Buying a car on Ebay

[damci]

So who has bought a car off ebay before and how did it go?

I bought a car off the bay on Wednesday and pick it up tomorrow and to say I’m a little nervous about buying a car I have never seen or driven is an understatement. The ad was full of pictures showing condition, service history etc and it stated that the car needs a service. It looks very clean and has no mechanical problems when I asked the seller who happens to be a part time trader so it would seem.

So what if I get there and it’s a complete dog? Am I at liberty to buy it or can I walk away stating not as advertised?

The car is a ‘99 Polo 1.4 16v by the way, nowt exciting it’s just to use through the winter.

[redstu]

Take the add with you , if its not as advertised walk away.

I bought a car and a bike from ebay , however I viewed them first. Both transactions were fine.

[louismchuge]

Bought my car on ebay. Broke all the rules... didn't view it, already decided I was buying it anyway so insured it and then picked it up in the dark. Oh well!

[Marki3]

redstu said:

Take the add with you , if its not as advertised walk away.

I bought a car and a bike from ebay , however I viewed them first. Both transactions were fine.

^^ what he said, I bought a car on e-bay blind, turned up and it had done 9.9k more than the ad stated and had a crack in the exhaust causing a massive blow. We renegosiated the price given the new info I had, he turned me down and chose to readvertise with the points I'd made added to the advert.

[ferkle]

Bought mine from a nice chap through eBay, was pleasantly surprised. Arrived on a very nice new build estate, got a phone call apologising that the then owner would be 5 minutes late, but to knock on and his wife would sort us out a cuppa. He rolls up 5 minutes later in his Bentley CGT and rolls what became my car out of the (single) garage. Apologised for the inconvenience, and then apologised again that the hosepipe ban meant he couldn't get the car properly detailed - no need it was, save for a little dust.

Fast forward an hour or so of chatting (and SWMBO reminding me we had a dinner to attend) we exchange cash/keys and he then handed me £50 back to put some petrol in as it was just about to hit reserve, car was well under book to start with. Turns out he had bought the car whilst the Bentley was being built, really very pleased with the experience, but then I got really very lucky.

Also bought an old bike a few years before that, not as good an experience but no hassle, no fuss, and a nice hot brew on a wet miserable day before a 50 mile wet slog back.

Depends who you get as a seller I suppose, but ask plenty of questions, and if the deal doesn't feel right, leave well alone. As always, remember Caveat Emptor.

[damci]

I asked plenty of questions about gearbox/clutch, brakes, tyres etc so will print these off before I go. He has sold 6 cars on ebay before and has received good feedback so hopefully no problems!

[nottyash]

Always make sure you ask all questions and are happy BEFORE you bid. Then if its not as described, walk away.
I have had no problems at all buying cars on ebay.
All I will say is dont get caught in a bidding competition.Some people seem obsessed with winning a car and bid more than they are worth, its not that cheap sometimes.

[frosted]

Igot stung on eBay ,

Car Honda crv , came with 60k miles import , new waterpump and serviced just carried out . Now I was only buying it to use as van and to carry two dogs so wasn't too bothered . It turns out the headgasket was gone , however 10000 miles and it's still running , drinks a bit if oil and petrol but not a problem

500 quid I paid , I can get 150 for it as scrap when it does go

[confused_buyer]

As long as you are realistic and sensible then ebay can be a very good source of cars.

It is the only place a private buyer can buy a car less then you could at auction and have the benefit of actually being able to inspect and drive the thing before handing over the readies.

[Rawhide]

I bought an 1997 Speed triple motorcycle blind off ebay. It was very cheap but when I collected it I could have eaten of the engine it was that clean.

I've sold great cars on ebay as well which have gone for hardly any cash.

There are good deals out there.

If you really don't feel like your getting the car you expect it simply walk away. Negative feedback is preferable to owning a lemon.

[Fastra]

Is it a green one, in Chester, went for £750?
Not sure if its relevant or not but looking at his past sales he seems to have sold 6 cars since April - does this affect any rights you may have????

[Meoricin]

Rawhide said:

I bought an 1997 Speed triple motorcycle blind off ebay. It was very cheap but when I collected it I could have eaten of the engine it was that clean.

I've sold great cars on ebay as well which have gone for hardly any cash.

There are good deals out there.

If you really don't feel like your getting the car you expect it simply walk away. Negative feedback is preferable to owning a lemon.

Not that sellers can leave negative feedback anyway.

[confused_buyer]

Fastra said:

Not sure if its relevant or not but looking at his past sales he seems to have sold 6 cars since April - does this affect any rights you may have????

On a £750 car bought at trade price? Not really, no, beyond it not being a death trap.

Edited by confused_buyer on Friday 24th September 16:43

[ex vtskid]

I've bought (and sold) my last few cars on ebay (just had one collected yesterday and am picking the replacement tommorrow as it happens) and had no problems so far. The rules I generally follow are

- Good feedback, preferably on higher value items
- Advert written well, detailed ie I don't care about whether it has electric windows, when was it last serviced and what was done?
- Advert written in correct English
- Good pictures
- Nice house in pictures
- Not a dealer
- I don't mind if there is faults - as long as they are described
- I always use one of the cheap things that checks a cars history. If I were buying more expensive cars I'd do a proper HPI check

OF COURSE look at the car if possible but I've bought 1 of my cars blind (was fine) and all 3 of the cars I've sold were collected blind. All of them were fine as well and any faults were described.

