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Another reasonably priced TR4 from the US.


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Good afternoon,

A couple of questions for the experienced car importers if I may.

How does one ensure that the person advertising a car for sale in the US is genuine and the car real and, what is the safest/securist way of paying for such a car to protect oneself from being scammed? If the purchase is through Ebay there is the Ebay guarantee but what about something like Craigslist?

Thanks

Graham

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A few years ago I bought a '63 Corvette in N Carolina. We went over for a wedding and saw it for sale, drove it, etc. so at least I knew it existed.

 

Contacted a firm called Auto Driveaway, they said to get the money to them and they would only hand it over upon collecting the car (by this time we were in California). So I did the transfer and this guy and his wife paid for the Vette and drove it I believe to their home. The shipping and insurance to Liverpool were arranged for about $800 (this was a few years ago !), the car was driven to the docks and I drove it home from Liverpool once it arrived.

 

It all went very smoothly without any hitches, the big plus point being that no money changed hands until the car was picked up. I suppose you could probably arrange for an inspection of the car before starting the process.

 

And yes, that TR4 looks excellent value ! Auto Driveaway, incidentally, is one of the firms that do free trips across America if you deliver a car for them. They're a well established firm 60 years +. Just looked at the website and see that there's a Sienna (whatever that is) needs to go from Cleaveland (sic) to San Diego, presumably to be driven by a lady with plenty of clevage (sic) !

Edited by Superaquarama
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Here's a fixer upper from the same place I got mine, they offer a great service and its Canadian dollars too and have contacts so you can get it shipped really easily to the uk. $4700 = £2321.81

 

http://www.drakesbritishmotors.com/forsale-triumphs.htm

 

Gavin

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Here's a fixer upper from the same place I got mine, they offer a great service and its Canadian dollars too and have contacts so you can get it shipped really easily to the uk. $4700 = £2321.81

 

http://www.drakesbritishmotors.com/forsale-triumphs.htm

 

Gavin

 

I can also recommend Len & Scott Drake. Although they don't have much stock at the moment, they are exactly as described. I bought my TR6 from there unseen and was very pleased with what I got.

 

They have a yard full of rust buckets which are used for spares but not sold, as he only sells relatively rust free cars.

 

Cheers

Graeme

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I purchased mine through Drakes, and as they were a registered dealer I was quite confident that the car was correct. I paid a percentage deposit and the rest with Credit card for the insurance but with a private seller you pay your money and take your chances. When working with dealers just be aware that if you pay by card there is normally a handling fee from the dealer and the currency convertion fee from the card company and bank but it's a small price to pay for a bit of security. But the monetry savings far outweighs the cost of the fees.

If the dealer is true to his word he will bend over backwards to provide plenty of pics and don't be afraid to ask for additional pics of specific areas and again this goes towards their credibility if they hum and moan about the questions you ask or make excuses not to take additional pics that should send up a warning flag or two. Dealers also have links to shippers, before you hand over money talk to the shippers and make sure you have confirmed everything by email as well as talking direct on the phone using the shippers contact numbers from their website. By doing this your satisfying yourself that everything is correct and that there is nothing fishy with the dealler or shipper. The shipper should then give you the UK base of operations which again can be used in the same way to check out the overseas contacts and if they are all singing from the same hymn book one is confirming against the other you should be ok. Remember to do all this and get confirmation of everything you can by email and phone and don't hand over any money unless they all check out.

But buying from a private seller there is always the risk you are buying an expensive picture so make sure you do your homework as once you've transferred the cash to a private account overseas there is very little you can do to retrieve it.

 

Good luck with any imports and if you need any advice or contacts for the shippers I used drop me a PM.

 

Gavin

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