Anyone bought a car off EBAY?

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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Does anyone have any experience of this ever so slightly scary procedure?

I've only bought cars from dealers in the past but my judgement is terrible anyway so I doubt I can get ripped off any more doing it on-line!

Just need to know your experiences, any pointers you can give and whether it's as safe as Ebay and some of the motoring press make it out to be. I don't want to spend £10,000+ and make a cock-up of it and be paying for mistakes over the next few years.
 
make sure you HPi it, my friend bought a car off ebay and it was the only time he didnt HPI a car, turned out to be accident damaged, luckily (for him) he managed to sell it on (via ebay) for what he paid for it when he found out.



not sure id ever buy a car off ebay, although ive not spent more than £25 on ebay ever!
 
To be honest, it's no worse than buying from a dealer if you go have a look at it before you bid - You still get to give it a good look over, test drive etc. but also have the added benefit of checking out the owner, the area which might help you decide whether it's been thrashed to death (unlike the dealer who only sells cars that were owned by little old ladies !).
If the VIN NO. on the logbook matched the one on the car it's a good thing, if there's no log book Walk away...........
I'm currently running around in a Discovery, bought off a bloke in Nottingham via ebay. Didn't look at it before I went up there with the money, I relied solely on his description and a couple of emails followed with a couple of telephone calls and have to say I'm chuffed to bits with it. I've owned Discos before, so knew what questions to ask and haven't yet found anything wrong with it that he hadn't already mentioned.

Personally I tend to steer clear of the ebay "dealers" it's fairly easy to tell from the descriptions. Go for a genuine private sale with an honest description (by that I mean one that actually mentions the little minor blemishes). Avoid anything that says it's absolutely mint (I sold an extremely well looked after Range Rover to fund the Disco which was mint inside and out but had little interest until I re-listed it and added a few faults like "wheel-nut scuffed" and "carpet in boot needs a clean" - mad, but it does make a difference).

You haven't said what car you're after, but £10k is a fair chunk of change and you might be able to sleep better at night if you do use a dealer if only for the warranty.......

Just noticed whitewash beat me to it and realised I forgot to mention the HPI check....... Absolute must irrespective of whether it's a dealer, private or ebay. (My Disco HPI check shows it as Cat D - Which the bloke mentioned in the Ad. But with all the history, I also got a £4869 invoice and full engineers report to confirm all the flood damage had been fixed and it was roadworthy).
 
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my old house mate brought a old landrover from ebay, he paid cash on collection so it wasnt so bad and he got to check it out.
 
I'm looking at an '05-reg Seat Leon Cupra R 225. Great car, what I want before I get sprogged up, but it's one of those models that's either loved and cherished or thrashed to bits.. and I want to stay away from the latter!!
 
I've bought 2 cars off of ebay. Both are very rare cars, so I couldn't afford the time to view them, I just had to buy them there. We're not talking much money at all by the way.

First car was not as described. It was stolen/recovered, not on MIAFTR. (MIAFTR is the actual database HPI search for insurer write off records). It was hidden very well, the locks were replaced with just rotating barrels, and any thing could open them. Also most annoyingly the head gasket had gone. Anyway I managed to get this monkey down further and got it home in one piece for proper repairs.

The second car, (my datsun) was bought off ebay. No issues this this one though because it hadn't been on the road since '97 when I got it last year.

If you're spending anything more than what you're prepared to lose, do not bid on a car without seeing it first. To be honest ebay should just be considered as an advertising site, decide your price first, see if they will end the auction early, if not just bid that amount. Bidding is an addiction for some people, they will just bid a higher price to have the satisfaction of a win.

A HPI check will only show records where the insurer has had theft reported to them, or if they've declared a vehicle a loss. So the vehicle could still have been in many accidents and repaired but not be shown on HPI.
 
I've bought cars off eBay, don't be afraid to get it inspected after you have won [don't bother before as this will potentially waste money if you don't win it] and if it isn't right walk away.

You will probably find a lot of dealers on eBay, I was looking for another Fabia vRS the other day and spotted two Skoda dealers listing their cars on eBay ...
 
h4rri said:
I've bought cars off eBay, don't be afraid to get it inspected after you have won [don't bother before as this will potentially waste money if you don't win it] and if it isn't right walk away.

You will probably find a lot of dealers on eBay, I was looking for another Fabia vRS the other day and spotted two Skoda dealers listing their cars on eBay ...
Click to expand...

I pressume you mean listing them as private auction style sales with no indication that they were dealers?

However, for the OP, follow all the advice already given, but with one addition piece from me - be very careful of auction fever. We have watched cars sell privately on ebay for more than we would roll them off the forecourt for and way above CAP/Glass guide prices, simply because in the last few minutes, determined bidders have gone silly. Set your maximum price for a car [having done all the aforementioned checks] and dont go above it, don't worry, there will be another one along soon if you miss out this time.

£10,000 is a big chunk of money, so unless you can get what you want with some existing manufacturer warranty, then checking out dealers isn't necessarily a bad thing either.
 
