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Advice on purchasing out of state / remotely

AnimalX

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Hey everyone,

First time posting here and wanted to get the community's advice on buying a Telluride "remotely". I tried finding a thread related to this but wasn't able to, so if one already exists, please point me to it.

My preference is to communicate with prospective dealers via email or phone until a "deal" is reached that works for both parties. That sounds simple enough, however, I think I'm missing a lot of the details that go into the process and could potentially derail it / make it unnecessarily difficult. I have lots of questions and thoughts that I've outlined below, hoping that anyone who's done this before can weigh in.

I'm going to first list some assumptions / info that I think apply to the conversation:
  1. I will most likely be purchasing the car from a dealer that is outside my home state
  2. I will be paying for the car in full, no financing
  3. I will be traveling to the dealership to pick up the car and driving it back home
Now moving on to some of the questions / thoughts I need help with:
  1. When should I consider a "deal" to be official (meaning the car is reserved and waiting for me to finalize the sale)? Is a remotely signed contract with a down payment sufficient? I am worried about traveling to pick up the car and getting an unexpected surprise.
  2. I am assuming that since I am an out of state resident (as far as the dealer is concerned) I should not be paying any kind of registration / title fees and / or sales tax. I expect to have to pay those when I register the vehicle in my home state. Would be great if someone could confirm this.
  3. Does anyone know if I will be receiving the title when the vehicle is picked up? Or is that sent via mail by the state (the state where the dealer is located) department of motor vehicles? I wouldn't be surprised if this differs from state to state.
  4. I am also assuming that I would need some kind of temporary registration / plate in order to drive the car back home. I expect any dealer would know how to take care of this and would roll any cost into the purchase price. Again, would be great if anyone in the community could confirm this and maybe some advice on what I should expect to pay (rough estimate) for this temporary plate.
  5. Pickup day
    1. This would be my first opportunity to see the car in person, so I would do an inspection to make sure everything looks in order, VIN matches, etc. Also, drive it!
    2. Review final documentation. I would hope I'd be able to before pickup day but I have a feeling that is wishful thinking on my part.
    3. I am assuming that, at this point, I can still back out of the deal if something is not as expected / discussed and recover my down payment. Any thoughts on this?
    4. I was planing on having a certified check with me with the agreed upon final amount. Will this work or bad idea? Would something else (i.e. wire) work better?
    5. Assuming everything checks out, sign the paperwork, pay and be on my way.
  6. Am I missing anything else that you would consider worth mentioning?
Thank you for reading this far and for any help on this.
 
I've purchased in neighboring states to mine in PA and there are variations as to how this is handled. I will tell you my experiences:

  1. Some states or dealers require an actual person to be there and will not take a deposit over the phone or via email. If they have a "hot" car the person in front of them is understandably their best interest. I generally have a deposit with a credit card for $500-1000 to hold the vehicle for several days until I can get there in most cases.
  2. You pay all fee's except for the sales tax in certain situations. One encounter allowed me to pay the sales tax with the loan I had and then I cut me back a check of taxes to pay in my state. Another situation allowed me to purchase the car and then take care of my taxes when registering the vehicle. Another situation required me to pay taxes even though I was out of state and then provide proof to my state they were paid. The easiest way is to handle the taxes yourself in your state when you register it! Make sure you are aware of any other sneaky fee's also that may be excessive! Ask to see the complete bill of sale before you leave.
  3. The title is generally mailed from the state at a later date if you paid in full with no loan. This may take weeks or months to arrive.
  4. The dealership should provide you with temporary tags until you complete your registration in your state.
  5. Its a new car, there really should no reason its not perfect! You can ask for a copy of the paperwork to be emailed to you to review beforehand if you so like. Your deposit should be described in writing somewhere as being refundable. If not, you can contact the credit card company if this in not honored. A certified check is generally required with the agreed upon amount printed and signed. They will not give you a blank check so this amount should be exact. (it can be a little off and the difference can be credited back or payed for with a credit card)
  6. Call your insurance. The last car I purchased, the dealership would not let me leave without a physical card with my information, the vin of the new car and expiration and effective dates. Fortunately I have Erie and was able to get through to there 800 number and have them email it back and forward it for them to print. I thought it was idiotic since I always just showed them a card of my present coverage from another vehicle. It was pretty rough area (Detroit) and I guess they have had problems with this prior.
  7. I drove to the dealership with another driver if things went south the last time (This was a used car) and we drove back in 2 cars. If you fly or have no other means to get back, you really don't have much of a choice in the matter to change.
I may of missed a few things, I'm sure others can provide a thing or two. It seems traveling to another state is generally how I have been buying all my vehicles lately. Another item, if there is anything owed or missing, they should provide you with a "We owe you" letter spelling this out with the items, price and perceived shipping. My last car these items were "back-ordered" for weeks and I finally demanded they cut me a check for the amount which they did.
 
