Transport Project Shell Home

[ryanhmusic]

Alright I am in need of some advice:

Friend is starting a decently large project and needs an E46 M3 donor car [hint: an S54 is a pretty exciting engine].

We live in the Boston, MA area -- there's a salvage car for sale with 70,000 miles on it in Kansas.

The car has nothing mechanically wrong with it [supposedly], just a fucked up front bumper / hood / fenders.

"Guaranteed runs & drives"

How would you guys get it back to Boston? We are leaning towards driving it back as that would be a pretty fun weekend vacation and give us a chance to really get to know the car before we tear it down. How would you deal with the registration / sales tax stuff since we wont drive it for more than three days. Can we drive it home with insurance without registering it? I seem to remember theres a five day grace period or something?

How would you guys get it home?

[trj]

Depends on state laws I guess.
I believe there is a 3 or 5 day grace period where you can drive the car with bill of sale without registering it. But definitely have insurance.

Now, when you say fucked up hood, fender and bumper, I believe it somewhat fucked radiator, coolant lines, sensors, and fan. You really don't want to take chances with E46 cooling system. I would rather have it transported.

[Audibot]

There are grace periods. I agree with trj though--get it transported. Even if it's a fun road trip for you to rent a truck/trailer, haul it home. I think most auto transporters would charge between $500 and $750 to ship it, or whatever it'd cost you to drive out there and haul it back. I doubt it would have been totaled for just superficial damage.

For reference, I did a round trip trek from NJ to Kansas. It was 4 days of driving, but we did stop at a few places to see some places we've never seen before. I imagine it'd be similar for you.