Hey guys,
My wife has green-lighted the purchase of my dream car, and I have found one new at a dealer at my price point in Maryland.  The cost of shipping the car through the dealer is near $900 and will take 5 to 7 days.  I've filled out a price quote request online, and since then I've been inundated with several emails and phone calls soliciting my business.  The price quotes range from $395 to $695 from the various businesses.  Most claim that it takes roughly 24 hours to arrange pick-up and I could have the car overnight.

Has anybody had a car shipped before?  Anything I should know?

Thanks and please wish me good luck that this goes smoothly!

I have used horseless carriage. I was extremely impressed.

The big questions are how much insurance do they have and how many times will my car be loaded and unloaded. Will it be on one truck or swapped along the way.

For Maryland the$900 sounds right. Anything cheaper is amazing. Not sure how you make profit with expenses at that price

I had my 79 Monte Carlo shipped from central Cali to GA for $1,500 enclosed trailer. I found a shipper through the uship website. I would imagine the dealer would use reputable transporters.

From what I understand, they would pick it up with other cars in that area coming down to this area.  It seems like everyone is quoting around the same dollar figure with the average being between $450 and $500.  Most people said allow for 24 hours to have the truck sent to the dealer and then most likely the driver would drive overnight and I'd get the car sometime the next day.

I'm starting to get all stressed out with all of this to be honest with you guys.  I've only ever bought one other car for myself.  It was new from a dealership, the out-the-door price was roughly half of this car, and I purchased it in person.  They let me take it home a couple of days before I had the check in hand to give to them.

In this case, I'd be buying the car over the phone.  They want to overnight the paperwork to me to fill out and have noterized, and then have ne overnight it back with a certified check.  And then they wouldn't release the car until the check clears.  I understand why they want to do all of that.

Where it gets complicated is with the sale of my old car.  A coworker is retiring and going into buisness for himself, and he needs a work vehicle.  It just happen that this is all lining up with me finding the car I want at the price I want to pay, and he wants my Explorer, and has already been approved by his bank to buy it. But he has to buy it early next week to be able to keep the loan.  So that puts me without a vehicle next week because I'm doubting that the paperowrk will be completed, the funds cleared at the car dealer, and the car delivered by Monday or Tuesday.  The one thing I have going for me is that my coworker said he has no problem loaning me the Explorer I am selling him or his BMW until my car gets delivered.  But I don't know how I feel about driving someone else's car around until mine gets delivered.

ARGHHHHH I am actually starting to stress out.  I wish the car I want was available locally at the price I wanted to pay!!!!!!

So whats the dream car?

Really, my dream car is any Mustang with a V8 that wasn't made between 1974 to 1978.  But the car in question is a 2014 Mustang GT with 6-speed manual.  A totally plain car without any bells or whistles.  Here is a picture of the actual car I'm working on purchasing:

Good looking car. I'm surprised it pays to buy it out of state.

Did you try gwinnett place ford? I bought my expedition from them.  They have a cloth 6 speed gt

http://www.gwinnettplaceford.com/new/Ford/2014-Ford-Mustang-08fdd7980a0a00496cc18787a7b59117.htm

Looks like a shipping war show in the making!!!

I'm surprised you are getting that much better of a deal out of state.  Usually new car prices are fairly fixed.  Does the dealer not have a preferred shipper?

Why not fly up, check it out in person and then drive it home? You can fly in to Baltimore for ~225-$300 on Airtran or Southwest. You could do that over a weekend (or whatever days you have off).

The other option is to go to a local dealership and ask them to find you an identical car at the same or better price. Dealerships trade inventory all the time. If they don't meet or beat your deal, fly up to Maryland and enjoy driving your dream car home

Personally, this is what I would do too. When I was looking for a car last year, I was seriously considering a car up outside of DC. My plan was to take a cheap one way on a Friday night, stay in a cheap hotel near the dealer and finalize everything Sat morning and drive it home. Leaving from MD, you could detour to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Careful though, you do not want to be caught speeding on the parkway.

This is what I did with the last car I bought. Got a good deal from a dealer in suburban DC - got a $180 AirTran ticket and went and picked it up

Check out makemydeal.com. It's a. Cool concept and I've had a good experience! No more local dealer bs.. Someone wants to add a unit count to their name and isn't upset to make only a couple hundred. $$

Sounds like too much hassle
I went to a local dealer when I bought my Tahoe Told them what I wanted and they found it and had it shipped in I had it two days later. Wrote them a check and drove it home.

It is a bit of a hassle!  But the car in Baltimore is cheaper AFTER Georgia tax and title fees AND shipping than the cheapest car in Atlanta BEFORE tax and title fees!  A couple thousand $$$$$ cheaper!!!

Make sure that it is there to buy if you decide to fly up to buy it. A Columbus GA dealer quoted us almost $3k lower than any local Toyota dealer and the car suddenly was "not available" when we called right before we headed down there. Luckily we called before we went down there.

Don't forget that now you will have to pay 7 percent tax on the value of the  car when you apply for your Georgia tag. That's going to be $2,100.00 on a $30,000 vehicle. BTW, Georgia gets to set the value, not you, so you can't say, oh I only paid $15k for this ride....

Make sure they actually know how to calculate the GA TAVT if they are including it in the price.  Most dealerships outside the state now just don't charge it and you pay it when you get your tag, since it can be a big hassle for them.

Fly and drive  :)   Nobody will take better care of your car than you will.

Go to a local Ford dealer here with the same/ very similar car you'd buy if their price wasn't higher.  Take your quotes with shipping fees form the MD dealer.  Tell them if they match the price you'll buy from them now.  If not, ask if they can have the car in MD shipped to their dealer and buy from them.

Just trying to think of some alternatives so you pay the same price with less time and hassle.

If you want to buy me a plane ticket and pay expenses I will go drive it down

All said and done, I am flying to Baltimore to buy the car in person on Friday.  The hassle with the mailing of documents and getting a wire, and getting the deal done in time to sell the Explorer to my coworker proved to be a huge pain in the ass and I told my wife I wanted to just go get it done in person.  I am feeling a bit of relief now.

The carsdirect price is 26984. Is it a lot better than that?

24,719 before taxes and fees

So will there be a $1600 sales tax or whatever in both states if you pick it up. Sorry I'm beating this horse. I just have a really hard time thinking it's economically feasible for a ga dealer to not figure this out.

Right, that new law where taxes are collected upfront in the deal is a blessing and a curse. Factor in the plane ticket and hassle but good OP you have it settled.

Wouldn't be a bad idea to get the out the door price.  Sounds like you're all set though.  May not work out once you factor in at least one spending citation on the way home

Nice ride.  Bet it is fun to drive

Do not pay GA TAVT out of state. The out of state dealer is not obligated by GA law to remit that money to GA. Some will, but my wife worked for the GA Dept of Revenue for a long time and saw many people screwed by out of state dealers. They'd have to pay the tax again, then fight for the money back from the dealer.

Too late, didn't read that before I bought the car. But damn, what a nice car it is!  The dealership has a good reputation from what my wife says.they told me that they send my registration into GA and my tags will be mailed to me. Does this sound right?

Her she is!
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Congrats on getting it. I think it will depend on the county if they mail or you have to pick the tags up.

Nice  car