How Far Should I Travel When Buying A Car?

The Short Answer: It Depends On The Deal

Think about this. If you can buy a car in Idaho that has half the mileage half the age and half the price of a more expensive similar option in Wyoming, why wouldn’t you? Say it’s further. Say the car is a 2,000 mile drive from where you are. You’ll have to drive it; or you’ll have to get a plane ticket out. Either way, you can expect the cost to be about $500. Is it worth it?

Carefully Consider The Situation

If you can buy a car in Florida for $12k, and the same car in Los Angeles is $24k, then even if the trip to and from Florida cost you $2k, you still saved $10k. So that was worth the trip.

However, there’s this to consider: when you’re making a purchase from a distance, you don’t actually know the quality of the vehicle in question until you arrive at the location where the car is. This means if you get there and you don’t like it, you’re out whatever it cost you to travel.

For that reason, unless you’re reasonably assured that the long-distance buy is the better one, you’ll do better to give yourself a radius within which to operate. You’ll have to determine your own rule of thumb.

The Six Hour Rule Of Thumb

If you have access to a vehicle already, then anything within six hours of your “home base” could be your “maximum” distance. If you’re looking at a vehicle six hours away, that’s a drive between 100 and 300+ miles, depending on traffic. Gas will be between $20 and $100; depending on your vehicle, or the vehicle of whoever is giving you a ride to look at the car. A two hour distance is generally going to be a bit more comfortable.

So if you’ve got a car locally that’s $1,000, and there’s another one that’s at about the same level of quality, but it’s six hours away, you might be gambling with up to $100 just to see it.

That means if it’s only a little cheaper than the local vehicle, it’s not worth checking out. But sometimes your time is also a big consideration. Twelve hours of driving in a day sort of makes it so you can’t do anything else. You’ll want to think about that.

Getting The Best Deal You Can

Take into consideration what the seller is asking, take into consideration the cost of travel, take into consideration how long it will take you to successfully complete the purchase, and don’t forget one last thing. When you travel farther to see a vehicle, you might be able to talk the seller down more—provided you’re savvy.

At the very least, you should be able to talk them into covering your travel expenses. The better the deal, the greater value you’ll get for traveling. So do your research. A great resource worth subscribing to for more articles like this is the Anybody’s Autos blog.