Last Nights Ebay Adventure E46 - 320d Content

[Superchickenn]

Hi All,

In the evenings i always find my wife watches some awful TV (90 days fiance etc) which usually means me sat there playing on my phone... I usually end up having a look through Ebay / gumtree etc.

Anyway this weekend was no exception, a few cars that were local i placed a few bids.. Im not sure if anyone here is the same, no matter the value of a car i always get excited buying new cars.. The adventure of picking the car, the adventure of the drive/tow home and the adventure of finding out the cars quirks.

The car in question the add was very brief and the cars number plate was covered in the 2 pictures of the car






"good solid runner. Resent mot, bodywork has surface rust but no holes. Sold as seen, no warranty or guaranty give
The car has a vibration in the prop shaft. I've had new mounts fitted. It has not sorted it. Being sold as I have new vehicle and am not going to spend anymore cash on it"

Anyway i only placed a bid of the opening bid of £250 and thought nothing else of it..

You guessed it... I won..

I called my buddy and fellow member on there @mikeyplumb and asked for a lift, after the auction had finished the seller advised that the car in fact still drove fine.. and was MOT'd until the end of August 2020.

As we all know the ideal conditions for collecting a car you have bought unseen of the interwebs is a Sunday evening in the pitch black and below zero temperatures....

We arrived at the sellers location and there she was in the same place the advert pictures were taken..

Cash handed over and went to start the car and ....... flat battery..

A set of jump leads later and we were on our way home, she drove really well.. there is a slight vibration from the prop area but mostly when the car's engine is labored, at coasting or hard acceleration there is nothing,. The added bonus.. 3/4 of a tank of diesel in the car :-)

The collection could have gone one or two ways but it drove flawless all the way home... over the next few days ill decide what to do with her as ive currently got more cars than space, but for the moment im going to just drive it locally and maybe have a look at what the vibration is from.

The last 2 pics i took last night ..

Edited by Superchickenn on Monday 2nd December 09:11

[anonymous-user]

You are doing eBay wrong, after winning an auction for a car it is traditional to do one of two things.

1)Not reply to any emails at all.
2)Immediately contact the seller to arrange collection and send them lots of messages during the week to ensure they are still free to meet you. Then the night before collection message them to say that "due to unforeseen circumstances" you can no longer collect the car and that you are "really disappointed, as you really wanted it".

Also best to ensure your feedback is zero, or ideally less than ten and that your feedback consists of "Timewaster, avoid".

[Too Late]

Great buy
I often wonder if playing £200 -£300 for a car you can make a few quid by cleaning/fixing it up and flipping it...

[Superchickenn]

Joey Deacon said:

You are doing eBay wrong, after winning an auction for a car it is traditional to do one of two things.

1)Not reply to any emails at all.
2)Immediately contact the seller to arrange collection and send them lots of messages during the week to ensure they are still free to meet you. Then the night before collection message them to say that "due to unforeseen circumstances" you can no longer collect the car and that you are "really disappointed, as you really wanted it".

Also best to ensure your feedback is zero, or ideally less than ten and that your feedback consists of "Timewaster, avoid".

Haha... i pride myself on NOT being one of those people... i turned up in less than 24 hours, paid the cash and drove it away :-)

[Superchickenn]

Too Late said:

Great buy
I often wonder if playing £200 -£300 for a car you can make a few quid by cleaning/fixing it up and flipping it...

The easy answer is yes, ive made a fair few quid doing this and never lost out.

Last week i bought a 2007 Mondeo ST 2.2 TDCI for again £250 ..

£100 for cat
£100 for front bumper
£150 for injectors
£100 for alloys

and still have most of the car to part out..

[rxe]

It’s bonkers. 250 quid for a car with a decent MOT and (so far) seems to work OK. We live in amazing times!

[Superchickenn]

rxe said:

It’s bonkers. 250 quid for a car with a decent MOT and (so far) seems to work OK. We live in amazing times!

I think the most expensive purchase price in my fleet was 500 and that was a few years ago

its crazy to think my phone in my pocket is worth 3 times more than my latest purchase

[CornedBeef]

Joey Deacon said:

You are doing eBay wrong, after winning an auction for a car it is traditional to do one of two things.

1)Not reply to any emails at all.
2)Immediately contact the seller to arrange collection and send them lots of messages during the week to ensure they are still free to meet you. Then the night before collection message them to say that "due to unforeseen circumstances" you can no longer collect the car and that you are "really disappointed, as you really wanted it".

Also best to ensure your feedback is zero, or ideally less than ten and that your feedback consists of "Timewaster, avoid".

