Buying a car from e-bay......
 

Would you?
Have you ever?

What's to look out for?

yes. No bother.

HPI it.

Is it the same address as ont he log book. Is it all above board? I know that's selective but if something isn't right, walk away. you can usually tell when someone is trying it on.

Check everything works as well. Sold as seen and all that.

Only sold one (though the deal was actually done outside of eBay). Painless enough.

Yes, I bought my Spec-C off there :lol1:

2 owners, 36k on the clock full history inc jap, All original sales invoices etc....Just need to be sure you want it or view before bidding unlike me, Didn't view it but at the price I got it for I'm not complaining as I would get my money back today after nearly 2 years.

And tell them why you should view it Gazz :D

Yours was advertised as red but infact it is PINK :razz:

Yep, got my leggy GT of ebay. Rules are basically the same as buying from anywhere. Go see it, check ALL the paperwork, HPI it, test drive it and if your not brilliant with cars, at the very least get a mechanic friend to look at it.

I do regularly - probably over 20 cars through ebay over the years, all of them bought blind....ie not viewing before bidding and generally travelling hundreds of miles to collect them. The closest I had to a lemon was a dodgy 3rd gear synchromesh on a 306 estate, but thats hardly the end of the world, and only once have I turned away and got the train home again rather than buy the car.
I have never spent over about £1800 on one though.

Keep your wits about you and check their feedback in detail - see if they recently bought the car, recently bought parts for it etc. Its surprising how many cars for sale were only bought a few weeks previously by the seller - either they are trying to make money or the car is a snotter and they want rid of it.

I have purchased about 10 cars off ebay and most have been as listed.

The worst one was my old cavalier gsi, HPI clear, lovley family selling it with all history.. Had a good years happily revving at lights, burn outs at the cruise, usual chavvy stuff.
When it came to renewing the MOT i expected it to fly though as it was stupidly clean.

Turned out the rear chassie rails were rotten - common fault - even though I checked them someone had done their home work to fill them with ply wood and filler/paint over them. My mechanic couldn't belive the work that had gone into hiding it for an MOT
sadly I scrapped it after this.

2nd bad purchase was impulse. My R reg classic, again silly amounts of bills, history etc years mot & tax and again very clean. I didn't argue and drove the 4hr to Newcastle to pick it up. Got it home to find the brakes had completly seezed and once again probably shouldn't have passed the MOT.

That said, a £300 banger that I inteded to race n kill turned out to be one of the best ever ebay purchases. 1 owner from new 137k and endless history.

I think overtime there have become more and more people buying and selling to make a quick buck but there are genuine people out there. If I spend more then £500 on a car then I would always HPI it. I try to keep to 100 mile trip but if I find somethign I love then I'll happily do the miles.

Don't believe what you hear Addi, My car is as red as your infection :lol1:

On a serious note request the sellers phone number via eBay and call them that's what I did and collected the car the following week, He originally had it up for £13k and I paid less than £9k for it 2 weeks later, It's now got 46k on the clock and looks and drives fantastic, There are some bargains to be had out there.

I bought my first car off ebay which was a Peugeot 206 Quicksilver Edition. I got it for a very good price and had it for 5 years. When the time came to sell, I only lost £700 on it. :)

My only bad experience was a seller who decided he did not like the price his car fetched after the bidding had finished. He messaged me if I wanted the car I would have to fetch the keys out of his cold dead hands.

Ive bought loads. Most recent a citroen zx runabout for 600 as my05 wagon, which i paid 4G off ebay uses too much fuel. before that a 97 import wagon. 07 passat estate and many more. Thing is if you win the auction you still have the right to walk away.

We have about 15 cars at home. Nearly all bought off Ebay haha

I have a Mazda 6 estate 2.0 TD 143bhp. Bought it off Ebay. The guys sold it with an engine whine and DPF light on. I got it at a reduced price, thought it was a steal. Turns out the engine whine wasn't a pulley, but the oil pump gear had shredded itself, along with the gear on the crank that drove the oil pump gear.

Thankfully, Dad and I don't mind doing engine rebuilds. But I would definitely say, be careful about what you buy and picture worst case scenario, sum up what it would cost to fix and take that into account when you bid.

If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

Yep, current Impreza from Grimsby.