Am I crazy to buy sight unseen?

I think that if you're asking, you're concerned. I would never rush a purchase in fear of losing a car, especially in this market where you have many alternatives.

 

I bought a 430 2 years ago off the internet and not a problem yet.
Eric

 

Are you crazy to buy a car like this sight-unseen?

In a word, yes.

No disrespect, just my opinion.

 

No. You are doing the PPI and have a second set of eyes looking at it. Relax. Some people feel they have to approach it like its spending 5mil or something.

 

If the PPI comes out good (with compression test and road test) and the volunteer from this board is as anal or more anal than you are, I would think you would be safe. Just have him take a few pics of the potential areas of concern that he would want to point out (ie. wear areas on seats, any buckling of leather on dash, chips in paint, glass, or headlights, etc.

It would be helpful if the volunteer owned a 360 as he would be familiar with thinks to look for.

Where is the car located? Others on this board may recommend different dealers for the PPI.

-Jim

 

I have gone by and taken pics and looked over a few cars for Fchatters. However, they all had ppi's performed on the cars and I was strictly taking pictures to forward and give my overall impression. In each case things turned out fine.

In your case, make sure to have a ppi!!!!!!!!!!!!! If all checks out and the "spy" says things look ok, go for it. Many have done it before! How many buy cars of auctions and never see them until delivery!

 

I would at least fly out to sign over the check. As a bonus you'd get to drive her home (that first drive is the best feeling ever). Something that may be important to you, may not be to someone else... body odor for example, or a falsified PPI. But hopefully the witness would catch those.

 

I bought my 430 sight unseen.. but was able to speak to the owner and such.

I think if you did a PPI, you really like the car, and you have seen detailed pics, then you are probably okay.

I didn't want to spend the money to fly out to look at the car, when I was 99% sure that it was what I wanted. Granted, you never can know everything right away... you will more than likely notice things after you have the car... BUT the question is, would you be able to spot and notice them when doing a prebuy inspection on your own? Probably not... most things get noticed over time.

You could always negotiate to send 1/2 the payment and then send the rest after you received the car.

Also, mine was through a dealer. I certainly would only do the sight unseen if I was buying from a dealer that had their reputation on the line.

 

Lost of high res pics, independent ppi checking clutch, belt, brakes, recalls, campaigns etc. Car fax wont tell all but should show major stuff.

GL w acquisition,

-Peter Oh

 

I had a PPI done and went down to see the car. The flight was a real pain. It was my first Ferrari and first 360, so I really did not know what to look for. So, the flight was really not that worthwhile. The PPI was much more useful.

I don't think it is that big of a deal to not go see the car, so long as the person doing the PPI is reputable.


Is it an independent shop doing the PPI? Only reason I ask is that dealers will do a "safety inspection," which is basically just a print-out of the ECU and TCU and is a total waste of money. I don't think dealers do PPI's anymore.

Make sure you are the one paying for the PPI and that it is given directly to you. Should be around $600 or so.

 

only you can really answer that question. it really depends on how particular you are.
the ppi and the fchatter guy should be able to tell you about anything of concern. make sure the place doing a ppi drives it as well.
any little paint chips, etc will be on most any used car. does it really matter if you see them on the car in your garage or the seller's garage?
realize that you are buying a "used" car. it won't be perfect and with the two sets of eyes looking at it, they will be able to tell you about anything that is of major consequence.

i bought my 360 a couple months ago through the internet. i did a ppi, had them take a number of high res pics (inside and out) and all turned out well. yes it had a couple stone chips that i didn't count on, but i easily doubled that number within a week.

you just need to trust your instincts-if the person or dealer selling has a good reputation, you are fine. if they refuse to send pics (as many as you ask for), don't have service history, have a sketchy reputation or the ppi brings up any issues, you can always put a down payment on your credit card to hold the car pending your personal inspection.

good luck!

 

I have been buying Ferrari's cross country sight unseen for 20 years. Just cross your 't's' and dot your 'i's' and you'll be fine.

If you have to touch it, wait.... I doubt you will lose it as very little is selling in this market. It's your game to call.

