See a lot of posts here and on other forums discussing the virtues of Fly n Drive, rust free from down south, no need to wait on a specific car to show up locally when dealing with a rare car, etc. So I decided to do it.
A week ago Friday I sold my 2006 Land Cruiser (also a fly n drive by the way - rare color/year/condition/mileage). This Friday I bought a 2015 Land Cruiser in Athens GA and my wife and I drove it back home. Got into Milwaukee on Saturday night around 10.
Whole process was pretty easy all in all - some notes below.
Heyward Allen Toyota in Athens GA was awesome to work with. Answered all my questions, salespeople were great, process was super smooth. Can't say the same for John Elway Cadillac in Denver that had a 2013 Land Cruiser I was interested in.
I paid cash so the process was very fast and smooth. Put a $500 deposit on my credit card, paid the rest with a cashiers check when I got there. Took all of 5 minutes. They plated it for me with GA temp tags so I was good to drive. They will mail me the title in a week or 2, I have till mid March on the GA plates.
Flew from Milwaukee to Atlanta on Delta. $160 per person, no struggles with the TSA, nice short flight, Delta has been great to me.
Caught the shuttle from Hartsfield Latoya Jackson to Athens via Groome Transport. Also super easy and painless, $40 per person. Nice 2 hour ride. Shuttle was clean and fast.
Walked from the shuttle drop off point to the dealer, about a mile. It was sunny and 50 degrees out, much better than the 10 below we were having back home.
Cruiser was prepped and ready to go, very good detail job other than some swirl marks to get out. Super clean, no real issues other than a few very minor things expected in a used car. Magnetic Gray exterior, black interior, 100% stock, dealer serviced with all records, lady driven. Took it on a test drive and it was perfect.
Paid the lady and headed north. Made it to Nashville for the first night, stayed downtown so we could see Broadway and the river. Walked around a bit at night but nightlife and crowded bars are not really our thing. Was cool to see and definitely see why people like it but we don't have to go back. One scary moment was valet parking my car I had owned for about 6 hours, that was a bit of a shock to the system.
Continued north through Louisville and Indianapolis. Stopped for lunch at Jimbos Bar-B-Cue http://www.jimbosbarbque.com/. Was awesome. A+ BBQ would BBQ again. We got off the freeway and took 31W for a ways in Kentucky which was really fun to drive and see the local sights. I spent a ton of time in KY and TN as a kid but the wife has not been down there a ton.
Snow started just south of Indy and continued on to the Wisconsin state line. A few times when it was hammering down we thought about pulling over and getting a hotel, but it was 7PM and we were within 200 miles of home by the time it got bad. The cruiser had good tires so we just continued on slowly. Freeways were a little sketch, saw a spin out and a car in the ditch. Worst part was the truck just has water in the washer fluid and it froze up in the single digit temps we had. So now it is sitting in my heated garage thawing out.
Made it home at 10PM, little lady and I had a frozen pizza and a few beers, and went to bed. Woke up to a salt covered, single digit temp world, a far cry from the south.
All in all a good experience, definitely more expensive than "just a flight" but was really fun. I don't have to do it again, but would do it again for the right deal on the right vehicle. Probably would not make a lot of sense for something like a RAV4, but really was the way to go for a Land Cruiser that is pretty thin on the ground.
As an aside, the 2015 Land Cruiser is the tits. Its far and away the nicest vehicle I have owned. After owning my 2006 I was hooked on the LC, the 2015 is the same, just better in every way.