Last edited:
Hey everyone,

First time posting here and wanted to get the community's advice on buying a Telluride "remotely". I tried finding a thread related to this but wasn't able to, so if one already exists, please point me to it.

My preference is to communicate with prospective dealers via email or phone until a "deal" is reached that works for both parties. That sounds simple enough, however, I think I'm missing a lot of the details that go into the process and could potentially derail it / make it unnecessarily difficult. I have lots of questions and thoughts that I've outlined below, hoping that anyone who's done this before can weigh in.

I'm going to first list some assumptions / info that I think apply to the conversation:
  1. I will most likely be purchasing the car from a dealer that is outside my home state
  2. I will be paying for the car in full, no financing
  3. I will be traveling to the dealership to pick up the car and driving it back home
Now moving on to some of the questions / thoughts I need help with:
  1. When should I consider a "deal" to be official (meaning the car is reserved and waiting for me to finalize the sale)? Is a remotely signed contract with a down payment sufficient? I am worried about traveling to pick up the car and getting an unexpected surprise.
  2. I am assuming that since I am an out of state resident (as far as the dealer is concerned) I should not be paying any kind of registration / title fees and / or sales tax. I expect to have to pay those when I register the vehicle in my home state. Would be great if someone could confirm this.
  3. Does anyone know if I will be receiving the title when the vehicle is picked up? Or is that sent via mail by the state (the state where the dealer is located) department of motor vehicles? I wouldn't be surprised if this differs from state to state.
  4. I am also assuming that I would need some kind of temporary registration / plate in order to drive the car back home. I expect any dealer would know how to take care of this and would roll any cost into the purchase price. Again, would be great if anyone in the community could confirm this and maybe some advice on what I should expect to pay (rough estimate) for this temporary plate.
  5. Pickup day
    1. This would be my first opportunity to see the car in person, so I would do an inspection to make sure everything looks in order, VIN matches, etc. Also, drive it!
    2. Review final documentation. I would hope I'd be able to before pickup day but I have a feeling that is wishful thinking on my part.
    3. I am assuming that, at this point, I can still back out of the deal if something is not as expected / discussed and recover my down payment. Any thoughts on this?
    4. I was planing on having a certified check with me with the agreed upon final amount. Will this work or bad idea? Would something else (i.e. wire) work better?
    5. Assuming everything checks out, sign the paperwork, pay and be on my way.
  6. Am I missing anything else that you would consider worth mentioning?
Thank you for reading this far and for any help on this.
I ordered from Kia of Muncie with Lucas as I know others on here have as well. I ordered to spec and placed a small CC deposit with them. Lucas confirmed with me every step of the way from when he placed the order with KIA to when it was picked up, when a VIN was assigned etc etc etc.

Registration might differ from State to state and I would talk to Lucas about your particular state but they filed the necessary paperwork on my behalf for NJ.

Title will come in the mail from KIA and not at the same time as you pick up the vehicle.

I received a temp Indiana plate. Also they have a reasonable $199 doc fee. And they have sold/shipped to customers in at least 45 of the states in this country.


Lucas sent me a video of him walking around inside and outside the vehicle and of course you can inspect the vehicle prior to taking delivery. Luckily it is a hot car so if for some reason you didn't take it, it would be sold.

So if you don't have a trade in to drop off you could always have it shipped to you (cost would vary based on distance from Muncie).

Payment would be a question for them to answer, I wired the money and had the final numbers prior to leaving NJ for Muncie.

I think that is it. Feel free to DM me if you have any more questions about my experience. etc.

Good luck!!
 
This is all great info. Thank you!
______________________________
 
Hello all. I am new to this forum and I found it only because I am losing my mind that most of the dealers in my area (Philadelphia metropolitan area) are saying they will not negotiate at all even on a 23 considering the 24s are arriving now. I am coming across Market adjustment fees of between 3000 to $8000!! and this is for colors I don't even want! I'm dying for the jungle green with sage seats and I'm willing to wait if anyone has good advice.

I have read in the forum about recommended dealers that will allow you to custom order the colors you want and wait but I cannot find that area of the forum. Can anyone direct me to it?
 
Hello all. I am new to this forum and I found it only because I am losing my mind that most of the dealers in my area (Philadelphia metropolitan area) are saying they will not negotiate at all even on a 23 considering the 24s are arriving now. I am coming across Market adjustment fees of between 3000 to $8000!! and this is for colors I don't even want! I'm dying for the jungle green with sage seats and I'm willing to wait if anyone has good advice.

