Selling car on Ebay

cyclonebri1

Inactive wrote: »

The time to view/test drive a vehicle is before placing a bid, not after.

Cars are purchased at normal car auctions often without getting an opportunity to test drive them first.

I tend to think of this as a proving drive rather than a test drive and you don't need to be the driver , merely driven in the car.

There is a world of difference in buying a car at a reputable auction via an auction house, dealing on ebay and handing money over to an individual without finding out if it is as described is ludicrous

To me it comes down to the fact that no genuine seller would refuse to demonstrate that the car is in the condition they described it as being but personally if I were selling I would be driving.;)

Also the fact that most have agreed that cash is preferred means of payment, there is no protection by paypal and you'd be on your own if something did go wrong.

chris175

When your buying a car on Ebay, if you bid on a car purely on the strength of the advert, and then subsiquently win the said car. You are perfectly within your rights to not follow through with the deal if the car is not as decribed, although common sense does rule.

E.g if the advert says good condition for year, this is very vague, so you would be expecting the car to have a few marks and scratches but be better than avarage, so unless you turn up and it is clearly a rust bucket you couldn't back out of the deal on bodywork grounds.

If however the advert says "Drives well, no noises or knocks" and you turn up to collect your car and it knocks round corners or crunches through the gears, you are perfectly within your right to say to the seller your not accepting the car on the grounds that it is mis-described.

Personally though, if I was to buy a car off ebay I'd go and look at it first despite the above. At least you know for definate if it is worth bidding on in the first place!!!

Inactive

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I tend to think of this as a proving drive rather than a test drive and you don't need to be the driver , merely driven in the car.

Nothing to stop you doing that before placing a bid.;)

mikey72

Last one I bought was over 200 miles away.
To be fair though, I knew most of it would be coming home on a trailer, with the rest of it in the back of the car.

The others I have bought previously, the seller offered me a drive anyway, and I have done the same with ones I've sold.

shaun_from_Africa

I tend to think of this as a proving drive rather than a test drive and you don't need to be the driver , merely driven in the car.

Sometimes though, there can be faults or problems which are only noticeable by the person driving the car. These could involve things like juddering brakes or wheels, very stiff clutch or accelerator, problems with "stalk" switches such as indicators etc.
There could also be something as simple as problems with the drivers seat being loose or uncomfortable which you may not notice until you drive the car yourself.

If a seller refused to let me drive the car for a test, I wouldn't even consider buying it.

Inactive

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

If a seller refused to let me drive the car for a test, I wouldn't even consider buying it.

Agreed, however with an eBay auction purchase, the time to do that is before bidding on the vehicle, not after.

shaun_from_Africa

the time to do that is before bidding on the vehicle, not after.

I couldn't agree more.
Why anyone bids blind on something like a car is beyond me. (unless of course it's something like a £100 sold for spares sale).

There are often questions asked on the ebay Q&A forums from people who bought cars, didn't test drive them and then paid cash, asking how they can get their money back because they bought a heap of ****.
At times I think that there should be a minimum IQ requirement before you are allowed to use online auction sites.

mikey72

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I couldn't agree more.
Why anyone bids blind on something like a car is beyond me. (unless of course it's something like a £100 sold for spares sale)...

Usually it's because you have to assume the seller isn't lieing. If he has been when you turn up, and he knows what he has for sale isn't what he as described it as, I'd walk away.

Each to his own though.

Inactive

mikey72 wrote: »

Usually it's because you have to assume the seller isn't lieing. If he has been when you turn up, and he knows what he has for sale isn't what he as described it as, I'd walk away.

Each to his own though.

So would I walk away, but I would walk away before placing a bid to buy.

mikey72

Inactive wrote: »

So would I walk away, but I would walk away before placing a bid to buy.

Why?
If it's honest, I'd pay.
If it's dishonest, I'd be more concerned with the cost of me driving over there to collect it.