Buying a car off ebay.

bartelbe

I am looking at classic cars. I know, a bit mad, but I only want it for a bit of fun. I have an actual car to get me places. So I've had a look at ebay, but I am a bit wary, so I wondered if anyone has experience of buying car off the site?

Things that worry me:

1)Shill biddings seems to be endemic in this category. Why else would people put in bids only a couple of days into the auction? Surely this is one category were you want to snipe?

2)The old advertised elsewhere scam. Which basically means I am either too cheap for a classified/buy it now listing or simply hope some mug pays over the odds. If that doesn't happen I will pretend the car is sold, and list again, and hope that I get more next time.

3)The i'm not a mechanic in the description- This means the car is a rusty old wreck, but by pretending to have no expertise, I will avoid having to tell the buyers.

4)No listing of condition of bodywork- My condition description will consist of tons of stuff about the mechanicals, and i won't mention the fact that it is a rotten wreck.

Am I being too cynical or is ebay best avoided?

olias

I certainly wouldn't trust the ebay auction format for cars, indeed for any very expensive item. For classified listings though, it is just another advertising format. In fact I bought my current car from an ebay classified listing and got an absolute bargain.
You will often find that they (the classified listing) are also being advertised on autotrader and if a trade sale, then on the traders website as well.

Olias

bravobeastie

Me and my husband bought 2 classic cars off ebay. Massive risk really as they were in Southport and Tiverton and we had to drive them back to Dudley but we were lucky with them and 3 years later are still going strong. Only advice I can think of really is go and look at the car but take someone who knows what to look for.

I recently sold our little old 106 and it had knocking which we suspected were bushes. I added this to the description but also added that although me and my hubby know a little bit about cars we are by no means mechanics and us thinking it's bushes cannot be guaranteed.

forgotmyname

No issues buying a car off ebay. But ideally you do want to inspect it before hand.

Save all the hassles of bidding and finding its worse than the pictures show. Take a picture of a freshly washed car from 30ft away and it may look good. Despite having no floors and rust bubbles at the edge of every panel.

Quinny_2

I've sold 1 car on E.Bay, (My last one that I had owned for nearly 6 years.) and was very honest and open about what needed doing to it, and the buyer was very happy about it.

I also recently took a punt on a Citroen Xsara VTS which I bought with my neighbour, for the princely sum of £300 with 12 months mot, with the idea of turning it into a road rally car. It needed a new wing, and the front and rear bumpers painting, and that has been done, and we've also put on a new timing belt and serpentine belt on, and you wouldn't recognise it now.

We knew what to expect when we bought it, (It's French.) and after doing what needed doing, we are quite happy with it. It does it's first event in 4 weeks time. Including the car, we have less than £600 in it, so not a great deal.

I think if you expect the worst when buying blind like E.Bay, and it does turn out to be a good buy, then you tend not to be disappointed.

bartelbe

forgotmyname wrote: »

No issues buying a car off ebay. But ideally you do want to inspect it before hand.

Save all the hassles of bidding and finding its worse than the pictures show. Take a picture of a freshly washed car from 30ft away and it may look good. Despite having no floors and rust bubbles at the edge of every panel.

I've seen this for myself, rang a seller about a car on auto trader. It seemed OK in the photos, and I specifically asked about the bodywork. A bit of filler, but only a few cosmetic problems.

So I went to see the car, and my god he was a good photographer. In the metal most of the wings were basically filler, no metal what so ever. Rust holes in the footwells, in the sills, everywhere.

After that experience I have learnt the camera most definitely does lie.

JethroUK

You should have a look at the actual car whether you bid/buy or not

My Dad used to go one step further - When buying used car he used to ask whether he could take it for an MOT at his expenses - £25?

Whether its already got an MOT or not you can find out pretty cheaply whether it's at least good for another year or it might reveal a big up/coming expense you might not want to buy into

If they refused to let him MOT it, he saw it as a lack of confidence in the car so he moved on

Blackjack_Davy

I bought my last car off eBay over 5 years ago, still got it. Bargain honestly. I sold my previous one on their at the same time, no problems with either transaction.

To be honest though I created a new account and bid with that, if the car had turned out to be a lemon I'd have just walked away.

forgotmyname

No need to create a new account. Just do it with your normal account.

gravitytolls

I'm someone who bids only a couple of days into auction, and I'm no shill bidder. I see it as staking my claim. But I don't bid up until near the end of auction. I guess it's a good way of seeing what sort of competition I have

We've bought several vehicles off ebay over the years, couple of dodgy ones, couple of absolute steals, generally found the experience to be good. However, not so cheap, we've found Gumtree a more reliable experience in terms of price.

eeeeeee

yes i agree there is SOME goo even great bargains too be had on ebay ; on 2 seperate occasions i have nearly been ripped off with cars on ebay and on one occassion i was ; i bought a classic car that had had its vin plate removed and replaced with a car that was scrapped; the police became involved and it turned out that the car had been stolen many years ago and had been stored in a barn by the thief; ;the thief died and the mrs sold the car too some scrap dealers ... who took a similar car and place the registration details upon in it .... it took MONTHS too sort out who actually owned the car and cost me a FORTUNE IN solicitors letters