Buying used from Florida. Bad idea?

Theres a dealership in Florida called Driving Emotions. They always seem to have a nice collection of cars for sale at any given time. Found a car I really like in their inventory but starting having reservations about getting the car since it's in Florida.

With no real basis to this, I've always been told to never buy a car from Florida because of flood damages cars being easily sold there.

Now i know nothing about this dealer and what standards they keep, and I've learned in life that even the most high end appearing places still may try to scam a customer when the opportunity arises.

Wondering if anyone here has had experiences with this place or had thoughts on the whole "don't buy a car from Florida" thing?

I'm in California and due to work/life I can't fly out to see the car before I buy. I know I know, stupid. But that is the state of life right now. Busy busy.

 

I have bought two Ferrari’s from them in the last two years. They are extremely reputable with over 20 years in the business. I know many people who have bought from them and have never heard anyone speak badly of them. I would recommend them without reservation.

 

The fact that the Ferrari is being sold in Florida (or Utah, or Kansas) doesn't mean it was or wasn't flooded in Houston, New Orleans, or Boston.

I've read that line about Florida cars before, but it's simply too easy to ship a car from Florida to some other state and sell it there.

So base your purchase decision on the particular car, not the state where it's being sold.

 

always strike me as a little strange so many exotics available in FL. Must be something in the water in Miami making everyone buy nice cars

 

PPI is a must in all circumstances.

 

lots of money from all over the world flocks to Florida, and warm weather year round. makes sense to me.

 

I agree with PPI Joe. There are good and bad cars all over even in CA. I think the key is to gain all the info you can about a car and that includes a PPI

Mel

 

No way in hell would I buy from one of those places without my own eyes on the car first. Learned my lesson... and fortunately it only cost me the price of a PPI. Total POS the car was. The second time I tried "one of those places", the car was completely misrepresented... even worse than a POS it turned out to be. The third time I looked at "one of those places" was on behalf of someone who was interested in a yellow F355 Spider. The car should have been a "for parts only" deal. While I took a bunch of photos showing the car's discrepancies the interested buyer bought the car anyway, at near top dollar.

 

I ...have visited Driving Emotions they have a lot of cars seem like a straight place ... They have a car I may go take a look at next week...There are a lot of dealers around the Palm Beach area including DE....they operate out of an industrial park
probably have a 150cars they all seem to be owned vs consignment
which car is it I will go by if I can this week...

 

You got to love Fla - the state where America's Most Wanted show finds 90% of the featured criminals on the show. Buying in Fla does present additional risk as there is not any required annual vehicle inspections. I have known used car dealers (that did not know better) that went to Fla car auctions and came back with "killer deals" until they found out the cars did not have catalytic converts, did not meet emissions requirements of our state and cost them a good amount more -after the fact. No matter where you buy get a PPI.

 

My car (happily) meets that description, and I bought it in Alabama.

 

This is good advice. You and I both live in California. California has the toughest smog laws in the US. All the monitors must show ok whereas most other states allow one not to show ok. I bought a Florida car that passed a Ferrari dealer PPI in Florida that I still had to spend a lot of money on in California to get smogged (a number of Ferrari’s have known ECU problems not allowing them to smog in California and Ferrari says “too bad not my problem”, the old “no known remedy” line—which the People’s Republic of California could give a crap about—their answer being “too bad either spend tens of thousands fixing an ECU problem (even though it will pass a tailpipe smog test and doesn’t actually smog) or park it”—I am quoting here verbatim the California smog police/Nazi’s that I dealt with). So I would want to know that ALL the monitors are set and green before I bought it, not just that it passed a PPI or passed smog in another state.

Also in Florida because of the heat and humidity you are more likely to have “stickey” problems and shrinking leather. Also, dry rot of tires is a problem.

These are all problems I encountered with importing a car from Florida. However, I am not saying don’t do it, I did and I ultimately got the car I wanted (I found far more selection in Florida). Just be careful and be informed and pay the right price.