I also assume any cars collected will need a bit of work doing and budget this in when buying. The prices are such that it's still worth it when compared with even the cheapest examples in other places.

[P700DEE]

Bought one , sold three, so far so good

[mattviatura]

I bought the Allegro in my profile pic for the huge sum of £156 from a guy in North Wales through eBay.

The car was as described (crap) and on the way home I hit an indicated eighty-five before I realised the suicidal lunacy of what I was doing.

No problems with it at all, eventually offloaded it for the same price to a mate I owed a favour to who subsequently offloaded it for five hundred quid. Good luck to him.

I'm currently looking for an 80s Skoda or something else crap and I'd happily buy off eBay again.

I'd think very carefully about buying blind if I actually NEEDED the car though.

[johnpeat]

I think it's worth saying that in addition to the usual rules for buying cars, there are some you apply to eBay specifically.

IMO buying on eBay is expressing an intent to see the car, kick the tyres and haggle a bit. Technically a seller could take legal action for you for not completing the sale but I seriously doubt they'd waste the money doing so.

In the real world you go and see the car before bidding anyway - at the very least you ask all the obvious questions (accident history, paperwork etc.) as this covers you better if it goes wrong later and the buyer knows you're a more serious punter (bids from people who've never asked questions always make me worry).

When you go to collect you compare the car against the description, haggle the price if there's anything wrong/missing from the description and walk away if you can't agree - after all, there's no negative feedback for buyers so you stand to lose nothing...

I've always thought eBay was a st place to buy/sell cars (other than classics/rare stuff) - you can't realistically bid on a car you've not properly inspected so the auction is only a way of teasing interest - the actual 'sale' takes place afterwards.

p.s. 99.9% of cars sold on eBay are bought by drunken people - trufax

Edited by johnpeat on Friday 24th September 17:30

[johnpeat]

Fastra said:

Is it a green one, in Chester, went for £750?
Not sure if its relevant or not but looking at his past sales he seems to have sold 6 cars since April - does this affect any rights you may have????

This is an interesting point and not confined to eBay in any way of course.

My understanding (from a bad experience about 8 years ago) is that for the legal protection you get from a 'trader' to apply, the person must be a registered business (even if you were sold the car outside of that business - a common trick).

Anyone who sells cars 'for profit' SHOULD be a registered business but, of course, many are not. They're breaking the law by doing this - but that doesn't necessarily afford you any more legal protection as a result.

On the other hand - traders selling cars as if they're 'private' sales are breaking the law (to my knowledge) and you can take action against that (with the obvious proviso you can prove what happened).

Someone may be able to shed more specific light on this - this is only my personal experience and it was a while ago and laws do change...

p.s. Auto Trader will not permit some address/postcodes to list cars as private sales - so clearly they are attempting to control this to some degree. A friend of mine runs a bodyshop with his registered office as his home. When he came to sell his wife's car he had to list it as 'trade' even tho the car neither belongs to nor is connected to his business - AT would not permit him to choose the 'Private' option.

Edited by johnpeat on Friday 24th September 17:32

[Fastra]

johnpeat said:

Fastra said:

Is it a green one, in Chester, went for £750?
Not sure if its relevant or not but looking at his past sales he seems to have sold 6 cars since April - does this affect any rights you may have????

This is an interesting point and not confined to eBay in any way of course.

My understanding (from a bad experience about 8 years ago) is that for the legal protection you get from a 'trader' to apply, the person must be a registered business (even if you were sold the car outside of that business - a common trick).

Anyone who sells cars 'for profit' SHOULD be a registered business but, of course, many are not. They've breaking the law by doing this - but that doesn't necessarily afford you any more legal protection.

On the other hand tho - traders selling cars as if they're 'private sales' are breaking the law (to my knowledge).

Someone may be able to shed more specific light on this - this is only my personal experience and it was a while ago and laws do change so...

p.s. Auto Trader will not permit some address/postcodes to list cars as private sales - so clearly they are attempting to stop this. Friend of mine runs a bodyshop but his registered office is his home and when he came to sell his wife's car he had to list it as 'trade' even tho the car neither belongs to nor is connected to his business.

Yep - that's what I was getting at really.
Possibly he's a trader and therefore you have 'slightly' more rights, and I thought traders perhaps had make themselves known on ebay - but maybe not??

[ewan221]

I have bought 3 (one was a straight swop) and sold one all with no real major probs. With hindight with the swop I should have asked for a MOT put on it as mine had 11 months and the one I got only 3

Last one I bought the alternator packed in 100 miles up the motorway but thats the risk you take buying private I suppose.

Unlike a previous poster I dont haggle with the seller unless something is blatently not as described - maybe Im getting it all wrong :-)