Anyone bought a car over Ebay?

[autobonrun]

In particular, without seeing it in person. I'm looking for a VW GLI or GLSfor my son and frankly the selection locally is not that great. For more expensive cars, I've flown to the seller and looked at the car in person.

In this case, I would utilize a service that conducts a PPI and have the report sent to me before the purchase. The advertised reports seem fairly thorough and even include paint thickness checks.

I joined Ebay for the first time yesterday just in case I decide to go this route but I recognize many of you here are seasoned Ebay users, and I would appreciate your thoughts on buying a car purely based on photos and an independent PPI.

[Burkie61]

I have purchased about 8 and I have never seen any of them and have never had a PPI - all from the US and I live in Canada. And most have been higher end cars...a couple of Mercedes suvs, two Touaregs, a one year old Honda Pilot. I have had good luck on all but one, but even that one worked out in the end....

I make sure I do my due diligence, ask all the right questions, check out the seller as best as I can. Carfax has saved me a few times. One Boxster was a write-off and a Miata I bought was being advertised as a 94 when it was actually a 93 - got another $500 off the sale price.

But I am not convinced that part of that was not luck because there are certainly all sorts of scum bags out there...on Ebay, Craigslist, etc.

Sounds like your PPI is a good one....should help to make the deal a little safer...

Good luck with it

[porsche4life]

I bought my 944 on eBay, and we have bought quite a few trucks there too

[speeder]

Plenty of good cars on eBay. Plenty of bad cars too. Kind of like the rest of the world. The more info you can gather, the better of course.

[944Larry]

I bought 3, sight unseen. All turned out to be truthfully advertised and I came out fine. Look at their feedback. If it's up pretty high and all positive you'll probably be fine. Low feedback and some negatives, a drive to check it out might be in order.

[dienstuhr]

The problem with eBay of course is that you will have a maximum of a week to do your due diligence (oftentimes less) and it's always subject to seller timetables/whims, your PPI provider timeline, and even the potential that someone could "buy it now" during the auction. Then, after you've spent $$$ on a PPI, you actually have to "win" the auction by bidding against God knows how many others, perhaps including shills!

My personal preference is to find cars on autotrader.com for sale at real franchised new car dealers, preferably with remainder of original factory or "certified pre-owned" factory warranties. Then if something goes horribly awry, at least you have a dealer to negotiate with (and the option of involving the North American head office if you have to).

Good luck with the search.

Cheers

d.

[johnsjmc]

I,ve bought 2 trucks,a 911Sc and another 911 and a 1965 Mustang on ebay. I also bought a 34 ft sailboat and a diamond tennis bracelet for my wife. The 2 trucks were both 1998 Ford rangers for my 2 boys. Both were a good deal one was a very good deal.Both boys drove them for years and then sold for more than we paid. The 911 was OK but even after asking the right questions it arrived with a grinding first gear (which I had specifically asked about) The seller knocked $500 off. The only time I felt ripped off was with the bracelet. I took it to a jeweler and it appraised at about what I paid but I also paid shipping and duty into Canada. It was advertized as "a diamond " tennis bracelet and that's what it turned out to be .It had one diamond chip the rest was glass. Be very careful to ask questions before bidding.Be wary of sellers who don,t reply to your questions and post fuzzy pictures.

[azasadny]

I bought my 911 on eBay in 2002, but it was local and I drove over and saw it/test drove it before I bought it. I didn't get a PPI, but I should have.

[Drisump]

I bought my 911 on ebay four and half years ago....and I did get a PPI. The car was 2000 miles away so I didn't want to get there, only to find that the car was misrepresented. Worked out great for me. Good luck

[legion]

Yep. I've learned that deals are deals for a reason. I've also learned to ask detailed questions of the seller. Sometimes it's about wanting to know things about the car, but mostly to weed out yahoo sellers.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yep - I've done it twice. Both worked out well and I still have both cars to this day!

