THE LONG DISTANCE USED CAR PURCHASEIf you are really serious about buying a specific used vehicle and you don’t want to wait, you may have to look in markets that are much further away.  Maybe 500 miles or 1000 miles away.  Maybe even on the other side of the country.  How do I know? After searching locally for a very specific car that I really wanted back in late 2010, I finally gave up and bought one from a dealer and had it shipped to me. Unfortunately that particular car had so many issues that the dealer eventually bought it back a month later. After that initial purchase failure, I was even more determined to find my dream car, no matter where that journey would lead.  It took only a couple of days and a few dozen phone calls to owners in other states before I finally found the perfect car. Three days and one successful prepurchase inspection later, I was on a 2-hour flight to buy the car in person. I then immediately turned around and drove it 825 miles back home, all in less than 22-hours. 01:45 - START WITH THE QUESTION: WHAT CAR DO YOU WANT?You should decide what you want first before embarking on a long distance car purchase. My long-distance used car purchase took place in late 2010/early 2011 and there were several attributes and features I wanted in a car at that time: I wanted something fun to driveI wanted it to have good to excellent handling I wanted a decent amount of horsepower and torqueNeeded to be able carry 4-adults All-wheel drive was required for snow, but I didn’t want an SUVWanted to spend in low/mid $20K-range, maxUsed car I was looking for was likely going to be 3-5 years old My target car? - a 2004-2008 Audi S4 Avant with a manual transmission, but my wife put the kibosh on the manual, so back to the drawing board. Other cars considered: VW R32 (2008-only model) with 3.2-liter DSG transmissionAudi A3 3.2 Quattro (with Tiptronic automatic)Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (with a dual-clutch automatic)Subaru WRX Sti None of these cars lived up to my expectations, so I reconsidered the Audi S4 Avant with the 6-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission. 10:00 - THIS IS THE ONE!... OR NOT. I didn't have any luck finding an Audi S4 Avant with the features and price I wanted locally, so I enlisted the help of friend who worked at a large dealer group to help me find the right car. After a week of searching, one turned up at a great price. After some research and negotiation, I bought it. 11:25 - PROBLEMS FROM THE BEGINNINGThe car arrived with shipping damage, then during a pre-purchase inspection at a local Audi dealer, more substantial damage was found. 14:45 - THE CAR I BOUGHT IS BROKEN... NOW WHAT? After inspecting the car using their own mechanic, the dealer group I purchased the car from agreed to buy it back and reimburse the purchase price, plus any of my expenses. 18:00 - CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE TO GET WHAT YOU REALLY WANTAfter that purchase failure, I adjusted my search strategy to get what I wanted. First, I decided I would search nationwide to find the right car. Next, I was willing to spend up to $10,000 more for the right carFinally, I set my sights on finding a car that