I have read in the forum about recommended dealers that will allow you to custom order the colors you want and wait but I cannot find that area of the forum. Can anyone direct me to it?
Call around around to dealers an ask about markup. You can definitely find dealers who don't. But you are almost certainly going to need to order. Unless you get incredibly lucky and happen on a lot when one is canceled. The other option is to stalk inventory and call dealers asking if one you see coming in is available.

Dealers don't have to negotiate because there is a line to buy the car. Gone are those days.
 
I have read in the forum about recommended dealers that will allow you to custom order the colors you want and wait but I cannot find that area of the forum. Can anyone direct me to it?
Check out the How to Buy a Telluride section for lot of info.
 
Hey everyone,

First time posting here and wanted to get the community's advice on buying a Telluride "remotely". I tried finding a thread related to this but wasn't able to, so if one already exists, please point me to it.

My preference is to communicate with prospective dealers via email or phone until a "deal" is reached that works for both parties. That sounds simple enough, however, I think I'm missing a lot of the details that go into the process and could potentially derail it / make it unnecessarily difficult. I have lots of questions and thoughts that I've outlined below, hoping that anyone who's done this before can weigh in.

I'm going to first list some assumptions / info that I think apply to the conversation:
  1. I will most likely be purchasing the car from a dealer that is outside my home state
  2. I will be paying for the car in full, no financing
  3. I will be traveling to the dealership to pick up the car and driving it back home
Now moving on to some of the questions / thoughts I need help with:
  1. When should I consider a "deal" to be official (meaning the car is reserved and waiting for me to finalize the sale)? Is a remotely signed contract with a down payment sufficient? I am worried about traveling to pick up the car and getting an unexpected surprise.
  2. I am assuming that since I am an out of state resident (as far as the dealer is concerned) I should not be paying any kind of registration / title fees and / or sales tax. I expect to have to pay those when I register the vehicle in my home state. Would be great if someone could confirm this.
  3. Does anyone know if I will be receiving the title when the vehicle is picked up? Or is that sent via mail by the state (the state where the dealer is located) department of motor vehicles? I wouldn't be surprised if this differs from state to state.
  4. I am also assuming that I would need some kind of temporary registration / plate in order to drive the car back home. I expect any dealer would know how to take care of this and would roll any cost into the purchase price. Again, would be great if anyone in the community could confirm this and maybe some advice on what I should expect to pay (rough estimate) for this temporary plate.
  5. Pickup day
    1. This would be my first opportunity to see the car in person, so I would do an inspection to make sure everything looks in order, VIN matches, etc. Also, drive it!
    2. Review final documentation. I would hope I'd be able to before pickup day but I have a feeling that is wishful thinking on my part.
    3. I am assuming that, at this point, I can still back out of the deal if something is not as expected / discussed and recover my down payment. Any thoughts on this?
    4. I was planing on having a certified check with me with the agreed upon final amount. Will this work or bad idea? Would something else (i.e. wire) work better?
    5. Assuming everything checks out, sign the paperwork, pay and be on my way.
  6. Am I missing anything else that you would consider worth mentioning?
Thank you for reading this far and for any help on this.
______________________________
 
AnimalX,

It seems surprising but having gone through this Telluride search with countless dealers in many states over many months announcing yourself as a cash buyer is most often the kiss of death. It would seem that you would be the prime customer but the truth is that they are making the most now from the ridiculously high percentage rate financing and would rather not accept a cash deal so don’t mention cash right away. I know it sounds odd but that’s the way things are in the car business right now.

I finally (this week) was able to buy a car and the dealer accepted a regular check. I was surprised that they didn’t even call the bank to verify funds. They don’t want a wire transfer or certified check either. I remember when the only option was payment via electronic transfer or certified check.

Good luck, it took months to finally get what I wanted without surprise add on packages that raised the total price by thousands. If you mention your home state and the states where you are willing to do business the responders here will be very helpful and point you in the right direction! Good luck!
 
Hello all. I am new to this forum and I found it only because I am losing my mind that most of the dealers in my area (Philadelphia metropolitan area) are saying they will not negotiate at all even on a 23 considering the 24s are arriving now. I am coming across Market adjustment fees of between 3000 to $8000!! and this is for colors I don't even want! I'm dying for the jungle green with sage seats and I'm willing to wait if anyone has good advice.

I have read in the forum about recommended dealers that will allow you to custom order the colors you want and wait but I cannot find that area of the forum. Can anyone direct me to it?
I recommend calling Kia of Muncie and ask for Lucas. You can order exactly as you want it. and you can either go there to pick it up or have it shipped, either option is better than buying from a dealership trying to charge over MSRP!!
 




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