LadyLens said:
I pressume you mean listing them as private auction style sales with no indication that they were dealers?
Click to expand...

Listed as 'classified ads' with non-de-script names and no hint of being a dealer. Noticed the similarities between a couple of vehicles on eBay and the traders site which turned out they were the same vehicle.
 
A friend of mine has bought two cars off ebay, took a mechanic with him on collection and both were in excellent condition, and both at below market value.

I asked if they weren't up to scratch what he would do and he just said that they were not as advertised and wouldn't pay the car. I guess this is acceptable for ebay disputes :shrug:
 
h4rri said:
Listed as 'classified ads' with non-de-script names and no hint of being a dealer. Noticed the similarities between a couple of vehicles on eBay and the traders site which turned out they were the same vehicle.
Click to expand...

I dont think, if they were classifieds, its such a problem as long as when you go to visit the car [bear in mind that you dont buy via ebay on a classified ads] they arent making out they are privately owned, hence avoiding warranties, vat, etc.
 
a few years back i bought a low value car off ebay, but only after the auction had ended (unsold) and I approached the seller with a bargain offer (for me). He was fairly local, i inspected it, drove 13k miles in it in a year then sold it on ebay for a reasonable price. No complaints here but I would think twice about spending k's on ebay!
 
I haven't but my wife's cousin did and got burned badly. Seller asked him to pay by moneygram, sent a very convincing email and has never been seen since :(
 
I've bought 2 cars off ebay, both have been really good (and cheap) buys !!

Goes without saying though, check the sellers feedback etc and view it first. The car that is
 
Have seen a similar car at the local SEAT dealer, albeit it two grand more, but I suppose for piece of mind and after-sales service, it will porbably be worth it.

I hate swimming int he shark-infested waters of franchaise dealers, but enoyugh people get good service that I should give them the benefit of the doubt.

Would love to have the bottle to buy 'private' through ebay (although there are plenty of dealer cars listed but none that I like) but playing it safe runs in my genes so I'm heading down to Listers in Coventry and am gonna don my test pilot head :)

£12,000 is the asking price on it and I'm nagging myself that it's a hell of a lot to pay for such amazing performamvce when i culd jsut as well buy a diesel, but I've never owned a rapid car of this calibre so I think my heart will do the talking. Best practise my haggling...
 
I also belong to a car forum as well as this one and noticed quite a few scams happening on ebay at present reguarding cars.Just be careful whatever you decide.If its cash when you go to pick it up,bring some-body BIG with you.
 
I would'nt part with any money until you've seen the motor. Today I went with my son to see a camper van he succesfully bidded for on Ebay. It was described as fair condition fair... it was minging. Worst handpaint job I've seen in years, mileometer numbers misaligned looking suspiciously dodgy also mileage did not match the condition, living area I woud'nt let the dog sleep in. Tyres walls were cracked and cut despite it having a new mot. Then they had the cheek to say my son was committed to buy cos it was done on Ebay. Needless to say we were pretty rude to him for wasting our time fuel costs to get there. It's been reported to Ebay.

Make sure you see before parting with cash.
 
frank, bummer :(

I've deffo gone off the idea of buying from ebay, although I may sell my mondeo through it after getting a totally pants part-ex valuation from the SEAT garage I visited today. Cheeky bleedin' car salesmen always try and shaft you on a part-ex.

Test drove a SEAT Cupra R today and think I've foudn my car but it's just a case of doing the sums....

... I'm sure I'll make them stack up!! :)
 
I've bought and sold loads of motors over the years on eBay: two of our three current motors (two Defenders and a Disco) were from eBay.

In fact, the only time I bought a lemon was the one I got from Autotrader :LOL:

Buying: check out the sellers feedback in depth, and walk away if anything feels wrong at all. Pay in cash once you have seen the car and are happy.

Selling: take the time to write a very lenghtly description and take lots of photos (and no one here should have the excuse of not being able to take lots of nice photos!).

When we sold our Range Rover a couple of years ago, I posted more than one hundred photos of it up, including ones underneath taken at the MOT (a couple of weeks before the sale). As a result, it sold for more than 25% more than others on eBay at that time ~ the buyer said he paid so much because he could see it was a well loved motor and worth the money.

EBay is a great place to buy and sell motors, as long as you keep your head (not like this guy, buying a secondhand 40D for more than a new one) and take your time.
 
I bought a 3 year old Yaris for my wife from Ebay last month from a private seller. I went to inspect and drive it, seemed OK. I spoke to the supplying dealer and HPI'd it, again it was fine. Decided what I thought it was worth and returned to do the deal.

I paid £1500 - £2000 less than Toyota Main Dealers were selling the identical spec car for, albeit I would have had a years warranty with their cars, but Toyotas don't go wrong apparantly ;)

I was a bit wary about Ebay but I think I paid a fair private sale price for a well looked after 1 owner car.

Do your homework and if it isn't as described walk away.
 
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