Larro Darro
Recycles dryer sheets
Three years ago we sold our 2000 Alero. I was driving my truck, and only putting 500 or 600 miles per year on the car. Plus my DW's cousin needed a car. It was a great car, and had about 60K on it. Ever since she has been gone, I've been car shopping. We were looking for a current year, low mileage Camry at a good price. The guy who teaches the Taekwondo class where I work had just become a dealer, so he was looking online for me. He found some pretty good deals, but none that made me want to buy. He is also a farmer, and taking care of his peanuts was keeping him away from the rental car auctions, where the best deals can be found.
About 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was on a used car thread over on Tractorbynet.com, my other time wasting site. I mentioned what I was looking for and a fellow from Chicago said that he knew of a good deal. He sent me the link in a PM, so I checked it out. A dealer in Indiana had a 13 Camry LE with 2414 miles for $17.7K. That was too cheap unless something was wrong with it. I looked at the Carfax, and it showed the car had been leased less than 2 months before it was sold at auction. I called my dealer friend and he got in touch with the dealer in Indiana. We found out it had been rear ended, and the man had replaced the bumper cover and touched up the paint. I was glad to hear this. There have been some problems with power steering on Camry's and I was worried it was something like that.
I told my friend to go ahead with it if the shipping and his fee would be less than $2K. As it turned out, the cheapest we could get the car shipped was $871 and his fee was $1.5K. But there is a law in Indiana that says unless you are a dealer, your feet have to be on the ground in the state to buy a car there. It was still a good deal, and I couldn't go drive it home.
So 2 weeks ago today I put $17.8K in an escrow account. The next day I wired 17.7K to the dealer in Indiana. He was going to overnight the title to us, but it took a couple of days to get here. Two LONG days, let me tell you. Then the wait was for the shippers. The contract with them said they would pick the car up on Saturday and have it to my friends house by noon today. {his 'dealership' is a 12X12 building on his farm. Florida law says he has to have a commercial building and it has to be bonded. It doesn't say how big it has to be}
We ran into a small problem with the tag because of his dealer stuff. This was the first car he had sold as a dealer, so it was OJT for him. {For years he had been buying cars and trucks, driving them a year, then selling them} The tax collector is a childhood friend of mine, and she hooked us up with a temp tag. My friend will have to drive to Tallahassee in the morning to get a 4 digit number they can't tell him over the phone. We will get the regular tag as soon as he gets back tomorrow.
Now for the car.
About 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was on a used car thread over on Tractorbynet.com, my other time wasting site. I mentioned what I was looking for and a fellow from Chicago said that he knew of a good deal. He sent me the link in a PM, so I checked it out. A dealer in Indiana had a 13 Camry LE with 2414 miles for $17.7K. That was too cheap unless something was wrong with it. I looked at the Carfax, and it showed the car had been leased less than 2 months before it was sold at auction. I called my dealer friend and he got in touch with the dealer in Indiana. We found out it had been rear ended, and the man had replaced the bumper cover and touched up the paint. I was glad to hear this. There have been some problems with power steering on Camry's and I was worried it was something like that.
I told my friend to go ahead with it if the shipping and his fee would be less than $2K. As it turned out, the cheapest we could get the car shipped was $871 and his fee was $1.5K. But there is a law in Indiana that says unless you are a dealer, your feet have to be on the ground in the state to buy a car there. It was still a good deal, and I couldn't go drive it home.
So 2 weeks ago today I put $17.8K in an escrow account. The next day I wired 17.7K to the dealer in Indiana. He was going to overnight the title to us, but it took a couple of days to get here. Two LONG days, let me tell you. Then the wait was for the shippers. The contract with them said they would pick the car up on Saturday and have it to my friends house by noon today. {his 'dealership' is a 12X12 building on his farm. Florida law says he has to have a commercial building and it has to be bonded. It doesn't say how big it has to be}
We ran into a small problem with the tag because of his dealer stuff. This was the first car he had sold as a dealer, so it was OJT for him. {For years he had been buying cars and trucks, driving them a year, then selling them} The tax collector is a childhood friend of mine, and she hooked us up with a temp tag. My friend will have to drive to Tallahassee in the morning to get a 4 digit number they can't tell him over the phone. We will get the regular tag as soon as he gets back tomorrow.
Now for the car.