee for their service. Basically a loadboard service. Hauler will show up and load up. I got hooked up to a guy who happened to live in Texas,, on the way to my home here, so he was glad to haul my Van, and I was glad to meet him as well. Dropped off the Van here, COD. and a good time was had by all.

The rules say vehicle has to be empty, but your
experience may vary. My guy was a quality individual, who runs two trucks. One under 25K, one over. Both Dodge Cummins. Picked mine up with the small 😆 rig, 3 car tripple axle Gooseneck trailer.

Cost? I'd say 1$ a mile or under. per mile total is a good ballpark. Hope you find what you are looking for.
And

I bought a 9 year old car sight unseen and it worked out great. Bought it from a used dealer and they had a shipper they worked with, carried it down here from VA for $500. I would be skeptical anything older than that. If you really want it, flights are super cheap right now, maybe take off work and risk the covid. Or, I wonder if you can find someone local to get eyes on it for you.

There are inspection companies you can hire.
https://www.carchex.com/vehicle-inspections/
https://lemonsquad.com/

I bought my '92 by only pictures from a dealer in Cedar Rapids .... I live in San Diego.

Flew there for $300 and spent 350 bringing it home ... way less than what a truck was going to charge me. $1600 for a 2200 mile trip.

I would definitely have an inspection company do the 1st look and then fly out like frscke1 did for an out of state Van. You can also do a shout out to fellow Vanners. Someone may live close by and check it out or have a trusted Vanner friend do the same.

Mr Lee did me a solid way back and did me right by checking out a Van that was about 20 minutes from his place and Howard did a great inspection for me on a 1973' I came so close to buying in Illinois. I was so very lucky to find my 1974 G10 a little less than 3 hours from home.