 

There are other ways of being thorough than having an on-site inspection. And, you're buying from an authorized F dealer that has a reputation and presumably some pride in being forthright; you're doing a PPI; you have a friend doing some visuals; and you're presumably asking every question you can in a cost-effective way (ie., using the phone, distilling lists of questions, doing carfax searches etc.). So all this is good. To this, I'd add something that may sound a bit obscure and would surely be dissed by the fearful sceptics among us, but means something to me. If my intuition says things feel right and if the flow of things is going well, w/o detours, confusions, setbacks, inconsistent information, etc, I tend to view such as a signal that helps clinch my enthusiasm and helps me move forward. On the other hand, if the flow isn't working, and it seems I have to work the situation and boster my confidence overly in my decision, I will likely ditch taking action. But to factor this last element in, one has to trust their intuition and listen to it -- sometimes signals 'not to buy' are shouting out but we don't hear them. Anyway, good luck in your decision.

 

The gentleman who bought my 360 did so sight-unseen. I had it consigned at the local Ferrari dealer and once they knew he was a real buyer the dealer put us in touch so I could answer all the detailed questions the buyer had.

All is well and I've received a number of emails from him since with both questions and complements about the car.

In this case, it worked out well... but mostly b/c the seller was me and I'm really particular about my cars.

It can work...

 

I bought sight unseen from a reputable dealer that specialized in internet sales and offered a guarantee of return if the car arrived not to my satisfaction, plus a small (60 days?) 50% warranty. I had an independant PPI for about $300. Had the PPI guy take pictures of any little cosmetic thing wrong just so I'd know, not that I'd require every thing to be fixed- although the dealer did fix things I didn't even aske them to! (a small scratch on the bottom bumper, a small amount of seat wear, etc) and the car arrived essentially as new (small window switch wear was only thing remaining and I knew about it and its quite minor)- overall it literally turned out to be the best car buying experience of my life!

Anyway, despite what some people post about there being 500 360s on the market blah blah, I was looking for a red stick coupe. Only one I wanted after 6 months of looking was 1,200 miles away and I couldn't take time from work/family to get out to see it- bottom line is I understand your situation. To those who say don't buy the car sight unseen, sometimes it's just not possible so you do as much diligence as you can with PPI, talking to owner/seller, going though records and calling the servicer(s) of the car if possible for insight.

I did buy my 911 years ago from 1,200 miles away as well but back then I didn't have kids and was able to hop a jet blue flight to see the car for a couple of hours...

Overall, someone else said they learned more from the PPI than their own look- yes of course ideally you should see the car in person and drive it yourself, but there are ways to increase the odds of a good outcome even without seeing the car.

When my car arrived and I saw it for the first time it was AMAZING....3 months later it still is

 

You will be fine. Ive bought many sight unsen.
As mentioned above, do your DD, dot the I's and cross the T's

 

I purchased a 612 sight unseen - had someone look at it. Everything worked out great!

I sent a cashiers check in full. The guy who checked it out knew the dealer and purchased high end cars prior. Sure enough I got the car, very happy.

Butttt - The parent dealer was a Ford Dealer going down. It took four weeks to get the Title.
The dealer went into receivership to the bank and closed their ability to access the title.
Finally the bank released it - wasn't pretty!

Of course they are back in business now, and I truly believe they did the best they could to facilitate a good faith deal. The ole story of buyer beware!

 

Interesting Champaign 612... my dealer overnighted the title upon receipt of wire- I had the title before the car! Yes they could have received the money and filed bankruptcy right after which could have complicated things, but it was a reputable dealer that had been in business 13+ years...

I guess bottom line, even when buying a car in person there are always some risks & the best you can do is mitigate them as much as possible.

 

I buy just about everything sight unseen.. A few Feraris, Porsches, motorcycles, snowmobiles... etc..

You can usually tell by doing your homework in advance.

Something breaks, you fix it. Not the end of the world.. Happens both the the sight unseen & the well inspected ones...

Go with your gut. Its usually correct.