zitsky

Can you buy a car from another dealer, say out of state dealer, and have the car shipped to a local dealer? I have not inspected this car, but I do have a Carfax report. Do/can dealers trade with each other? I've bought a Mercedes before from an out of state dealer. I'd rather not do that again. Once I didn't like the vehicle, second time I bought from a used car lot. Car was OK. The dealer I'm emailing seems like honest people. They've already done some brake work on the car that they didn't absolutely have to do.

rraisley

Sure, you can buy and out-of-the-area car and have it shipped, but individual shipping will be expensive. Probably be cheaper to buy a one-way airline ticket and drive it home, or drive another car to pick it up with a friend. Dealers do swap cars, but usually want an equivalent trade, and sometimes that's hard to do. I just picked up my new wagon from an out-of-state dealer, but it was only 80 miles away.

Mr. Toad

When I was shopping for my car, I had difficulty finding exactly what I was looking for and had to "cast my net" outside of my home state. I contacted multiple dealers and found that most of them were resistant to the idea of transferring a vehicle from their inventory to another dealer. Some said that they would sell me a car if I arranged to have it shipped, and I believe one actually offered to ship it for me, but it was an expensive proposition. Fortunately, I eventually found a suitable model about 1.5 hours away.

jinark

When we bought ours we drove from Arkansas to Kansas City. We were looking within a 500 mile radius. It was a trade in at the Ford dealer. The salesman, who was honest and up front, did an extensive walk around with me on the phone and sent a ton of pictures before w e drove up ready to buy if it met our expectations. It did. It was a 700 mile round trip and well worth it. We left at about 9:30 in the morning and were back before 9 that evening.

expl0rer

I just bought one a couple of months ago sort of "sight unseen" from across the county. It took me 18 months to find what I was looking for and came across a few examples which I thought were good buys, but for one reason or another, it did not work out till the last one which I now own.

Apologies about the long post. I will try to cover most of the main points I thought were important for me and what I learned.

1. Speak to your local dealer's sales manager and mention you are looking at a car at another dealer. They might be willing to do something for you in terms of trading/buying the car you are after at wholesale cost or slightly over. My local MB dealer's sales manager was not averse to try and sell me a car I was interested in, but not in their inventory. Caveat - you have to do your homework on the car really well and be sure you want to buy it. Once the local dealer is involved, they are basically bringing the car over and collecting the money. it might be different for CPO, but I am not sure. Shipping cost may be negotiated/incorporated in the car's price that way. The benefit is that you show up with the $ and walk away with the car.

2. Homework on the car. Speak to the salesperson at the dealer with the car, ask them for pictures (I asked for high-resolution photos on a number of occasions of different parts of the car - inside, outside, wheel wells, wheels, tire tread, upholstery, headliner, trim, trunk, under the hood, you name it) and live video walkaround, as well as video snippets of different things. If they are willing to sell you the car, they will accommodate your requests.

3. Find out where the car was sold/serviced (MB corporate is a good starting point. Have the VIN on hand). Call the MB dealer(s) where it was serviced and ask for some general information on the services performed. They will not give you everything, especially if it was service paid by previous owner(s) but should tell you about the car's service performed under warranty. With some pointed questions, you can also find out when the last service was performed by them and what mileage. Compare this information with Carfax service history. Hopefully most of what you hear from the MB dealers should match the service history. I called every dealer in the province where the car was sold to ask for service history.

4. You can ask to hear the car start/run when you are on video call. For me it was important to hear the car's cold start.

5. If it is not a CPO, ask for work orders on the car to see what they have done to it to make it "road worthy". Dealers should perform some sort of inspection before they put the car on the lot. At the very least, there should also be a simple inspection report with tire condition, brake pad condition, etc.

6. If they are not an MB dealer ask them if they are willing to take it to an MB dealer of your choice for a PPI. Call a local to them MB dealer and find out what PPI means for that dealer and if they would do one. If they have a pdf version of their PPI sheet, ask if they can email you a blank a copy so you are familiar in detail with what the PPI covers. You might also be able to get a copy of the PPI from your local MB dealer. I imagine all dealers in the same network would be using the same checklist.

7. If you decide to buy from the remote dealer, ask them for their help to ship (infrastructure). They have relationships with auto shippers and most are willing to help with the process, but you will pay the shipping costs. Ask for the contact name/number from "their" shipping company. Call a couple of other shipping companies to get a quote and compare costs. Ask how the car will make it to you - enclosed or open truck/trailer? enclosed or open rail car? Approxiamte timeframe? Do they have tracking? Does the shipping company have insurance coverage - what does it cover and when does it kick in, what is the deductible, do they have a deductible waiver (for a small fee you can waive the deductible if you make a claim against their insurance).

In my case, the dealer was another major German brand. I had mine shipped with the dealer's recommended shipping company as I was not going to spend 5 days on the road in a car I had not seen in person and had no knowledge of whether it would make the long ocean to ocean trip home. It took the better part of a month to get home to me, but it was delayed 1 week by a rail strike. It traveled 5000+ km on trailers/rail cars. I also had my insurance kick in before the car was picked up by the shipping company, in case I didn't get far with their insurance, were I to make a claim. Call your ins broker as well to be sure that you can make a claim on the new car in case something is damaged during shipping.

I was in contact every 3-4 days with the shipping company contact to ask about the status. She was willing to give me daily updates, but I thought that was a bit much and they have bigger fish to fry than deal with a customer with a one-off shipment.

I haven't covered the payment/paperwork process. I imagine that every dealer probably has a slightly different approach, but I can give you some details about that as well if you wish.

teonkennedy

i posted in error.

c4004matic

I really dont understand all this rigamarole. Every Mercedes Ive bought (never leased) is like this (this is going to be #5). I go on the internet, configure it as I want it. The dealer looks for an allocation for my particular build, luckily, he has always gotten one. I wait for the car, I get the exact car I ordered roughly 3 mths later. I pay the original quoted price, which is MSRP minus any manufacturer discounts, if any. End of story. The cars on the lot are always unsatisfactory for features or color thus I have never bought a lot vehicle.

makiii

Bought my car CPO 2017 E400 wagon this past August from a dealer 500 miles away, flew to the dealer and drove it home. Before I did all that I checked into having it shipped, (had a 1985 Colony Park wagon shipped from St. Louis back to VA in 2015 - cost about $900, took about 10 days.) Dealer said they could get it shipped for 3 weeks, asked a friend who owns a foreign car shop here and he couldn't get it done for 4 weeks, every shipper I called were quoting me about the same.
I needed the car quicker, as my Audi A5 Cabriolet was totaled out when I ran over a truck brake shoe, and it destroyed the engine.

I was looking for a CPO wagon, so I knew I'd have to look well outside my area.