Buying A Used Vehicle From Far Away

I wanted a southern vehicle for the same reasons. I found our Yukon on autotrader.com it was a private owner selling it. He had alot of pictures online, and took additional ones for me. I was going to use an escrow service that would hold the payment until the vehicle was shipped and I could inspect it. If I did not like it, I would have had to pay to ship it back. The seller did not want to go through that. I flew to TX and he picked me up at the airport with the Yukon. I brought a transport plate from my dmv and an insurance card with me to drive it home, I think we used a bank check or cashiers check for payment.
But, you may not need to go that far away to find a clean vehicle. I have since then bought our pacifica and routan in massachusetts. They were several years old and still looked new underneath. The mechanic where I work bought his truck there and the underside was great as well. They have road salt restrictions there.