You found the car. It's the right price, the right miles, maybe the exact color you've been hunting for. It's also a few states away.
So you start planning the trip: the flight, the hotel, the drive home. Here's our advice, and it comes from watching buyers do it the other way around. Have the car inspected first. Then book the flight. Not every car is worth the trip.
The short answer: yes, you can buy a car out of state, from a dealership or a private seller. Have it inspected where it sits before you travel or pay, check the title and history from home, and register the car in your home state once it's yours. Your state's DMV website tells you how.
The trip that should have waited
Stephon, who owns Car Pro Inspections, remembers one buyer well. They flew in from across the country to buy a high-end sports car, and asked us to meet them at the car for the inspection. We did.
We found a fault code for the coolant temperature sensor. The sensor wasn't giving any reading at all. And the plan was to drive the car home, thousands of miles, with no working coolant temperature reading. That's a fault we'd recommend having diagnosed before any long drive, not after.
If we had looked at the car before the flight, the buyer would have had choices. Have the seller fix it before the sale. Get the price lowered to cover the repair. Have the car shipped instead of driving it. Or skip the trip and keep looking. In Stephon's words: "Not every car is worth the travel."
You're not the only one buying from far away
About one in three of our paid pre-purchase orders since June came from a buyer who lives in a different state from the car. Buying from a distance is normal now. Doing it without anyone looking at the car first is where it goes wrong.
One of our customers put it this way: "A pre-purchase inspection saved me from flying to GA and buying a vehicle that would not have made it back to TX."
Why inspect before you travel
Once you've flown in, the trip itself starts to push you. You've spent the money. You've taken the days off. Walking away feels like wasting all of it, so a problem you would have passed on from home starts to look like something you can live with.
Read the report at home instead, and nothing is pushing you. You can look at the photos twice, sleep on it, and decide with a clear head.
Here's what that looked like for one buyer this fall. They lived out of state and were looking at a car for sale in Georgia, and they booked an Enhanced inspection. One of our certified technicians found collision damage on the passenger side rocker panel, an engine skid plate that wasn't installed and an underbody shield hanging down. The steering wheel sat off to the left and the front tires showed wear from it, so the report recommended an alignment.
The buyer read all of it from home and could decide what it was worth before spending anything on a trip.
What to do from home first
Before anyone looks at the car, you can do a lot from your couch:
- Get the VIN and run a history report. It tells you what was reported about the car, not what the car shows today. Our post Is CARFAX Accurate? explains the difference.
- Ask to see the paperwork. The title, the service records and any inspection the seller already has. Our post on two questions to ask any used-car seller covers what the answers tell you.
- Check for open recalls. Enter the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. It's free.
- Have us check the listing with our scam check. Our team checks the listing and the seller by hand, including that the VIN's year, make and model match the ad, and emails you a written report.
- Get the seller's OK for an inspection where the car sits. Then you only travel for a car whose report you have already read.
- Check your home state's rules before you buy. Title, registration and sales tax on a car from another state work differently from state to state. Your home state's DMV website is the place to check, and the next section covers the questions to ask it.
If the car is close to home, go see it yourself first, drive it, and give it your own once-over. Our free used car quick check gives you 15 things to check. If it passes your look, then have it inspected. If the car is far away, flip the order: inspection first, trip second.
Registering a car you bought in another state
The paperwork is where an out-of-state car purchase most often surprises people. The rules belong to your home state, so read its DMV page before you pay, and get answers to these questions:
- How do I get the car home legally? Many states issue a temporary tag or transit permit so you can drive a car from another state home before you register it. Ask the seller or the selling state's DMV what they issue, and how long it lasts.
- Where do I pay sales tax? In many cases you pay it when you register the car in your home state, not where you bought it. A dealership in another state may collect it for you, or may not. Ask before you sign, so you don't pay twice.
- Does my state need an inspection or emissions test to register the car? Some do, some don't. That state check is a different thing from a pre-purchase inspection: it decides whether you can register the car, not whether it's a good car to buy.
- Dealer or private seller? A dealership usually handles the title paperwork. In a private sale, you carry the signed title to your own DMV yourself, so check the name and VIN on the title match the seller and the car before you pay.
None of this tells you what shape the car is in. That's the part only someone at the car can answer.
How an inspection works when you can't be there
You don't need to be present. We're fully mobile and inspect the vehicle right where it sits, anywhere across the greater Atlanta, GA and Orlando, FL metro areas.
- We go to the car. A dealer lot, a private seller's driveway, or wherever the seller allows an inspection, in the areas we serve. Get the seller's OK, then tell us where the car is and we'll schedule it.
- You see what we saw. A written report with photos and, where the car can be scanned, the diagnostic scan results, sent to you by email. Enhanced and Elite add a video walk-through.
- Talk it through. On Enhanced you can request a 15-minute consultation call with your inspector or our lead technician. Elite includes a 30-minute priority consultation you can request, plus we follow up with you.
- When the report arrives. Essential and Enhanced reports arrive within 24 hours of the inspection, and most go out the same day. Elite reports arrive by 11:59 PM Eastern on inspection day, or we refund $99.
Which tier fits a long-distance buy? Enhanced is built for careful shoppers and long-distance buyers. Elite is for high-value or one-of-one cars and sight-unseen out-of-state buys, and it adds a re-inspection credit if the seller fixes something and you want it verified.
If a travel fee applies where the car is, we confirm it with you before the inspection. For the whole visit step by step, see How a Mobile Pre-Purchase Car Inspection Works.
Buying a car in the Atlanta or Orlando area from out of state? Call us at 833-644-0800 and talk it through before you book anything. Then book your inspection. More on our Atlanta and Orlando inspections.
Quick answers
Should I get a car inspected before buying it out of state? Yes, and before you travel if you can. If the inspection turns something up, you can negotiate, have it fixed first, ship the car instead, or skip the trip.
Do I need to be there for the inspection? No. We inspect the car where it sits and send you the report by email. Enhanced and Elite add a video walk-through and a consultation call you can request once you have read it.
Where do you inspect? Across the greater Atlanta, GA and Orlando, FL metro areas, at a dealer lot, a private seller's driveway, or wherever the seller allows an inspection.
How do I register a car I bought in another state? Through your home state's DMV, under its rules. Expect to show the signed title, proof of insurance and sometimes a state inspection, and to pay any sales tax your state is still owed. Many states let you drive home first on a temporary tag.
Is it safe to buy a car from another state sight unseen? It's safer with a pre-purchase inspection where the car sits, so you read the report and photos before you pay or travel.
Is a history report enough when I can't see the car? No. A history report shows what was reported. It can't show what the car looks like, how it runs or what has been repaired without a record.
Free: the Used Car Paperwork Checklist, what to get in writing before you pay.