How far will you travel for a car?

I'm not ragging on anyone here, it's a personal choice

There's a few members on here, and myself, that have a running joke along the lines of "yeah, I'd buy it but it's just too far". It seems that any time you post something for sale you get that response at least once. Now, I don't think a car exists that would make me travel from say, WA to FL, but some of the distances have really cracked me up.
So, how far are you willing to travel for a car? I know the answer varies based on a lot of things, as with me. When I picked up my mini I got lucky, it was 20 miles from my house. But the other two were in FL and TX, I'm in MI. I'd have gone in a heart beat. I think 4 out of the last 8 cars I've bought came from more than 600 miles away.
Me personally, I take into account the expected purchase price, add travel expenses, then tack on 10%. That dictates if a car is worth the e-mail or phone call. My last purchase had to be out of state or I'd be looking for months or more so it was worth the 2 days it took to go get it.
Have you/would you travel, 500, or 1,000 miles to get a car? Is there a minimum price point before you'd be willing to travel (for instance, I'm not driving to VA to get a $500 beater)?

Copycat

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/what-is-your-geographic-buying-range/59135/page1/

Also depends on location. If the car is somewhere cool that I would like to see, I would go from FL to say, CA or WA(though I probably wouldn't want a car from WA due to rust). If its in the Middle of nowhere TN however.....wait no I bet I could probably find cool things there too. I'm game for anywhere.

2 states away.
That's just enough daylight to make a complete round trip back to the homestead.

My best far away purchase was a '98 Contour SVT with a "blown motor". PO said it wouldn't even turn over.
I hauled it all the way home, but before pushing it off the trailer I noticed the A/C compressor bearing had failed. Took the belt off and she fired right up.

I have family in Georgia and Florida. Once every two years or so the wife and kids are up for a road trip to see grandma, disney, etc. I'll prebuy a car somewhere between Atlanta and Disney. Show up, pay for car, load car on trailer and leave trailer behind. Come back at end of vaca, hookup to trailer and drive home to Massachusetts with the new purchase.

I just drove to VA to pick up a $300 dollar beater

If your into turbo dodges and you live in a northern state; cheap, rust free, or close pick two.

I just drove a car back from Pennsylvania to Texas, so about that far. The main limit isn't really distance, but time. I could drive a reliable car home from just about anywhere in two days which is about how much time I have these days. If I have to trailer it that cuts my range in half.

I flew to Houston Texas for a newer truck 14 hr drive from here. Probably the best truck I ever owned.

Also I flew to PA for a cheap truck... 12 hrs home. Scared for my life it would strand me. Haha

The other day I drove a measly hr just to hate the car and come home empty handed.

It depends on the vehicle and how hard I'm in the market... I drove 4hrs one time just for some difficult to find rims... Distance is no boundary for me (only my work schedule)

i try to stick to 4 hours from home one way but will travel for proper vehicle. i live in the greater cleveland area and have bought vehicles from chicago, atlanta, baltimore, central PA.

It depends on how cool/rare/what-a-deal the car. Another consideration is where you are. I'm in a major metropolitan area with no salt on the roads; odds are good that patience will bring me just about anything I want inside of 30 miles. If I want something more esoteric, then I understand needing to widen the search.

I love the idea of an adventure to retrieve a car, but that would be part of what I was trying to achieve...

No hard and fast rules on this one for me.

I towed 24 hours straight to pick up a rust free RX-7. On the coldest weekend of the year. Car was in central Wisconsin. I left my gloves at home. The car would not start, the brakes were rusted siezed, and my come-along only extended 6'. That was about 70,000 miles ago, so I'm pretty happy with the decision

Would I do it again? Probably not, since no truck access anymore, and 6gph times 24 hours times $4 would really hurt now.

The most I've traveled to get one is 2 hours. I'd be willing to go 250-300 miles. Since most of the crap I buy is questionable at best, anything out of town comes home on a trailer.

The last one was less than 5 miles from the house.

It depends on the car. My sister went almost 2k miles round trip to get an MK2 golf. Most of the time when I would complain about a car being too far is a non running car that shipping it would cost 1-1.5 times the purchase price (like that lorinser 500sec that was on here a few months ago).

Depends on the deal, if I could drive cross-country and still feel like even with the added costs I was still buying it at a low enough price that I wouldn't lose money when it came time to sell, then yeah - I'm in. But I won't drive more than an hour or two for a "maybe".

The farthest I have gone was 12 hours one way. It depends on the car but I would probably draw the line at a two day round trip.

I did a whirlwind 36hr work 8hrs, leave Indy for kcks, pick up a car there, drive to vinita OK, drop off that car, pick the one I bought up, and drive back to Indy without sleep......the last leg from Terra haute to Indy was the worst, as we spent most of it in terrible rain(car I bought had bald Michelins) I would make the trek again, but with a stopover somewhere in between. I had the chase vehicle loaded down tools, a spare, and one of every sensor the sho's have.....it was uneventful. I did crack one of my side skirts slaloming traffic barrels on 70 in Illinois though.

10hrs from the home base, at the time, in MI to Farmington, MO, empty. Drive 10hrs loaded down with a car on the trailer to where I am typing this reply from currently. Drive home 10 more hrs back home, empty.

Sold that car locally here, to drive empty trailered to Cocoa Beach, FL from Cincy, to pick up a POFS, in the end and back to home base here in KY.

Oh the good old days of $2/gal diesel and 660 miles of range.......

I flew from CT to CA to pick up a car with a friend. We drove it home in three and a half days. I'd happily do it again

I've gone on a 2000 mile round trip to pick up a car at least a half dozen times.

Did it this week.

Back in '08, I flew from Calgary Alberta to Atlanta for a 2006 G35 6MT. It was a good deal, the flight was free on aeroplan points, and the drive back was a really fun/scenic adventure. I sold the car 6 months later and got all my money (including the trip/hotels/Canada sales tax etc)back. 3,700 kms in 3 1/2 days. I learned that VQ35s rock and there are places in Montana where you can see far enough to really let 'er buck ( not that I did of course, just sayin you could...)

I flew to southern California in July 2011 to pick up the MSM. Ended up driving just under 3000 miles back.

Not sure if i'll do it again.

logdog wrote: Copycat http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/what-is-your-geographic-buying-range/59135/page1/

Yeah, well your thread, just like your oatmeal cookies sucked. So i started my own. Just kidding, i dont remember seeing the other thread, and to be fair, all oatmeal cookies suck haha

Never been one to want to take a long road trip to get a car. To go get a car in person, I usually keep it to 2-3 hours each way maximum. I've bought cars from all over the country, but had them shipped.

In reply to DrBoost:

Further proof there is nothing new left on the internet.

500 miles.