How did that buying experience go? I assume you were only able to see the vehicle through whatever pictures they provided you. And how did you deal with the sales tax? I'm interested in doing something similar. Thanks
My buying experience with Kentson was great. I didn't want to fly out there and inspect a vehicle then drive it home, so I asked the salesman to look at a few of the vehicles for me and tell me which one he'd buy, since they were all about the same price and had similar mileage on the odometer: roughly 9k miles up to about 22k miles for 2015s. Then I asked him to take pictures of any dings and scratches he saw. He sent me a few from his cell phone. There was nothing major on the car, inside or out, and I knew where the wear was, so there were no surprises waiting for me. The last thing was to have it checked out, and he offered to take it across the street to the Toyota dealership there. I was going to pay them $99 for an inspection, but in the end they didn't charge me. It passed just fine and I have a scan of the inspection report. So we settled the details, then I sent him a check from my bank and awaited delivery.
They put the delivery request up on a dispatch service's web site, then picked a driver for me based on the reliability of their ratings and the price. It turned out to be only $400, and that went smoothly. The guy picked up the vehicle on a Saturday and handed me the keys at 9am on Monday. He had a checklist of damage points he was aware of -- just like one of those things you fill out when you rent a car and X or circle spots on the car's profile. There really was almost nothing -- a nick in the rear bumper and 2 very minor scratches. Like I said, no surprises. The driver was friendly and seemed very professional.
I'm really happy with the experience. Before buying from them, I had called around to a few Toyota dealers. I couldn't find anything local (in the greater Fresno or central California area) at Kentson's prices. I even talked to a salesman at a place down in southern California and up in the Dalles, Oregon. Those deals didn't pan out -- after I asked for photos of wear points, I got pictures with cracked windshields and immediately lost interest. One was even on a Toyota Certified Pre-owned Vehicle. No thanks. After reading a ton of reviews about these guys, I even called the Toyota dealership across the street from them in Bountiful. I spoke to someone in the service department who said they service their vehicles all the time and really like the people there. I was really nervous about the whole thing until I got the car, but I had spent so much time talking to salespeople over the weeks prior to that, I knew I wasn't going to find a better deal or be more confident about the condition of the vehicle, so I went for it. I'm so happy I did. Paden at Kentson was patient with all my questions and great to work with.
As far as sales tax goes, I paid that to the California DMV. I had to pay $110 to Utah for a temporary operating permit and whatever other paperwork they require, but no sales tax.
I highly recommend Kentson. The whole experience was so much better than anything else I attempted this time around or had done with previous car purchases.