I've been meaning to give a final update. I must admit doing this private party purchase out of state has taken a lot more effort and time than I expected.
I want to thank
@rexorz who made the transaction as smooth as possible. I purchased his 2017 Deep Metallic Blue Model X 100D that he
posted on 11/21/2018.
@rexorz treats his cars really well and if he's selling another one here, I highly recommend offering a fair price and jumping on it quickly.
I ended up getting the shipping done through Laura Curto @ Vehicle Shipping Group for a shipping quote. I found her name through a post mentioned somewhere else on TMC. I ended up paying $825 for open transport.
Regarding financing, I got it done though OneAZ Credit Union which was able to do 3.09% for 60 months. That's the best I found. The other options mentioned here were closer to 4%. However, I had do it to in a round-about way. They couldn't give me the loan until the car was titled/registered in AZ, so it ended up going like this:
1.
12/6 - I paid off the loan on the title on
2.
12/7 - The lender electronically released the title, CA DMV mails the title
to the seller
3.
12/10 - Had the car shipped prior to receiving the title. There was still some remaining balance owed for the negotiated price. That was to be paid when I got the title.
4.
12/14 - Car got here after an anxious 4 days.
BUT something I did not realize is that in order to get a 90-day temporary permit in AZ you need to have a
notarized bill of sale. I ended up getting 3-day permits ($1) which are really only meant to get the car to the DMV. In hindsight I wish I had asked
@rexorz to send it at the same time car was shipped.
5.
12/19 - Title arrives to
@rexorz
6.
12/22 - Title arrives to me but DMV closed on Sat
7.
12/24 - I register the car
8.
12/26 - Complete loan application and get funding
I am almost done now, just waiting for one thing... for Tesla to transfer the car to my account!
A few add'l notes:
* Initially Vehicle Shipping Group could not find a carrier to ship the car for < $1200 so I actually purchased a ticket for $70 to fly to OAK and drive back the car myself. I ended up getting cold feet and they were able to find open transport for $825 at the 11th hour.
* I definitely felt a time-crunch. I wanted to get this done by EOY so I could take a sec 179 tax deduction.
*
@rexorz was very helpful in this process and he is very timely. This would've been a lot more painful had he not been so helpful in all things with updates, shipping, title, etc.
Anyway, I hope this helps someone in the future.