Working with foregin buyer - help

[Charley Lillard]

Let him wire the money and then let his Friends in L.A. pick the car up and handle the shipping.

[CptKlutz]

I've bought 5 cars in the US so far for export.
Rule #1: Never buy a car on pics alone - fly over to see the car! $$$ purchase so a plane ticket is peanuts.
Rule #2: If you cant take possession of the car & title personally (or by help of a good buddy) use Escrow.com.

I would never wire money without an escrow service!
Escrow.com is GREAT for BOTH parties in such a transaction. Have the Frenchman put down a nice deposit and agree that the "transfer complete" term is that the shippers transporter loads the car and you give the shipper the title. Most shipping/transport companies know how to work with escrow setups.

[kenhaw]

Hi there
I am a danish guy who also bought my Camaro in the states. I wired the money and had the owner drop the car of at the shipping company. I did not travel over there to see the car but the owner provided me with so many pictures and videos that I was pretty sure it was in the condition I was promised. It is actually scarier to be the buyer in this situation, as long as you have the money you are safe.
I am actually living in the south of France now and have been here for 2 1/2 year. I live in Cannes, the city with the film festivals. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.

Kenneth

[CliffS]

If the buyer wants to wire money, there is almost no safer way. Just check with your local bank. Get the right bank details like your a/c #, bank address, Bank SWIFT address, and very important the ABA routing number! If the buyer has send the $$ ask him for a SWIFT MT103 message from his bank which proofs he wired the $$ and are on their way. Just sit and wait until funds hit your a/c. If you want I can check the MT103 to see if it's legit.
I wire money on a regular basis to my buddy in St. louis and working for a International bank for 11 years helps a lot.
Did the same thing with buying my last car in LA, wired the funds (downpayment) but flew over to check out the car.

[Lowend]

Guys - thanks for all of the feedback here.
The buyer supposedly wired money on April 8th (today is the 11th if this gets archived) and the buyer says to expect 2-6 days for arrival.
I'm working with Bank of the West on my end, and being they don't have what I would call a "strong international presence" I am expecting this to be more on the 6 day side of things.

The buyer is setting up Schumacher Cargo Logistics to pick up the car once payment is confirmed.

At this point (providing the wire transfer comes in) the only potential problem I see is that the DMW release of liability form does not have a section for the international information

[paul67]

Ask for his address and home tel number and phone him,also this then can be confimed by checking name address in french phone book ie its prob on web and google earth to show address exists and not in some slum also if he is name is in print on the web somewhere ie relayting to the cars he races.

[paul67]

If you ring the shipper they should beable to help you with the paper work,I have imported a few into the UK.

[neki67]

If you ring the shipper they should beable to help you with the paper work,I have imported a few into the UK.

I agree with Paul (at least where it comes to the DMV paperwork ;-) ). I have imported quite a few into the Netherlands and my shipper always cleared/clears the DMV paperwork.

[Lowend]

UPDATE:
The money arrived, Schumacher Cargo is going to be picking up the car at the beginning of next week.

I tried to get Schumacher's help on the paperwork but honestly they and were kinda dicks about it. (I am unimpressed with this company so far).

No matter, I think I've got things straightened out myself.

It looks like I have a happy ending coming up real soon... except for the part where I don't have the Camaro anymore.

[kenhaw]

well glad everything is working out for you.
Regarding loosing the 71 camaro, I am sure you are going to spend the money buying a 69 instead