Last August I was starting college in a new city out of state where I didn’t know anyone. Over the summer I went to a round-up weekend for out of state kids to enroll in classes and go thru orientation. One night over the weekend I was at a local bowling alley with some people that I had met over the weekend and…

I went across country, and across borders, for the right car. Thanks to Bring A Trailer, I found out that a Triumph TR6 was within my budget for a second/weekend/fun car. Being a classic car there’s the usual criteria of hoping to find one in decent shape, but I also wanted a few other things - pre-1974 (no giant,…

I was looking for a base-level 997, but for the same money that people typically asked for that model, this 4S with the cool aftermarket wheels showed up. The 4S of that vintage and mileage could reasonably have been listed for $5-8K more at that time. The seller was a terrific guy, amazingly meticulous, and just was…

The farthest I have ever gone is a last minute flight cancellation to San Francisco to immediately booking another flight to Portland when I changed my mind from one BMW 525 touring/5-speed to another. Which I then drove 966 miles home to Santa Barbara.

The first owner of my old 92 camaro somehow found me. He told me all of his stories about it. It was his first car his parents got it for his 16th birthday. He wanted to buy it but there was one problem. he lived in Oregon and i lived in Missouri. So we worked a deal out and split the difference he paid me $3500 and…

About 750 miles to pick up my 2009 Pontiac G8 GT. Brand new in Ohio, sight unseen, drove back to New Hampshire.

For what I had read on both Jalopnik comments and on Oppo posts, the Brazilian and American views on buying cars from distant places are very different. In this very post I’m reading stories about people who traveled hundreds of miles to buy cars. Even though there are some people who also do this in Brazil,…

I wanted a 78-79 F-series. I drove 550 miles from Bentonville, AR to Austin, TX to get it. The return trip was memorable. Constant rainstorm the whole way with almost no brakes and carb issues. My follow vehicle (brother-in-law) was pretty much leading the way at 80+ mph. I was just stoked she could keep up on the…

It took two months to get it back on the road the first time. I’ve been enjoying the rebuild of it now, it’s a nice balance to my engineering job. Like it takes multiple years from kickoff to production for the day job, but in a weekend I can completely swap out the suspension on my car. It’s a good sense of…

Oh, I just drove 250 miles one way last weekend for a set of BMW rims. In my defense they were like new and seller only wanted $100 so it was a hell of a deal. I had been watching local Craigslist for months and there was nothing. Also they were in a really nice area I hadn’t been to in awhile so it was a good day to…

Like David Tracy, I suffer from an infatuation with Jeep Cherokees. I’m currently on my 5th. Every time I’ve sold them for one reason or another, I regretted it.

About 2,400 miles each way. Four years ago, I was in search of a particular car, and I prowled the interwebz for weeks, checking the usual websites every few days, without limitations on the miles from my home. I tripped over a car that just fit within my budget that had no business being in that range. I immediately…

I bought a Craigslist BMW e46 over 600 miles from my house. I borrowed a big ass pickup truck and rented a Uhaul car trailer one way that was surprisingly affordable. I got out for $135 on that. It was pretty painless as the trailer came with everything needed to tie it down and the BMW wasnt that heavy so I was able…

That is a very painful question for me.

Last weekend I bought a new F-150 from a dealership 700 miles away. I was looking for something very specific in terms of configuration. None of my local dealers had anything close, nor did they seem enthusiastic to order one. It turns out a dealership 700 miles away had what I wanted, the incentives from Ford were…

And to complete the story, here’s the car in its natural habitat:

I purchased a ‘65 Mustang based on an eBay ad, from a chap out near Allentown, PA. I live in Fort Wayne, IN, so about 9 hours each way to pick it up/bring it home. Not optimal, but doable.

Flew from Chicago to Long Island, NY. Drove it back.

Katheryn, on the off chance you are reading this — it sounds like you have a book in you. Your comment quoted above speaks volumes and I would read more of what you have to say.

John DeLorean was a large part of what inspired me to become an Automotive Engineer. I sincerely hope the movie is more documentary than hollywood. If they bother to dig deep enough, the truth is stranger than fiction, there’s a lot of material to make a very compelling narrative.