This is far too relate-able for me, having recently sold my tatty high mileage daily. Auction finished twice over, first time zero contact - second time the guy messaged to say he hadn't read the advert before bidding, has paid too much and can't purchase the car - "sorry boss". In the end someone else bought it outside of ebay, I was tempted to scrap it just to end the suffering.

[Superchickenn]

CornedBeef said:

Joey Deacon said:

You are doing eBay wrong, after winning an auction for a car it is traditional to do one of two things.

1)Not reply to any emails at all.
2)Immediately contact the seller to arrange collection and send them lots of messages during the week to ensure they are still free to meet you. Then the night before collection message them to say that "due to unforeseen circumstances" you can no longer collect the car and that you are "really disappointed, as you really wanted it".

Also best to ensure your feedback is zero, or ideally less than ten and that your feedback consists of "Timewaster, avoid".

This is far too relate-able for me, having recently sold my tatty high mileage daily. Auction finished twice over, first time zero contact - second time the guy messaged to say he hadn't read the advert before bidding, has paid too much and can't purchase the car - "sorry boss". In the end someone else bought it outside of ebay, I was tempted to scrap it just to end the suffering.

Unfortunately ive also been a victim of this also, this is why when one of my cars life comes to an end i tend to part it out and scrap the shell

[rxe]

Superchickenn said:

I think the most expensive purchase price in my fleet was 500 and that was a few years ago

its crazy to think my phone in my pocket is worth 3 times more than my latest purchase

My daily driver (doing 20K miles a year) was 370 quid off eBay.....it really is utter madness!

[Mr-B]

3/4 of a tank of diesel is £50+, your car was £200 really.

I had a vibration on my propshaft (e46 330d), it was the flex unit which needed replacing, not majorly expensive until you factor in the labour.

[njw1]

That' a coincidence! I was tempted to stick a bid on that car myself as I'm local and it was cheap but decided against it as I've got too much going on at the moment and having another car stuck on the garden until I get round to doing something with it would wind her up a treat.
As said above, I'll bet the vibration problem is something simple like a mount or propshaft coupling, good luck with it.

[Superchickenn]

Mr-B said:

3/4 of a tank of diesel is £50+, your car was £200 really.

I had a vibration on my propshaft (e46 330d), it was the flex unit which needed replacing, not majorly expensive until you factor in the labour.

I'll happily do the work myself so happy to try.. I was going to try the doughnut as that's only about 8quid..

Thanks for the suggestion

[Superchickenn]

njw1 said:

That' a coincidence! I was tempted to stick a bid on that car myself as I'm local and it was cheap but decided against it as I've got too much going on at the moment and having another car stuck on the garden until I get round to doing something with it would wind her up a treat.
As said above, I'll bet the vibration problem is something simple like a mount or propshaft coupling, good luck with it.

Haha that's mad.. You would have won as I only bidded the opening bid and nothing else..

It was 20 mins away from me so seemed worth a game..

This makes it 8 cars in my fleet now so I have simular issues to you

[PurpleTurtle]

Great shedding OP. What’s the mileage on this?

[freenote]

Hope you don’t mind me asking, do you keep all 8 taxed and insured? Or do you chop and change?
I’m struggling with 4 and looking to cut down as I’m fed up with flat batteries etc and no garage.

[Mr-B]

Superchickenn said:

I'll happily do the work myself so happy to try.. I was going to try the doughnut as that's only about 8quid..

Thanks for the suggestion

The only reason I didn't do it on mine was that you need axle stands at a minimum (which I don't have) and a lift ideally, I think you have to drop the exhaust for starters.

[Superchickenn]

PurpleTurtle said:

Great shedding OP. What’s the mileage on this?

Thanks PurpleTurtle ... 161k

[Superchickenn]

freenote said:

Hope you don’t mind me asking, do you keep all 8 taxed and insured? Or do you chop and change?
I’m struggling with 4 and looking to cut down as I’m fed up with flat batteries etc and no garage.

Not at all, always happy to share my experiences,

Usually 4 taxed, and insured.

I try to keep them all MOT'd

I also run a trickle charge on the batteries when i get a chance, and Always disconnect the negative on the battery if i know its not going to be used a while...

The garaged cars i leave the batteries in, if it gets proper cold out the cars that are on the drive and left standing for a few weeks ill remove the batteries and put them in the house so keeps them warm.

Me and a buddy are looking for a fleet policy but will just throw insurance on what ever car i fancy driving for a bit


I hope this helps

[Superchickenn]

Mr-B said:

The only reason I didn't do it on mine was that you need axle stands at a minimum (which I don't have) and a lift ideally, I think you have to drop the exhaust for starters.

I did watch a quick video on the how to.. ive got axle stands but also a buddy has ramps so time and weather depending ill see whats what and keep my fingers crossed..