Advice: buying a car interstate

[dingo]

As some of you may know I am in the process of looking for a WRX as my next car. Now for various reasons they are cheaper outside of Western Australia, so I have started looking interstate for the right car.

I have found a very nice MY05 in Darwin (up north) for the price you would pay for an MY03 here in Perth.....but I don't have the time to fly up for a look right now. :bah:

So I would have to buy it without seeing it in person, I would get an inspection done on the car by the RAC (or similar) but what other things can I do?

Anyone have experience in such a situation, what things would you recommend?

[nthfinity]

ive heard your interested in in the rex a few times... and you may have heard i love it too
every dealer experience i've ever had is simply staggering, and great service. upon delivery for inspection, i dont think the dealer would try and throw you a curve ball, since they have no intrest in the car (unless you are buying it from the used lot on a dealer) first good thing, is as long as the km's driven are 20,000km's then you have plenty of warenty left... not to mention, its a very reliable car.

the experiences my family has had buying cars that we havent seen have gone both ways.
by brother bought a Taurus SHO at distance; and it wasnt the same car pictured... it was an automatic when the car pictured was a manuel... still plenty fun, but definately a poor experience.
my cousin bought an Eagle Talon TSi in Illinois that was in great contition, and nearly $2000 cheaper then any he could find within the state.

i doubt you'll get shafted like my brother did, particularly if its getting inspected.

good luck dingo

[dingo]

The car will most likely be bought privately, not from a dealer.

However I can't really see much that could go wrong, if the inspection doesn't show any major probs then it should be fine. Also, the car will have about 2yrs of the factory warrantly left, so that covers me also.