When your shopping for a car what do you look for?

Things to consider:
1. Builder's reputation
2. Car design
3. price, features, options
4. Knowing what you want.
5. what else?

Now lets say you never heard of GD.com and are not sure how to research these things, your not mechanically inclined, what do you do?

How do you look past the bling?

What do women want?

that might be the easier question.

This is after you buy the wife a new toaster etc etc

If you're not at least somewhat mechanically inclined, spend the $$ and take the car to a place you trust. I think Sandcar Services has a service like this.

Bling is for looks, safety, performance, and reliability are what should be most important. At least in my book they are.

(edited to add this)
The above pertains to buying a used car. If you're ordering a new car, product knowledge and customer service should rank pretty high. Look for an established builder, don't find out after the fact.

Buy used, there will be an influx of buggies for sale by Oct. New buggies and ARM's gone wild, results in a surplus of toys Fo Sale. If you are not mechanically inclined duning may not be for you. You are turning wrenchs or fixing something constanly, you name it it breaks in the dunes, it worse than boats. If it has heated seats, tv's or a subwoofer, you dont want it, Also my number one thing is the radiator, where is it and how big is it. Windshields block the flow, having it hidden blocks the flow,and hanging it over you passengers is a disaster. Weight is still the enemy buggies have become big like farm equipment and handle that way as well. Buy a Rhino

Find some buddys that have them and Test Drive...

BOTTOM LINE IS.....

Will you be happy with your purchase when it's sitting in the garage sharing your Beer Time!

Do you want to look at it's every Weld, Bolt & Hanger... over and over?

Will you respect it in the morning after watching a Nascar race sitting in it's seat's going VVVVAAAARRRROOOMMM VVVAAAARRROOOMMM?

Will you rub it more than your wife or girl friend?

Most of all make sure you have common sense. We don't need anymore newcomers with more money then cent's.... If driving on the freeway is stressful to you... go buy a surf board, play in the sand at the beach...

xoxox

10 mph 100 ft of camps.. Safety first...

Mike, I would definantly buy from a builder that has the rep for not only a sound buggy, but for Customer Service.

If there is no customer service, you will regret it later.

My opinion,

FUNCO
BUCKSHOT
EXTREME PERFORMANCE
SAND CARS UNLIMITED
SUSPENSIONS UNLIMITED
SANDCO

Just my opinion...

Arizona haters....

TATUM
SANDLIMO
REVENGE
SANDWINDER
SANDTRIX

we offer a service to go through the entire car before a purchase and make sure everything is good to go. And if not the owner can have it repaired by us or take it back to the builder. (kinda like a certified dealership inspecton)

An excellent service to have available, and well worth taking advantage of especially for the inexperienced. It's always good to have a third party look at any car. Much more objective and isn't looking it with any emotion. Always a good idea to learn as much as you possibility can of the reputation of the builder, customers service, background experience, number of cars built over how many years.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ WHAT HE SAID. You can have an awesome car but due to very nature of these cars being custom built...your going to need your builder to stand behind their product. Somthing sometime will to be fixed replaced or tweeked.

There will be tons of people telling you to go to different places, I just got INCREDIBLY lucky like I did.

I think the best thing is just get on the phone with some builders, and get a feel for them, but I would start with the known names and proven reputations, and where they are headed in the future.

Good luck.

It dose not do any good to start with KNOWN names and even builders with PROVEN names dont get you very far. There are pleanty of builders on your list that are a pain in the a$$ and all of them have had ther up's and downs.(wasent Revenge formaly known as Preditor sand car's!!!!) I'm not saying that Justin is a bad guy in the least, But every one has a history. What I think you should do is Ride in everything you can. Not a builder demo but meet up with people and get a ride, that way you dont have to listen to every sales pitch in the industry. Find out what you like (every car handles diffrently) and then talk to the builders and see if you can come on by the shop and hang out and ask questions. may be 2-5 times and by then you can get a feal for the Service you are buying. It is a big investment and you are not just buying a car you are buying the whole package.

For me I dont realy have a favorite builder I like what alot of diffrent companys are doing. But beeing in the industry for about a year and duneing for 15 I know what builders to align myself with andones to stay away from.

If you have any questions for me feal free to give me a call and we can discuss it into more detail!!!

Tim

Talk to other owners and see what they like and dislike about their car.
Go for a test drive.