[onewhippedpuppy]

I would never do it without an independent, professional inspection prior to any money changing hands. Something I've learned in my buying and selling cars hobby is that people sometimes have dramatically different interpretations of your questions, seeing a car in person is your only really safe bet. I've looked at many cars advertised as "nice" only to find that they are anything but, and the owners seem genuinely surprised. Some are just d-bags, but others are genuinely good people that simply don't see cars through the same critical eyes as I do. A non mechanically savvy person might not notice a suspension clunk. A dog lover might not see any issue with Lab hair pasted to the Alcantra. I make a habit of asking very specific, pointed questions, but there's still the chance that you simply aren't communicating with the seller. Note that this is in reference to private sellers, I've found that dealerships almost always over describe the car because they frankly don't care about being honest.

I find a LOT of good deals on Craigslist, use crazedlist.org in your Firefox browser. It allows you to search multiple Cragislist locations at the same time. Autotrader and cars.com are also useful. Finding cars in KS sucks, but OKC is a short drive and Denver and DFW are a short plane ride away. Utilize a one-way rental car or fly out, then drive it home. Then there's no worries on getting something you don't want. A GLI/GLS isn't so rare that you can't find one within 300 miles if you look.

[asphaltgambler]

I have bought a bunch and sold a few - My collective experience dictates that if you can't see and test drive the car in person, hire someone qualified and objective to inspect it for you. It may be their vehicle - but it's YOUR MONEY.

Some of you may be suprised at just how 'creative' some sellers can be behind a keyboard. If it's worth your money, it's worth your time. My $.02

[autobonrun]

It sounds like for the most part deals have worked out once due diligence was applied. I've searched Craigslist and looked at maybe 6 so far. My last two car purchases were located via Ebay, but I traveled to the seller in person to look at them and had a PPI done. These purchases were considerably more expensive than the car I'm getting for my son (my M5 and C4S). In this case I've checked the rating of the seller who is a dealer for more than 15 years with a 1300+ feedback score, all positives. However, I would still have a PPI conducted. I'm considering using the service below. They will contact the seller, and make arrangements to get the car to one of their independent mechanics then generate a report. At the most I would be out of the PPI cost if I decided not to buy the car but it's a lot easier to walk away from a PPI cost than a bad purchase.


Inspect My Ride Vehicle Inspections | Vin Check | Car History Report

[recycled sixtie]

the seller in person plus personally inspect the car, I would not bother.I would go Kijiji , auto trader first. However ebay may suit people that are further away from the seller. Caveat emptor. PPI etc etc

[strupgolf]

Originally Posted by 944Larry

I bought 3, sight unseen. All turned out to be truthfully advertised and I came out fine. Look at their feedback. If it's up pretty high and all positive you'll probably be fine. Low feedback and some negatives, a drive to check it out might be in order.

Same here as above. When I talk to the seller it seems like I can feel them out and have had no problems.

[Oh Haha]

We bought our BMW 5series touring on EBAY. While it was not a perfect car it was represented truthfully and we had no issues with the transaction. We really enjoyed the car while we had it.

[autobonrun]

I located a Jetta GLI on ebay I thought my son would like. Contacted Inspectmyride.com as mentioned earlier in this thread and was underwhelmed. Basically they told me they do a visual inspection. That doesn't help much so I contacted a local mechanic shop and they performed a thorough PPI for me and charged me one hour labor. They test drove the car, removed the wheels and measured remaining brake pad thickness, discovered a cracked timing belt cover, torn CV boots, missing fasteners, an epoxied nipple on a coolant hose, several other catches then sent me a report.

Anyway, I got these items fixed at a negotiated cost. The dealer picked up some and I took care of others. While at it I had the timing belt and water pump replaced as well as put on new tires.

I think my son will be happy with this as a first car. I like the Recaro seats and BBS stock rims. He still doesn't know. We saw it on the internet but I told him it sold. I just didn't tell him it sold to me. Having it shipped and it should arrive next week. As many here have said, get the PPI.

[kaisen]

That's one heck of a first car.....

[MattKellett]

Nice! Those gli's are great looking cars.

He should be thrilled when he sees it!