Buying a car on eBay...

SarahNeedle1872

I was just wondering how 'safe' it is to buy a car from eBay...?
What are the pro's and con's? What do I need to look out for?
I have notice there are a lot of ads with addresses to trading estates. Are these dodgy dealers or are they ok?
Apologies for the naive questions...

Cheers

Sarah x

Mozette

I've bought one, it was fine - I did go & see it first of course. Same as any other way of advertising & selling it, I've bought cars from newspaper ads in the old pre-internet days; similar thing, just different way of advertising.
Just remember the old saying: If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

OliveOyl_2

I think you do have to check out whether it is a dealer or a private seller. You have more protection in law if it is from a trader. But because of this traders do try sometimes to pretend to be private sellers - in car magazines as well as on e-bay. There are a couple of ways to reveal them, like asking about the car, rather than the Blue Ford Focus for example. If they don't know which car you mean a warning light should go on, that's not to say they ARE dealers (I once sold 3 old cars at the same time )

If you know nothing about cars then take a friend who does know (my car-anorak friends would be delighted to help out if I was looking for eg). But a good many cars on e-bay are sold without people going to see them first (My bro!)

nikaso

I have bought 3 cars and sold 3 on ebay, not really any problems, I did go to see them all but unfortunately with my latest purchase I didn't do my research properly and ended up having to make a £500 repair as I didn't spot it at the time. (would have still bought the car but with hefty discount!)

In the same time I have bought a couple of motorcycles on ebay (without viewing either!) and 1 went bang after about 2 month (didn't lose much as was only a cheapy) and the other needed a full service (but thats fairly normal).

Just be careful is the motto I think, take someone that knows, you can get a really good bargain.

Brooker_Dave

SarahNeedle1872 wrote: »

I was just wondering how 'safe' it is to buy a car from eBay...?

It's just like buying a car in the real world.

Hpi it, have a good look, and a decent test drive, walk away if you're not happy, the world is full of cars, most of which are for sale.

Obviously if it's a cheepo banger don't expect it to be mint.

DKLS

I had a good experience, but I did end up buying from a traffic cop.
His ad was great, lots of detailed pictures, with a huge detailed description. His attention to detail was more evident when I went to view, he had a detailed file full of reciepts for all work done, all previous MOTs etc.

I would stay away from the 1 liner ads, with 1 iffy photo.

SarahNeedle1872

Thanks guys, appreciate it!

gaz21

it is safe to buy on ebay but beware of cars that look to cheap and the give you email address to contact them through i was going to buy a car not so long ago. he told me the car was in germany and he was going through a divorce and the payment needed to be payed to a third party.
And then he would have the car shipped through.
but i was on to it, so i played with them gave them made up bank details, but the address in london which was suppossed to be the offices of the third party. i looked at it on google earth and it was in the middle of a council estate,so do be wary.

rare_stuff

For instances where the car isn't local, and it is just too far away it may be worth using a firm that will go and check it out for you. Most sellers are happy to arrange for anyone to inspect by arrangement. When spending a few grand it is well worth doing this even if the car is local.
I used the services of one company twice to do this, first time they spotted a problem with the turbo that was going to be expensive, so I dropped that option. 2nd time they found a couple of faults that I was able to discuss these with the seller and negotiated an acceptable discount on their asking price. Think the AA & RAC offer these services, but there are quite a few cheaper alternatives too.

syanide

You can get cars checked out and there are loads of things you need to check on the cars as well.. I have a few blog posts on buying used cars and what to look out for that would help you when looking over the car, but don't know if i can post the address on here? Admin's can I post the blog address or will it have to be via pm?

abbecer

I bought mine and had no probs what so ever. Just take the precautions as suggested and you should be fine.

Rebecca x