If you really want to do your due diligence......Call vendors and see if your builder pays on time, if at all. Not paying often means not having the parts to finish the car. Hard to build the car if the frame is still at the powdercoater because of non-payment!
Taking it a step further, (at least in AZ.) you can go to the county website that the builder is in and research court records. Type in the company name or the builder's name. You might be suprised what you find out. Shows liens,lawsuits, etc.
Pubilc records are great

A little checking will seperate the shady builders from the honest ones.
Do you due diligence before you fork out the cash.

There is a lot to be said of builders have referrals from other car owners and repeat customers buying 2nd, 3rd. and even 4th cars from them.

Buckshot and good customer service??????? I have 4 friends that have owned or own a buckshot and they wouldn't buy a bolt from andrew.

Customer service not only during the build but after the sale means a lot.

The biggest mistake people make is getting in a hurry to make the buy, based on what a friend thinks you should do. If you have no knowledge of cars and aren't mechanical, then you MUST go for a ride in any car before you buy. Just like riding in a Mercedes versus riding in a Bronco, you can tell a lot from a 15min ride. And better yet, driving the car makes a big impression, feeling the feedback from the steering wheel, how well the car turns, does it push, oversteer, or understeer, etc. Drive the car, that's my best advice, and don't buy anything till you "at least" ride in it. As for bling..... that' up to you. Everyone wants a car you can be proud of, something to polish, etc. It just costs a little more.

Well..I'm new to Sancars, so I'm not sure how much my opinion counts. I know boats and Motorhomes...Basically, they're all TOYS...

I had to decide WHAT we wanted to do with the car. I like bling, however nothing but wheelies and drag racing are not my thing (No disrespect to those of you with kick a.. rockets)

Our gig is dunning...TRUE run around, go-fast; effortless dunning.

Once we got a feel for the manufacturers best suited for this style, we went to their shops.

The 2 most important issues to me were these;

1. Customer Service / committment to the sport
2. What do their current / past customers have to say?

In both of these instances, HANDS DOWN Funco was our choice. EVERY owner who was selling was VERY satisfied with their car, and almost every one was selling, because they had another FUNCO on order.

The entire GEORGE family has been involved in the sport FOREVER, and continue to put their heart and sole into it. In just 5-6 weeks they have welcomed us into the "Funco Family" making our decision a easy one.

By the way....Our car....Handles better than I could have ever imagined and is flawless in the dunes.

Sorry for the long post....Just my 2 cents and hope this helps

\

[QUOTE] I seem to remember you were trying to align yourself with xtreme motorsports a while back.

I dont have any bias toward any builder. If allen want to turn out the product that he dose thats fine I am more than happy to fix what he dose or dosenot do (ask a few members on the board) From a business stand point I have offerd services for companys that can we say dont know the meaning of coustumer service. and I beleve Xtreme is one of them, along with a bunch of others.

I can respect your opinion. I as hope you do mine. Just an opinion.

When I bought my first car I was not a member of GD.Com. Prior to purchasing a used Sand Limo with a stock 22R Toyota and bus box for 17k I rode in as many cars as possible and tried to learn from others. I then shoehorned a Nissan V6,FAST Computer,Mendi E box,new radiator, new seats, etc in the car and ended up at around $42k (Sold that car for $35k). If I had been a member of this site at the time I probably would have never bought that car. Would have found something that was close to right from the beginning. (Even after all the work and $ that car still only had 182 rwhp, loss of travel due to limiting the travel/cv angle, no brakes, and no power steering.) I will say that by doing all the work myself was a great learning experience and helped tremendously in building my current car. Speaking of the new car I bugged Grant at Funco for 3 years and regattas in a row. The first two he took me for a ride and on the third I got a full ride during the poker run. Before that ride I was 80% and that absolutely sinched the deal. I do wish the budget would have allowed for the Subie but have to say that I am extremely happy with the turbo v6 even with the extra 120 lbs. For me personally GD.Com has been invaluable in the new build. I could probably go back through all my old threads and find 30 things that I learned and implemented in the build. Definately feel sorry for those that make a purchase without this resource.


Thread on my new car

I agree with this statement 100%. I would have left many things off my car if it wasn't for this site. GD rocks

No disrespect here. its just that my friends have lost big money doing business with andrew.

Just pick up this book. It will tell you everything to look for and what and how to buy..

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Who cares?!

Before I get flamed, it's a joke!! haha, funny, laugh.. You know!! lol

I think you should look for,

1. lots of chrome

2. subwoofer

3. animated character on paint job

4. big rims

5. tall paddles

6. sat. radio

7. dvd screens

Do not spend your money on,

1. reliability

2. quality trans

3. HP

4. shocks

5. safety

6. handling

Go for the show...........